Upcycling An Old Cigar Box

If you are like me, than you enjoy finding new ways to reuse old items.  A friend of mine gave me this cool cigar box that he had lying around his garage.  So I figured I would make my niece a neat little toy box she could put doll clothing or jewelry in.
What I used for this craft:
exacto knife & cutting board
ruler
marker for marking measurements
glue gun
3 sheets of felt I purchased from Walmart for less than $3
Lace that I also purchased from Walmart for $1
and a mirror I picked up at a flea market for $1
an old gift card to level out the pieces once glued

First I started with the lid.  I measured what I needed and made my cuts with an exacto knife. I loved the black and white pattern, it gives this soon to be toy box an elegant touch.  For the bottom I wanted a bright color that would give a nice contrast in color. For this I went with red.  I fitted the felt into the base and made a few incisions so I could compare my measurements to make sure they were aligned.  At this point I was just cutting out what I needed, no glue was used until all the pieces had been cut. Instead of using another piece of felt, I decided to line the interior walls with both the black and white on the longer sides of the box, and used the remaining red felt for the shorter sides.

My assistant was of no help. (pre-glue)

I decided not to paint the edges of the box, out of personal preference...and well, sheer laziness.  Painting the trim would have looked nice too. If I would have done that, this is the stage where I would paint.  Just before gluing everything in place. 
Since I decided to forgo painting, I went straight in to gluing.  (Now that my "assistant" was finally off my supplies)
I glued the lid piece first, then the side pieces, and the bottom piece last. I used an old gift card to make sure the glue applied evenly so there were no bumpy areas after it had set.
To give the box a more finished looked, I placed black lace along the edges of the base.  The final touch was adding the small mirror which I glued to the lid. 


Ta-da!   A super cute toy box for less than $5, that was fun and easy to make. The best part? Turning something old that would have ended up in the trash, into something new a child could play with.  Maybe this will be the new home for the *Altoid tin doll I made her. 


*In one of my next posts I'll show how I made the Altoid tin dolls.

It's Dangerous To Go Alone! Take This.

Zelda Key Hanger

As a product of the 1980's, my siblings and I spent a lot of hours sitting 6 inches from the television  playing Nintendo, especially Zelda. 
So when my little brother turned 28 a few weeks ago, I decided to make this awesome key hanger for his birthday.  Sentimental yet functional.

I bought a 26" (est.) piece of Poplar wood from Lowe's for around $6-$7, cut it in half & beveled the edges.  (I saved the other half to make a 2nd one later on).  I sanded the edges with a medium grit sanding sponge I purchased from Harbor Freight for less than $1.   Once I had the edges sufficiently sanded, I painted the entire board with Basics black acrylic paint I purchased from WalMart's for a few dollars.  

I used a sponge brush to apply two coats of paint, and allowed at least 20 minutes between coats.  Making sure the first layer was sufficiently dried before moving on to the next coat.

I found the awesome image online simply by Googling "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this" and Kinko's printed an 8x11 for about $1.
Once the paint dried, I applied a moderate coat of Mod Podge glue to the front of the board & centered my image accordingly.  I used an ID card to flatten out the image and to force any trapped air bubbles to the corners.  Once I was done with this, I flipped the board upside down and stacked several heavy books on top of it.  (IMPORTANT -you have to complete this step or your finished product may turn out bubbly.)

Now I could have purchased some hanging hooks and small nails at the store for this next step, but I'm way too lazy and cheap for that. So I took a hanging teeth hook from a crappy painting I had bought at the Goodwill for $.75 and used a staple gun to staple it in place.  Since this board isn't going to be supporting a lot of weight, the staple gun worked just fine. I used a nail to plot out where I wanted the hook to go, which I wanted in the middle of the sword image. Once the initial hole was made I simply screwed in a small J hook. Finished!  I've seen people trying to sell these online for over $40. It cost me less than $15 and maybe an hour worth of time to make my own. A satisfyingly awesome birthday present. My brother loved it.

Apartment Chic- Using a Coat Rack for Kitchen Storage

I have a really small kitchen so unfortunately storage space is very limited. A simple coat hanger can help alleviate some of that cabinet clutter.  It's a great cheap way to store pans & free up some valuable cabinet space.

