Soap Dish from bottom of 2 liter bottle

I was inspired by a post at Alessia's Scrap Craft to create my own version of the bottom of 2 liter plastic bottle into a soap dish, although I made mine taller.  Not only does it cost almost nothing to make, it keeps the soap from getting soggy and gross on the bottom.

Items used:

• 2 litter plastic bottle
• Kitchen shears, Xacto Knife, box cutter or some other method to cut the bottle
• Rhinestones 
• E6000 or other strong clear glue

1. Decide how tall you want your soap dish to be.  I used a line that was already on the bottle below the label for a guide.
2. Cut the bottom off of the bottle (I used kitchen shears as I found I have better control over keeping the even, to start the cut, pinch the plastic slightly, cut, then insert one of the blades inside the bottle).
3. Glue rhinestones around the edge - I alternated blue and clear about and put them the length of 2nd bend in my index finger as a rough guide, but you could glue them wherever you wanted.

Happy crafting!

Linking up to:
30 Days of Creativity

Recycled Christmas Card Gift Bag

A fun way to upcycle a Christmas card to a pretty gift bag.

Every other year or so around Christmas we go to a family get together to play bingo and everyone brings small prizes around a $1 or so in value and I hate to pay a lot for the wrapping so I save small paper sacks (or you purchase them for around $4 for 50) decorate them. 

Items needed:

• Used Christmas Card
• Paper Sack
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Glitter Glue
• Tape

1)  Cut the back off of the Christmas card (which the back can be saved to make gift tags) .

2)   Liberally apply glue stick to the back side of the front of the card and press firmly on the paper sack.

3)  Scribble glitter glue around the edges of the card

Butterfly Gift Topper

This is super simple and made out of pages out of pages from a magazine.  It was inspired by a page in a magazine that had a butterfly on, but it turned out a bit big to use on that package so I ended up using it on another one instead.

All you need is

• Magazine, catalog pages or other paper
• Glue
• Scissors

Just cut a butterfly shape the width that you want it to be (this is about 6 inches at the widest point) then cut a version that is about 1/4-1/2 inch shorter around the edges and the same with the top layer.  Put together and fold at the center. 

Take the layers apart, apply a fine line of glue in the center of the bottom piece, put the middle piece on top of it.  Put another fine line of glue on the middle piece down the center and put the top piece on top.  Allow to dry for a few minutes.   Once dry apply a thin line of glue on the bottom of the butterfly and glue it to the package, bending up each side.

BOTTLE OF BOOs

This bottle of "BOOs" is a cute Halloween decoration that you can make for free using upcycled materials!  For the how-to visit my other blog Unique Interesting or Unusual.

Koolaid Man Pitcher Pencil Holder

A fun accent for a desk that even kids can make!

This was inspired by Rock Candy Eyes over a "Koolaid Man" pencil holder.
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/recycled-can-food-tin-kool-aid-man-pencil-holder

Mine is a little different as I used spray paint instead of acrylic paint, a Sharpie instead of black acrylic paint and added a handle for the pitcher.   I used pink to represent pink lemonade flavor.

Items used:

• Tin Can
• Cardboard
• Spray Paint
• Scissors
• Sharpie
• Paper
• Strong glue or Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

Remove label and clean off can - I soaked mine overnight first and it made it easier to get the label off.

Measure two pieces of cardboard.  One will be 1/2 inch wide and 3 1/2 inches long.  The other will be 1/2 inch wide and 1 inch long.  Mark then cut.

On the long piece of cardboard, bend each edge under 1/2 inch then bend it.

Use the glue on the short piece and glue the big piece to the little piece.

Glue the "handle" to the can.














Outside or in well ventilated area, put down a piece of cardboard and spray paint the can inside and out and allow to dry.  I did this three times to get an even coat and full coverage.















Draw a Koolaid face on a piece of paper then cut out and the face and use it as a template for the can.  I made mine 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 and it turned out a little larger than I had planned - you might want to try 3x3.



















Use the black Sharpie to drawn the face on the can using the paper template then finish coloring in.

Misc. Recycled Gift Wraps

It is based on the Risque Reindeer Gift Bag at Cut Out and Keep, except I was going for cute over being risque.

It is made entirely of recycled paper.  The face was from a Halloween craft project from a magazine for a jackolantern and the antlers handprints cut out of two similar shaded magazine pages (they turned out a little droopy - next time I try this I will use cardboard from a cereal box as backing.)

This is based on  Upcycled Gift Wrapping by Vanessa with a tutorial over at Craftzine.  On this one I used the page of a magazine,  a piece of sweatshirt for the bow and cut  out letters of the name kidnapper style from a magazine and glued them on with a glue stick.

This is basically the same concept, except I used a brown paper bag, cutout letter from a magazine and a cut off handle from a red plastic bag for the bow.

This is just an ad from a magazine with the letter for the name drawn on another solid part of page and glued on with a glue stick.

Rolled Flowers

Make pretty flowers to embellish crafts or packages from upcycled magazine pages!  This flower is a combination of a loose rolled flower with a tight rolled flower glued in the center.

I knew immediately when I saw the tutorial at Under The Table And Dreaming that I wanted to try to make some of these.  On her blog she makes them in both paper and fabric.


Link to the tutorial:  
http://ourliebertfamily.blogspot.com/2009/12/rolled-flower-gift-toppers.html?showComment=1261626546687_AIe9_BFUplHQvr_vCh6LkSdfSJ2hP73O3Mmk7CcQwvc5JFJAyx3GOkCNMrqW7qK5Cp4Vd3iZ5ps4E8WZzyLL97X6xiFZv_v6aQn8ZKF-dpIMBij1gq_5b26zxiAq-m2DlV0x-8WZWLbw7r4yIBZJB1HXUqVhKhy7tt0G8ekKJNzg9dIc94WQDNeJrwV2qVgV9WmuZ7NZSDBEasDnSL6k7bIoLW53PL2vgTYIamiGD-JbCnOGGLoKFxOz4ruDMU8b80520_jUHFiA#c2988219043799823034

Items I used:

• 3 pages from a magazine
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Craft Glue

Take 3 pages of  magazine and square them up - I folded them up until they looked square then cut off the excess.

With a small hook in the center, draw an outward spiral on the paper with a pen or pencil and it will look sort of like this (sorry, you couldn't see the pencil on the pic I took so I did this instead).

Cut the spiral on the lines and you will end up with a long squiggle of paper.

Start with the outer edge and roll inward.  I ended up using dabs of glue as I went because the first time I tried making one after gluing the end the center unrolled like a Slinky.   How tightly you roll the flower  and how many layers you use will give the flower a different look.  The large flower below was rolled loosely, lower left tightly and for the small one on the right I only used 1 layer of paper.   For the above flower, a tight roll was glued inside the larger flower.