Category Archives: DIY and Upcycling

Dollar Store Hack Meets Soda Can Upcycle

I’m single “Momming” it this weekend. My hubby is away and I’m lucky enough to celebrate my birthday on the hottest day so far this year! Yay for sunshine! It’s not that I’m not looking forward to seeing Eden’s 3 minute dance number today, I’m just not so thrilled about the other 177 minutes I have to spend in the stuffy concert hall watching other people’s kids perform when the sun is shining and the heat is on. Ugh!  Oh well. I plan to take the kids out for dinner and order a great big fattening piece of something for dessert to celebrate. I’m sure the marathon dance recital will be long forgotten by the time I take my first bite of heaven!

Dollar Store Glassware Upcycle:

As you know, I love the dollar store, but I’m also particular about what I buy. Glassware is usually a pretty safe purchase and you can easily kick it up a notch with a few embellishments. I thought I would expand on the soda can garden markers from earlier in the week and show you how aluminum can be used to dress-up a simple dollar store purchase.

  1. Use scissors to cut the top and bottom off of an empty pop can. Ensure it is clean and free of sticky pop.
  2. Curl the tin the opposite way so that it will lay flat.
  3. On the printed side, trace out the desired shapes you want to cut out. Cut out the shapes.
  4. Add words or “embossed” designs using an embossing tool, dull pencil or dried up ball point pen on the printed side of the tin. (Text needs to be printed in mirror image on the printed side.)
  5. Use a hole punch to make holes through the metal so that you can tie it onto your finished project.
  6. I also used a crimping tool to crimp my tin. The aluminum is so thin and easy to work with, you can even use a punch to create a desired shape. This is especially great for circles.
    Crimped soda can is added to this dollar store vase to add a bit more interest.
    A soda can label is added to this dollar store glass container along with a tealight candle.

These little upcycle projects would be great for a hostess gift, thank you gift or to add a little something to the vase when giving flowers. Have a happy day!

PS Three cheers to all the single moms out there or moms with husbands that travel with work on a regular basis. I honestly don’t know how you do it!

Upcycled Pop Can Garden Markers

A few years ago I did a couple of recycling projects with pop cans. I have to say that I was surprised to find that the aluminum is actually not that sharp when the edge is cut with scissors. It seems that the scissors actually somehow finish the edge in such a way that it’s no longer dangerously sharp. I can’t find the original blog tutorial I used, but I’ve found a few others that give step by step instructions. Check out the tutorials on Little House in the Suburbs  and Veggie Delight for great instructions for making garden markers. I wasn’t blogging at the time, so I don’t have step by step photos of my project, but I made little markers for my herbs. Mine were more similar to those on Veggie Delight and hung from twisted pieces of metal cut from an old wire clothes hanger. Cutting the hanger was actually the most difficult part of the project.

Herb Garden Markers:

garden markers

This was whipped up in about 5 minutes just so I’d have a picture to post. I made it for my tulips because that is the only evidence of life in my garden right now.  I added a little touch of permanent black marker to the raised lettering just to add a bit of dimension and make the lettering stand out a bit.

Basically, all you do is cut the top and bottom off of a clean pop can. Trace out your shapes on the outside of the can (printed side) and then cut them out with scissors. One post suggests using an old ball point pen, but I used my embossing tools. I think that a dull pencil would also work well. You just want to make sure that you don’t poke a hole through the aluminum.

If you want to get the “border look” around the edge, what you want to do is trace your shape and then instead of cutting on the traced line, cut about 1/4″ outside of the line you traced. When tracing the lettering, you will need to do so in reverse (mirror image). The easiest way to do this is to print the lettering on clear cellophane and then lay it on the cut out shape in reverse, so that when you trace it on the coloured outside of the tin, it will appeared raised on the opposite side with the plain metal. Another option is to find a font you like and print it off on your computer at the exact size you’ll need. When you go to print, select the “reverse” setting on your printer. You can then set the paper over the back and trace over top of it.

The dots around the edge can be made the same the lettering is done using an embossing tool, old pen or dull pencil.