Make sure to secure the coat hanger properly.  The pan on the left is really heavy & this rack is supporting a lot of weight.

For less than $15 this has made a HUGE difference in our kitchen, LOVE IT!

Reusing Plastic Containers To Start Plants

I'm a big advocate for reusing items & cutting down on what I throw away.  In a world were most items you purchase come in a ridiculous amount of packaging, or plastic containers which take god knows how long to decompose, I try to find other uses for them.
In this case I used several plastic containers as starter planters.
I've used everything from 2 Lt bottles, to sour cream & feta cheese containers, to single serve yogurt containers.  I've started some seeds in the egg container you can see on the top shelf.

All of these items work great for starter planters, & they're reusable!

All of these plants, I started from clippings in these plastic containers & just transplanted them into their pots today.

It's been 8 days & all of these plants except the Echeveria (which was planted previously), and the two on the top shelf, have started to root. I'll keep the plants on the top shelf in their containers with a sandwich bag over them until they root.  I poked holes in the bags to allow air circulation.
Sweet Potato Vine, Wandering Jew, Sweet Carolina Sweet Potato Vine, & Echeveria.
There's a 101 different ways to reuse plastic containers, & this is just one.

Self Watering Planter Made From a 2 Liter Bottle

I like Philodendrons, they're pretty easy going plants.  The clippings that I took from my mom's plant are doing really well in this self watering planter I made from an empty 2 Lt soda bottle.

You'll need:
2 liter
scissors
small square of newspaper smaller than 4x4.
Thin strip of cloth about 12 in
dirt

 
I cut the 2 liter in half & set the top half of the bottle upside down in the lower half of the bottle. The larger top half will hold the plant, while the smaller bottom portion will hold the water.
 I cut a small piece of newspaper, just large enough to cover the spout in the top half of the bottle  then set it aside.  I used a strip of cloth leftover from my t-shirt pillow project, and threaded it through the bottle so it was touching the bottom of the base. I draped each end of the shirt over each side of the bottle & placed the small square of newspaper in the center, covering the spout.  I placed a few scoops of dirt then crossed the cloth strip over so the ends were now on opposite sides of the bottle, and added a few more scoops of dirt. I continued this until the cloth strip was completely covered. Then filled the base with water.
 I  planted this philodendron clipping & it is doing really well.  Once it roots, I can transplant it into a pot.
It's an easy way to reuse a 2 liter bottle, and makes remembering to water even easier.

T-Shirt Pillows

T-shirt pillows are a great way to put old t-shirts you're not ready to part with to use.

What you will need: A T-shirt scissors sewing machine Poly-Fil Needle & Thread same/similar color of pillow

I cut this t-shirt right under the image and saved the lower half  to make the pillow. On the back of the t-shirt under the collar it says "Yeah Buddy!" and I thought this would be cute on the back of my pillow. So I cut both images out and prepared to stitch them to my pillow.

I cut the half of the shirt I was using for the pillow down one side in order to sew on the front image.

 I did a really sloppy half-assed job of of cutting out "The Brak Show" image then used my sewing machine to haphazardly sew it to the front of  my pillow. Which is okay, because I'm still awesome, and this pillow is still badass.

  I took more care applying the "Yeah Buddy" to the back, which I cross stitched by hand.  The results look much better, but took a lot longer to do.  Now that the images are where they need to be, I folded the shirt over so that the two images were facing each other, turning the shirt inside out. I should have taken a photo of this...but I forgot.  Sorry!
I used my machine to sew up the bottom and the side. Now for the top of the pillow I stitched it almost completely closed leaving only enough room in the middle, (directly above the middle of the image) for me to get my hand through in order to pull it right side out & fill with stuffing.
I used  Poly-Fil for the stuffing.

I pulled the poly-fil apart into smaller chunks and stuffed it into the pillow making sure it reached each corner.  I stuffed the pillow as full as a I could, then stitched the small opening closed by hand.

One super soft, super comfy pillow. Perfect size & my favorite pillow. I LOVE IT!