Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Eco-art from Sarah Turner: The twitter ball



Once in a while, I like to show more artistic project, that are part of exhibitions. This project is an other one made by Sarah Turner, after the great lamps made from plastic bottles that you can see here. Sarah made an other kind of "lamp"s that look awesome. She used 562 plastic bottles and 100's LED light, the final result is fantastic!!


Monday, January 30, 2012

Upcycling table soccer parts


An other fun way of hanging clothes, specially if you are a soccer fan. You can buy this from Spain on rs-barcelona.com and choose the team you want, or individual players. But if you happen to have an old table soccer... you know what to do now!


Friday, January 20, 2012

Upcycling soda can tabs into lamps.



I fell in love with this lamp made by Allison Patrick on Etsy, it took her 10 hours to make it and it's for sale for $295. If you want to make your own, get ready to collect 1500 tabs.

This one was seen on Inhabitat.com

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Upcycling an old book..... to protect a notebook.

An other great use of an old book. The leather one are really made for such upcycling. You can buy it here or try to make it yourself. I will try as soon as I find the right book.
Previously I posted that books could also be used to make a cool-looking docking station, click here if you want to see the old post.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

A chandelier made with ... paper clips

Amazing the shape you can give to the chandelier by just changing the number of paper clips on each row. Some are available on Etsy, but it so much fun to try to make one! You'll have to find metal rings with different diameter  and you'll be set to start!



This is the making process in 2 pictures:



If you feel like it's too complicated, this is an other kind of chandelier, much easier to make, also with paper clips:

You can watch the video if you want to try :

Friday, January 13, 2012

Upcycling an old Ikea gorm (shelf) into a shoe rack



Last week, my neighbor trashed an old broken shelf like the one here, it is a "gorm" shelf from Ikea. I could not resist, I had to take the good parts still in good shape to make this little rack I was thinking of...

This is what I could rescue :

It could have been a shoe rack right away, but I needed to give a slightly better look by giving a nice shape to the legs, so I made a quick template like this one :


And I cut using my favorite jigsaw :

Using a sander or just sand paper, it looks much better if the edges are smooth.
I also decided to stain the wood to match the bench color:

And I let it dry over night :


Now I can store more shoes under my bench!!! In style and for really cheap.

Optional step: After staining and drying, you can apply polyurethane to give your rack a shiny protected look of varnish.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Upcycling drink packets into lamps


This upcycling is made by designer Ed Chew who unfolds drink packets and refold them into hexagonal and pentagonal sections. When put together, these sections can create spheres and plenty of other shapes, with wonderful light effects. This upcycling is more art than regular craft project but I hope it will inspire you like it did to me.





The light created through the lamps is amazing




Monday, January 9, 2012

Organizing power adapters in a shoebox...


A clever upcycling again. My only concern was : Where can I find grommets? apparently you can find some online easily, the curtain grommets would work well:

Friday, January 6, 2012

Upcycling a cement bag?....


 


Are you wondering what to make with a cement bag, specifically when there's a nice design on it?
This is the original material:


This is a great upcycling you can find on Etsy.com for $95 + shipping and it's made in South Africa. The  outside paper is protected with a Scotchguard treatment an the inside looks comfy for any laptop, I love it!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

A lamp made with paper


This lamp made with paper looks great. Sold out on Etsy...


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Upcycling baby food jar into cool-looking lego storage



I found this great idea on obseussed.com, this jar are really helpful to store all these legos lost under your kid's bed. The tutorial is fairly simple and you can draw any face you want using your favorite black Sharpie.