These look great in your potted plants or marking the rows in your garden, but also make a cute little addition to a plant that you purchase as a gift. This is a simple project, but the result is really cute. Get creative and see what you come up with!

 

Painting Stripes and/or Creating Clean Colour Transitions

I previously did a post on how to create clean crisp lines when painting stripes or transitioning from one colour to another. I came across this video tutorial that describes the technique that I use in video form. For anyone attempting to create stripes or lines, this procedure is a must. Here is a video that describes and demonstrates the steps.  
Happy painting!

Custom Made Page Protector

I like to keep a phone list on the fridge that has contact information for family and friends. I used to laminate it, but I found that people’s numbers changed and I was unable to “edit” my list on the laminated surface. The page protector allows me to do little edits without having to re-print and laminate the whole list. I can either do minor edits by hand or re-print the sheet without having to laminate. This works much better and looks good too. Here’s how I did it.

Custom Made Page Protector:

I followed this comprehensive tutorial for the most part, but did not need to make holes to insert it into a book. I love the clean look and finished edges. This concept would be great to use in a scrapbook.

My project was not quite so pretty and more about filling a need. I keep my telephone list template on the computer, so the size remains constant and it is very little work to update the list. I stroked out phone numbers , so that takes away from the over all look, but here is a summary of the tutorial including the steps I used to make my sleeve.custom page protector

 

  1. Place page in bottom right corner of protector sheet. (This is actually the back, my list is double-sided and this is the spill over onto the back side of the list.)
  2. Be sure the page is pressed snuggly into the corner.
  3. Add on the width of your double-sided tape and then cut your page protector. (Cut the top of the protector sheet to same height as your paper.)
  4. Use narrow double-sided tape to adhere the left side of the protector together. Mine is about 1/8″ thick.
  5.  Lift the left hand side of the page protector and carefully place the double-sided tape along the outside edge of your page, being careful not to touch the paper.
  6. Cut a border about 3/4″ to 1″ wide and then fold the paper in half so it will slide over the edge. I made two, one slightly larger than the other, to create a layered look. Add the double-sided tape to the sealed edge on both the top and bottom. Peel the paper and slide border over.
  7. Here is the page protector with the paper removed. This allows me to update the information on my phone list whenever necessary.

I didn’t really think about it at the time, but of course realized later that I didn’t want the phone numbers all showing in my post. This last photo is not my actual finished product as I had to hide the contents of the document, but it gives you an idea of how it looks when its all done. The rectangle is the actual colour of original document. The photo of my phone list looks like more of a beige colour, but its actually this light yellow.

Mock Phone List

 

Dollar Store Hack: Spice Bottle Upcycle

As you know, I finally finished my spice rack project. If you were looking at the pictures from the post carefully, you probably noticed that my spice bottles don’t match. I had upcycled some old ones from an old spinning spice rack, but those that were still hidden in the spice drawer were left in their original bottles. I put the mismatched bottles on the new shelf, but picked up some clear spice bottles with white lids at the dollar store.

Spice Bottle Upcycle:

dollar store spice bottlesThese bottles were only 3 for a dollar. I decided to buy a dozen and then see how many more I needed. (Had I thought of it, I would have counted before I left, but I actually went to purchase baking soda and peroxide for my weekend cleaning frenzy.) I put the bottles through the dishwasher and hand washed the lids and plastic pieces (with the holes for sprinkling). Once they were thoroughly dried, I spray painted them with black paint and printed the spice names on the lids with white Crayola twistable crayon. Here is the original post with the tutorial.

I really love the crayon in lieu of chalk. It gives the same effect, but you don’t have to worry about smearing. If you remember, I have chalkboard labels on my glass pickle jar canisters and the chalk is always smearing. I think I might actually erase them all and convert the printing to crayon. Not my idea, but certainly a great one!!

Here are the completed bottles!

dollar store bottles

Wall Mounted Spice Rack Reveal

Yay! I finally got my spice rack finished. I am super pleased with it. The first pull-out shelf we built works great, but the empty space above was annoying me. Tim has been on holidays the past couple of weeks, so he ended up helping me more than usual and we finally got the spice rack painted and mounted. It was so great having him home. I could get really used to that!

