Music That Melts

Jun 152012
 

Today I’m shar­ing my lat­est repur­pos­ing project that’s per­fect for your next party! Take old records and melt them down to bowls. They not only look groovy, but are very func­tional. My sis­ter made these for her son’s grad­u­a­tion party recently. His party theme was the Bea­t­les, so these were the per­fect acces­sory. The process to make them is very easy too!

INSTRUCTIONS HERE

 

How to get your groove on:

  • fill them with snacks and candy (be sure they’re wrapped food items for safety)
  • a great stor­age for t.v. remotes
  • loose change anyone?
  • “where did I put my keys?”…a thing of the past
  •  place your small gift or gift card (think iTunes) in the bowl and wrap with cellophane

If you don’t have any unwanted records lay­ing around in your attic, you can pick them up for next to noth­ing at a garage sale or thrift store. Have fun and don’t for­get to crank your tunes!



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Magnetic Wine Cork Planters

Mar 262012
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This lat­est cre­ation has been made by a mod­ern day Martha, my sis­ter, Colleen. Well, she’s a lot more hip than her, but you get the idea.

It all started when she gave a friend of ours a bot­tle of wine for their 25th wed­ding anniver­sary. She wanted them to be able to have a lit­tle memento from the evening. After the bot­tle was empty, I sneaked the cork in my purse(it’s not steal­ing, because she got it back!). From there my sis­ter worked her bril­liance! The cou­ple she was mak­ing it for love two things in life, wine and gar­den­ing. (yes in that order, jk!) That’s when she remem­bered being inspired by a photo from Piccsy. A mini cork suc­cu­lent planter mag­net. Does it get any cuter? I don’t think so! It’s sen­ti­men­tal, com­pact, prac­ti­cal, green and stylish.


Needed:

  • Corks made from cork not plastic
  • Mag­nets
  • Pot­ting soil
  • Very small suc­cu­lent cuttings
  • Puncher
  • Par­ing knife
  • Glue gun

How to:

  1. CAREFULLY, hol­low out the cen­ter of a wine cork with the puncher and knife until you’ve hol­lowed it out halfway.
  2.  Glue mag­net onto cork.
  3.  Fill the hole with pot­ting soil and add the succulent.
  4.  Use an eye­drop­per to water.
  5. Put on your fridge and enjoy!

WARNING: This might not be a craft for a child or a clumsy adult!

   

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Per­fect For:

  • Host­ess gifts
  • Spe­cial occasions
  • Wine lovers
  • Green lovers
  • Me
  • Thank you gifts
  • Green thumb friends
  • really, any­one!

 

 




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New Twist On: Cans

Nov 212011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t throw that can out! Give them a new lease on life with some inno­v­a­tive ideas. I was inspired after buy­ing an extra large can of toma­toes from Costco. After the can was empty, it seemed a shame to throw it out. So I put my cre­ative cap on, fol­lowed by some cyber searching.

The obvi­ous, but sim­ple thing to do is use them as pots for plants. It’s the per­fect cen­ter­piece for an out­door bistro table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take things a step fur­ther and make a host­ess gift using an old can.

What to do:

  • Clean the can thor­oughly. Poke holes on the bot­tom if you plan on hav­ing it drain your plant. Place your plant or flow­ers in the can. (leave the label on or take it off, both ways have their own unique cool look) Ide­ally I would have put a tomato plant in the can but they’re not in sea­son. If you can use a plant that matches the can label, that would be a fun touch.
  • For your gift tag, get a packet of seeds. Take some paper and write or print out your mes­sage to the host. Get some dou­ble sided tape and adhere it to the seeds. Slide the seeds through the teeth end of a plas­tic fork and insert into the soil of the plant. (if you have sin­gle vin­tage forks lay­ing around, that would be even better)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other ideas I found & loved:

 

Cork cans by The 3R’s Blog.

A kitschy wine rack from Real Sim­ple.

Pen­dent lights from Shel­ter­ness.

Pic­nic cans found at Sweet Paul Mag­a­zine.

Finally, if you’re feel­ing more prac­ti­cal and adven­tur­ous, try build­ing a camp­ing rocket stove from left­over food cans. Learn how at Life­hacker.

