Category Archives: Projects

Piano Upcycle ~ Finally!

I have put this off for several months knowing this project would be huge. I have this vision and I know it’ll take lots of work to get this piano into a functional piece of furniture. I had several ideas for what I might use the piano for and in the end I have decided to use it as a desk and storage area for all of my craft supplies.

The final step before being able to start the rebuilding process was to remove the 458 little pins that I believe act as guides for the strings. I kept avoiding this job, but the “pins” are quite sharp and I knew that they needed to be removed if I wanted to use the interior of the piano at all. With most of the pins removed, I can now begin the process of planning what and how I am going to get this former piano to be the all in one storage work station I envision.

In my research, I wasn’t able to find anything that matches my vision, but I was able to take bits and pieces from the designs others used. I will have to see how hard this is for me to pull off, but one thing I would like to do is use the concept Vicky Newman described in her piano make over in which she made the upper cavity of the piano into a shelving space and converted the front panel into a door that slid up into the top of the piano like a “barrister style” bookcase.

Vicky's Piano

Here’s a shot of Vicky’s piano.

I will definitely be using some of Vicky’s ideas when reconstructing my piano desk, but I am really hoping to use the back for storage as well. back of pianoAs a scrapbooker, DIYer and crafter, I have so many small objects to store and I can’t help but think how cool it would be to have all of those supplies hidden in the back of the piano. I haven’t thought out the logistics yet, but I think it will work well. The key will be where the piano will eventually sit. If against a wall, the casters need to be strong enough and of good enough quality not to damage my hardwood floors when sliding it in and out to access the storage. If I choose to use it more as a divider with the back exposed, I will need to consider what the storage area will look like to make it visually appealing. Not sure, but the concept is exciting!

I’ll keep you posted, but of course, I will only be working on it between the adventures of our Manitoba Stay-Cation.

 

Do-it-yourself Covered Wagon

Today marks a first for my blog and I am so excited to introduce my very first Guest Blogger! Kelli Stewart is a great friend and neighbour. Her idea for a DIY covered wagon is simply genius and she offered to share the steps with us. To find out how to make your own covered wagon to protect your little one from the sun…..check out her post!

A little less town, a little more country…

Wagon

My prairie princess and her new covered wagon.

I made our Town and Country Radio Flyer into a covered wagon for $10! It’s great for keeping the sun off of little passengers and it’s a lot of fun– a play fort on wheels! Detachable covered wagon kits can be anywhere from $70 to $230, so before you hand over a wagon full of money, think about making one yourself!

Here’s how…

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Repurposing Coke Bottles: So Cool!

I found this cool video online. To the best of my knowledge this is an initiative that was launched in Vietnam to help with the plastic waste in that country. It is scheduled to extend to other Asian countries in the future. It looks like an amazing concept. Check out the video to see how Coca-Cola is giving their plastic bottles second lives.Coke created various “second life” tools that could be attached to the top of the empty bottles in lieu of the original cap. Some of the devices included a paintbrush, pencil sharpener, bubble-blower, water gun, shampoo dispenser, children’s toy, spray bottle, night-light, and a sauce dispenser.

As a salvage queen and repurposing junkie, I think that this is absolutely genius. Why didn’t anyone think of this sooner?

Lazer Tag Birthday Invitation

I have posted about making invitations before, but this is about as simple as you get. You just make a full page invitation on the computer and then duplicate the page three times, so that you have a total of 4 copies of the invitation. You then print it in colour on card stock and choose the printing option that allows you to print 4 pages on one page. Each invitation then ends up being 1/4 of a page in size, similar to that of a postcard. I originally tried making the invitation with a plain white background and then printing it onto black card stock, but the ink didn’t show up well. I ended up inserting a black rectangle and then “sending it to the background”, so that all of the text and lasers sat in front of the black rectangle. Of course, this meant that it used more ink to print the invitations, but when you are able to fit 4 per page, it really isn’t too bad.

Here is an example of the invitation and thank-you note page I made for Shay’s party.

This is an example of how to print 4 per page.
Thank you note
Lazer Tag Invitation

DIY PVC Marshmallow Gun

craft sale gun

This is one of the guns I bought at the craft sale.

I picked-up a few marshmallow guns at our church’s craft sale at Christmas time and immediately knew I could make these. It has taken me 6 months, but I finally decided to buy the materials and put together a batch of guns. Shay is having a laser tag party for his 10th birthday and I thought these would make great “loot”. I always prefer to give away one or two bigger items as opposed to a bag of candy. (Shay would probably prefer the bag of candy, but I try to steer away from it if I can.)