Wall Mounted Spice Rack:

An old book display rack was where this project all began.
Here is the spice rack with holes filled and ready for sanding.
I painted the cabinet yellow to match the bottom and then spray painted the front face with chalkboard paint. I still need to decide on a handle, prime the black surface and apply my chalkboard art.
I love the way the two pieces line-up so nicely and fill the gap between the wall and fridge.
Here is a shot of both shelves.

I picked-up full extension drawer slides for around $23 at Home Depot. Tim mounted them on the back of the spice rack and on the back wall. The shelf tucks in the space perfectly and the two shelves line up really nicely. Both units were made from two panels of the original book rack. The cost was next to nothing for the entire project. If I’m not forgetting anything, I think we paid around $6 for chalkboard spray paint, about $6 for the metal strapping, $7 for the handle on the bottom and $23 for the drawer slides. We had all of the other materials on hand. So, even if I missed something I am guessing this project cost us well under $50 and totally transformed our kitchen. It is so much more organized. I was able to empty the top spice drawer and move my tea towels and dish cloths into it. The smaller drawer that they used to reside in is now for odds and ends like the remote for the fan, a tape measure, shoe horn, etc. These “gadgets” use to be in another drawer along with my foil, cellophane, parchment paper and Ziplocks. Everything is just so much tidier. Loving it!!

Life Hacks I Love #10: How ’bout that Grout?

My spring cleaning spree continued and a I spent most of Saturday scrubbing the bathroom. There is a bit of a story behind our bathroom and perhaps it needs to be explained at this point. In 2010, we hired an independent contractor to gut and renovate our bathroom. This was a huge job and quite pricey for such a little space, but it was literally crumbling down and had to be done. We signed a contract, gave a deposit and were excited that his timeline was 3 weeks. Unfortunately, 3 months later the job was less than half done with no toilet, sink or floor and none of the finishing work completed. He would show up sporadically at best and never answered our calls or emails. When we finally reached our limit and gave him an ultimatum….finish by Friday or don’t bother coming back, he chose the latter. This left us with a huge job to complete and uncertainty about where he was in the process of some of the jobs. It was a huge stress and at this point we just wanted it done. It was so hard to find trades people and at this point we weren’t feeling very trusting, so we decided that Tim would finish the job. This added a lot to his plate because he was working full time and had to do the bathroom around his schedule. In the end Tim did a great job, but there was one major problem.  The tile work. Although I know Tim is capable of doing pretty much anything around the house, he had never done tile before. We weren’t sure if the bathtub tiles needed any kind of sealer on them because “Darryl” had done this job before he walked off. We assumed it was complete and never did any kind of treatment over them. As for the floor tile, Tim took on this job himself, but under the time crunch of knowing our vanity was to be installed in just a few days. He pulled a couple of all-nighters in the midst of a family camping trip and got the job done, but there were issues with the grout. I can’t actually remember what went down, but the result was somewhat disappointing. I can be pretty fussy and especially when we’ve just spent an arm and a leg to get our bathroom done, but my husband had just spent every spare moment working his tail off to get this job done and believe me frustrations were high, so I had to tread lightly if you know what I mean. He knew there were some flaws in the grout, but it has always been a bit of a “touchy subject”.

Over the years, I have attacked the grout on that floor several times, but to no avail. It just doesn’t seem uniform in colour and I have never been very happy with it. Someday, perhaps we’ll get it redone, but for now it is what it is. In fact, some say it is natural looking and looks like it might have been the original floor with the normal wear and tear of a 100 year old house. So, having said all of this, the bathroom tile and I have a bit of a contentious relationship and it has never been “spot on”, even after its initial installation. I’ve had several fights with the tub and floor tiles, but always feel like I’ve lost the battle in the end. Well, for the first time ever, I actually felt pretty good with the results.

Tub Tiles:

I found a homemade mixture for the tub tiles and was quite pleased with results. I have tried several store-bought tile cleaners and feel like the discolouration never really goes away. This homemade concoction worked quite well.