 

 

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New Twist On: Mason Jars

Oct 192011
 



I love shar­ing ways to repur­pose dif­fer­ent items. Today I’m fea­tur­ing a clas­sic favorite, mason jars. Here are five ways I’m lov­ing them:

1.Pie In A Jar

Our Best Bites came up with this genius idea. They’re indi­vid­ual serv­ing sizes and can go straight from your freezer to your oven. These pies in a jar are per­fect to have on hand for unex­pected guests or a sud­den crav­ing of sweet good­ness! Find the recipe and direc­tions here.

2. Painted Flower Jars

I love this col­or­ful cre­ative way to re-use mason jars. Wouldn’t these make great bud­get friendly cen­ter­pieces for your next party? For step by step direc­tions go to The CSI Project.

3. Bath­room Beauty Storage

Clever! Clever! Clever! Lovely Lit­tle Details came up with a great bath­room stor­age idea.

4. Sewing Kit in a Jar

Whether we sew or not, we all need a mini mend­ing kit. This is a great diy gift idea! Find out how to make these by Martha Stew­art here.

5. Soap Dispenser

Heather Bullard made this diy soap dis­penser to keep on her pot­ting bench. I think this would be fun in a bath­room or kitchen as well. You could also bring some antibac­te­r­ial hand san­i­tizer to a park pic­nic or party. For a host­ess gift, fill a mason jar up with some yummy smelling hand lotion. Find the tuto­r­ial on how to make one here.



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What Is A Plantsphere?

Sep 152011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A plantsphere (yes, I made that word up) is my lat­est cre­ation. I love this mod­ern twist on a ter­rar­ium.  My inspi­ra­tion for this DIY project comes from designer Shane Pow­ers and his Hang­ing Glass Bub­ble Col­lec­tion at West Elm. You can make this in under 10 min­utes and for less than $6. I repur­posed an empty orna­ment globe by remov­ing the cap then adding sand, embell­ish­ments and the very low main­te­nance air plant, Tillandsia.

Idea:

Plantspheres make a per­fect DIY gift for any­one! (teach­ers, host­ess gift, wed­ding favor, get well soon, etc…) Wrap them up care­fully in some­thing unex­pected like a take out Chi­nese food box or put one nes­tled in a bas­ket filled with rafia. (you can find them at most craft stores like Michaels)

 

 

 

Step by step tuto­r­ial here:

Post by Style­bag­gage con­trib­u­tor — Colleen

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Repurpose Your Wine Corks

Aug 252011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This might be my favorite way of repur­pos­ing used wine corks. (besides the wine cork mulch idea) Instead of using pre­dictable store bought charms, name tags or dif­fer­ent col­ored rib­bons, I used dif­fer­ent win­ery corks for my wine tags. The next time you have a party and don’t want to run out of glasses, this is the per­fect thing to have on hand. Every­one will know which glass is theirs by their wine maker. It’s also a great con­ver­sa­tion starter. Every­one can chat about their par­tic­u­lar win­ery and if and what they drink from there, etc…

Go from this:

To this:



 

 TUTORIAL HERE
  • I think mak­ing a dozen of these and putting them in a clear bag or dec­o­ra­tive chi­nese take out box would be a great gift! Think host­ess gift, thank you, co-workers, neigh­bors, mother-in-law, boss, brother, teacher, me…well you get the idea.
  • If you plan on doing a trip to the wine coun­try, you could col­lect all your dif­fer­ent corks and make tags from them. Then when you use them, you’ll think back on the good mem­o­ries you had on that spe­cial vacation

 


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Repurpose Your Old Bbq (with style of course)

Jul 292011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been promis­ing for a while now to reveal my not so typ­i­cal herb gar­den. Here it is! Repur­pose your old bbq or fire pit into an herb gar­den. Not only is it prac­ti­cal, it’s got a kitchy vibe going on that makes a great con­ver­sa­tional piece. Every­one who sees them loves them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The how to:
  • be sure there are hole open­ings on the bot­tom for water drainage (they prob­a­bly already exist where you dumped the ashes out)
  • then add a shal­low layer of small rocks at the bottom
  • next fill the bbq or fire pit with good pot­ting soil (it’s such a small area and makes a huge dif­fer­ence so splurge on some good stuff)
  • before plant­ing your herbs just set them on top of the soil so you can see what they will look like
  • remem­ber to place taller herb plants in the back and shorter, drapey ones in the front
  • you’re ready to dig and plant away
  • optional: add some organic fertilizer
  • water well
Extras:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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