Materials:

  • 1/2″ white PVC pipe (15″ per gun)
  • one 1/2″ Tee fitting
  • two 1/2″ 90 degree angle fittings
  • one end cap
  • one coupling (optional)
  • acetone
  • spray paint (optional)
  • coloured tape (optional)
  • miniature marshmallows for ammunition

Instructions:

  1. Clean the printing off the PVC pipe and fittings. I ended up using acetone that I had on hand. (Some suggested using very fine grit sandpaper, but I didn’t do this.) I then washed all of the fittings and the long pipe with hot soapy water.
  2. Cut the long tube of PVC. I used our mitre saw and it was super quick and easy. You will need: one 6″ piece, one 3″ piece and three 2″ pieces for each gun.
  3. Assemble the gun by following the diagram. I did not glue the pieces together, but simply pushed the pieces together firmly.
  4. Spray paint the guns if you wish. You can personalize or embellish the guns with coloured tape or leave them plain.

This project was very simple to make. The cost was approximately $4.35 per gun, but I had the spray paint on hand. If we weren’t going to a Laser Tag facility and were having a home party, I might have given the pieces for the gun, put out some coloured tape and had the boys build and personalize their own gun at the party.  However, for Shay’s birthday, we are simply giving a completed gun and “ammunition” as loot.

Here are 6/10 of the guns….the rest are still drying.
Wash all of the PVC pieces.
Cut the pieces to the specified lengths.
Assemble according to this diagram.
Assembled gun
Here are the 10 guns I made.

To use the gun, place a miniature marshmallow just inside the open end of the top piece where the “coupling” goes (if you use one ~ it isn’t necessary according to other instructions I saw).  Place your mouth over the end and blow a quick hard breath into the tube. The marshmallow will shoot with a surprising amount of speed and force. Although marshmallows are soft and relatively harmless, I wouldn’t want to be responsible for an eye injury. If giving them as gifts, you might want to get some goggles to go with the gun. (These would also make great stocking stuffers at Christmas time.)

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!

Little Change, Big Impact

There is a mud room located off the back of our kitchen. I love the concept of a mud room, but hate this space…it’s totally useless! Although the room is probably about 8 X 12, there are two stair cases (one down to the mud room/one down to the basement), the garage door, the back door and a large window. The space is such that despite all the room, there really is no place to store shoes and coats because every wall is broken up. The stairs are built is such a way that more than 4 feet of the 12 is lost and the remaining space is about 8 feet square. I have big plans for this space, but it is currently way down the list. It is one of the few spaces in our home that we’ve never touched. I simply decided that it would stay as is until we could do it right. I can’t wait for the day I can call these photos “BEFORE” shots, but for now, this is what I’m living with. You can see that it would be difficult to add any kind of a closet or wardrobe because currently both doors swing into the room. It simply isn’t functional.

I hate this back landing – it is nothing more than a place for junk to collect.
The stairs go down from the kitchen to the mud room and then cut back down to the basement. The door leads to the garage.
The potential is great – I love the beams on the vaulted ceiling.
The open door leads to the backyard.
You can see the stoop is home to our recycling tub and my hubby’s pop. Ugh!
You can see that the landing and stairs take up a large portion of the room.

Despite our brutal winter, my husband and I realized that we had not closed the back door between the kitchen and mud room even once throughout the winter. We used to close it often as the mud room only has a baseboard heater and it’s often cold, but a few years ago we had an efficiency test done on our house and were told that it would be best to leave the door open at all times for the heat to circulate through. Sure enough, it is better with the door left open. However, this big cumbersome door, when left open, blocks all of the sunlight pouring in the huge kitchen window. I don’t know why, but until recently it never even occurred to us to remove it.  This weekend, my husband removed the door from the hinges and carried it down to the basement. I was absolutely blown away by the difference. The room feels so much brighter and more open and the door is no longer in the way.

Sometimes, the simplest of details make the biggest impact. Of course, we now have to remove the hinges and metal stripping, fill holes and paint the frame, but the over all look seems to be dramatically different. Of course, now we have great sight lines to the mud room that I hate, but perhaps the mud room make-over has now moved up a few notches on the “to do list”.

I don’t have great before pictures because I really didn’t expect it to make such a big difference. My husband is great, but somehow I can’t see him bringing the heavy door back up and putting it back on the hinges for a before shot. The first two photos give you a bit of an  idea of the issues we had with the door.

 

 

BEFORE: You can see the back door at the far end. It always seemed to be in the way.
You can’t see the door because it is closed, but you can see the large window it was blocking when it was open.
AFTER: I’m not sure that the photo captures it, but the room is so much brighter and open feeling.
You can see the work that will still need to be done to make the door frame look better, but already such and improvement.

If something in your space is bothering you, step back and see if a small change might make a big difference. Perhaps it’s as simple as moving a piece of furniture, replacing small picture frames with something oversized, painting or changing the swing of a door. When we did our bathroom make-over a few years ago, one of the things we did was change the swing of the door. It used to swing open to sit in front of the built-in cupboards. It drove me crazy to have to close the door every time I needed something from the cabinet. Although we did a whole renovation, this alone made a huge difference to the look and functionality of the room.

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