  • 1 part bleach
  • 3 parts baking soda

Mix the bleach and baking soda together to form a paste and spread it over the grout. Leave for about 10 minutes and scrub. Now, I won’t lie…I did have to scrub the grout, but the whole thing didn’t take me longer than about 10 to 15 minutes. There really is no comparison between this method and other traditional cleaners I’ve used. Most of the discolouration came off and I was pleased with the results.

BEFORE application of the bleach and baking soda mixture.
Application on the wall.
AFTER application of the bleach and baking soda mixture.
This is an AFTER shot of the grout lines.
This is a BEFORE shot of the tiles. Normally when they have just been cleaned they look slightly better than this, but not much. Most of the stubborn stains would not come off.

Book Display Upcycle #2: Pull-out Spice Rack

Book Display Shelf

Here is a “before” shot of the book display rack.

You may remember the book rack upcycle I did a few weeks back. I used an old book display rack and converted it into a pull-out pantry style shelf that sits between my fridge and the wall. It works really well and I am happy to say that the chalkboard art has stood up extremely well – in fact, better than I would have ever expected. Not a single image has been smudged and I have yet to touch-up anything. I can’t honestly say if this is because of the hair spray I top coated it with or if it is just because I only move it in and out using the handle.  Either way, it works well and I really do love it. However, when I was making it I knew that the empty space above the pull-out shelf would bug me. It just looks like something is missing. So, I decided that I would use the other half of the display rack and convert it into a spice rack.

Empty Space Beside the Fridge

Here you can see the empty space above the pull-out cabinet that I upcycled into a pantry.

Pull-out Spice Rack:

I began by taking the second panel of the book rack completely apart and then had to spend quite a bit of time thinking about how this would work. My plan was to create a spice rack using the existing wood from the display rack. The depth of the space would accommodate the full 24″ of shelving, but in order for it to fit between the cupboard support board and the wall, I would need to make the shelves narrower. I thought this seemed like a super easy project as the modifications were quite minimal. The issue was that there seemed to be lots of little details to think about: the thickness of the pegboard backing, whether to trim the back or front of the shelves, how to keep the little lip so the spice bottles won’t fall off, how far apart to make the shelves, how to make the cut shelves fit in the grooves they previously sat in, etc. I must say, I found it a bit hard to consider all of the details that perhaps wouldn’t even be considerations in a “new build”, but had to be accounted for because it was an upcycle. I got the boards cut and prepared to a point, but then had to ask my husband to help. The one and only tool that I’m not allowed to use is the table saw. I’m not exactly sure why, but Tim doesn’t feel that it’s very safe and at times I can be a bit careless. So, on Saturday I finally pinned him down and got the help I needed to do the final cuts. The new shelf is about 17″ high and 24″ long and should fit perfectly in the space, once the drawer runners are added. The front face of the shelf was not cut down as I wanted it to match the size of the bottom pull-out shelf. They won’t line-up perfectly because the bottom one is more centered in the space and the spice rack will end up sittng closer to the wall than the fridge. Keeping it the original 4″ width will also help to keep the contents of the rack somewhat hidden, as opposed to a more open look.

We got the boards cut and nailed the shelf together. I used the original top and bottom pieces from the rack and one of the shelves, but had to insert a second shelf in between so that the final spice rack would have a total of three shelves. My plan is to move all of my small spice bottles to this rack. It should be large enough to fit them all, so I will have some additional drawer space in the kitchen and perhaps some room on my pull-out rack as well. We filled all of the holes with wood filler and let it dry over night. I am out of time and weekend, so this is how it will stay until I can get back to it.

Here is the spice rack with holes filled and ready for sanding.
This will be the front end of the cabinet. You can see the side is wider to match the bottom pull-out cabinet.
This shows the end that will extend to the back wall. It had to be narrower to fit in the channel beside the fridge.
Here is the rebuilt rack. It is now the perfect size for my spices!

The next step is to sand and prime the shelf, so that it will be ready for painting. I can’t wait to get it mounted and see how it works!

