DIY: make a bowl from a scratched unplayable record

We, (husband and I) collect records; given that these precious music recordings are often second hand and old, it is inevitable that at times we may get a record that is just too damaged to be playable.

Instead of discarding the records, we upcycle!

1. Preheat an oven to 120 degrees celcius
2. Place the record on top of a metal colander
3. Carefully place the metal colander and record on a baking tray in the oven

4. After five minutes the record will have moulded over the colander 

In oven 

5. Remove the colander and record from the oven
at this stage the record is still malleable for about a minute so do any fine tuning of shape
6. Then place in room temperature (still on colander) to set 

Cooling down

7. Remove it from the colander and you have a record bowl!

The upcycled record as a stash bowl!

.............................................................................................................. Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

Upcycled Ephemera: making greeting cards out of bits n pieces

Ephemera can be defined as collectible paper objects that were originally meant to be transient in nature, (such as movie posters, postcards, magazine clippings, letters). The word is from the ancient Greek 'Ephemeros' meaning for the day.

I collect all sorts of bits of paper, magazine clippings, wrapping paper, old greeting cards, playing cards and the like, and then recycle them into other goodies.

I prefer to use the term upcycle, as sometimes the magazine scraps become better than the original item, when they are reformed into woven papier mache pendants for example.

I enjoy upcycling my collection of ephemera to make one of a kind greeting cards and gift tags as well as jewellery pendants and these I sell either from my facebook page or my etsy store.

Some of the cards I have recently made and sold are pictured below:

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About Me: I work full time, I am also studying for a therapist qualification in Naturopathy specialising in Herbalism, I have a small craft 'business', I am co-admin of an auction page on facebook to help other small hobby businesses, i maintain my own 'store' facebook page, I blog at least once a week and I maintain a facebook page created to support small home businesses and hobby sellers 

............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

ALPHABET BLOG CHALLENGE: O is for ORGANISING!

Following on from my new year blog about sorting my craft room, today's post is about organisation ideas!

I cannot afford specially made mass produced highly priced accessories for storage, so I prefer to upcycle and make my own storage solutions.

1. Upcycled Food Tin adhesive holder

I have lots of tubes and bottles of all sorts of types of glue. When they are in drawers they leak, when they are on shelves they fall. To solve this, I washed out empty baked bean tins, dried them, and covered them with old gift paper, glued the paper on, then glued on some twine and some other decorative things. I then glued all the cans together to make a connected storage piece.

It sits neatly on a shelf, looks cool and crafty, and holds all my glue!!

Cost to make: around $1 for the whole thing as i reused old gift wrap, and used emptied bean tins.

2. Upcycled jars to hold buttons, spools of cotton, bobbins

I have a heap of buttons, different colours, different sizes, masses of cotton spools, and heaps of sewing machine bobbins. Keeping them organised and in one easy to use area was getting difficult!

I washed and dried old jam jars/ olive jars ...peeling off the labels. Painted the lids in cheerful colours, printed out old style labels and glued them to the jars.

After sorting buttons in colour, and size, i placed them in the glass jars, the cotton spools also were placed in jars, as were the bobbins. They all sit on the shelf near my sewing machine, they are decorative and useful!

Cost to make: maybe $2 for ten, (used tiny amount of paint, labels, glue)

 

What are your organisation ideas?? Please comment and share links or ideas !!

 

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