Wool Wrapped Plastic Eggs

I was searching for new Easter egg decorating ideas over the weekend, as we like to experiment with a variety of techniques from year to year. This wasn’t “eggsactly” what I was looking for, but I loved the concept and just had to try my own version. This idea was adapted from “The Better Half“.

Wool Wrapped Plastic Eggs:

For this project, I used:

  • plastic eggs
  • wool
  • hot glue gun

I actually tried doing these eggs two different ways. For the first egg, I hot glued the end of the wool to the bottom half of the egg and then began to wind it tightly around the glued piece following a circular path. I used the hot glue to secure the strands every few rows, in random spots. This helped to keep the rows fitting tightly against each other. I worked from the bottom of the egg, beginning with small circles and after the first few rows I was able to flip the half egg over so that I had gravity on my side. This helped to keep the rows fitting snuggly together. Once I got to the middle, I slid the other half on and glued it in place (it can’t be opened). I have to say this was the WRONG decision. Don’t do it this way. When you get past the centre point and are working towards the smaller end of the egg, you are in a constant battle to keep the rows tight. I had to use lots of glue at very regular intervals to make it work. It looks fine, but took me about 3 times as long to do the second half.

I followed the same process for the second egg, but instead of joining the halves together, I completed each separately and then slid them together at the end. I didn’t glue the halves of this egg together. If you decide to do this project, do one half at a time. This still allows you to open/close the eggs to place little goodies in them and would be especially nice in a little gift basket. You could also leave them closed and use them as part of an Easter centre piece. I had this wool on hand and just love the look of the multiple colours!

I have only made two eggs so far, but naturally I’ll be making a third, as I don’t want to break any decorating rules!

Upcycled Mouse Pad

Let’s just say our computer mouse pad had seen better days. It was never anything special to look at, just a plain red pad with an Apple logo on it. The fabric cover was beginning to peel off and it was a real eye sore. I was on the look out for a one that was a bit more funky, but honestly, wasn’t seeing anything I liked. I found a blog post that outlined the steps for re-surfacing an existing mouse pad. This allowed me to use my own fabric and update our current pad to be more consistent with the decor of the room.

DIY Mouse Pad Upcycle:

I basically followed the steps outlined in Bridget’s tutorial.

  1. With your fabric facing down, trace the shape of the mouse pad onto the back of it. Cut out the traced shape using your line as a guide, but my suggestion is to cut slightly outside of the line to avoid the possibility of it not fitting properly. It can be trimmed at the very end of the project.
  2. My pad was in pretty rough shape, so I had to Mod Podge (or glue) the curling fabric prior to re-surfacing it. I let this dry thoroughly before proceeding.
  3.  I applied a thin coat of Mod Podge to the “wrong side” (bottom) of my fabric and let it dry completely. Bridget suggests this helps to prevent fraying and stiffens the fabric, so that it’s easier to adhere “wrinkle free” to the top of the mouse pad.
  4. Take the dry fabric and apply another layer of Mod Podge to the bottom of the fabric as well as a layer to the top of the mouse pad. Ensure both surfaces are completely covered with podge.
  5. Carefully lay the new fabric over the existing pad and smooth out any wrinkles.
  6. Let the mouse pad dry completely and then trim the edges as needed.

This is actually where I stopped. Not on purpose, but my son was tired of trying to make the mouse work properly on my make shift magazine mouse pad and stole the mouse pad from the work bench. It seems to work fine, so I haven’t snuck it away to finish it and am not sure if I will proceed with the last two steps. It seems to be working well and standing up to the use without the final two coats. This is a super easy project, but you do have to wait patiently between the coats for the Mod Podge to dry. Here are the last two steps from Bridget’s tutorial.

  1. Apply a generous coat of Modge Podge to the pad and once again let it dry completely.
  2. Bridget suggests spraying the dry pad with a coat of Krylon Matte Finish to give it a smooth surface for the computer mouse.
BEFORE: Old Mouse Pad
Here is my new fabric cut to size.
AFTER: Here is the new pad ~ Looks great and works like a charm!