Does Anyone Else Like Upcycling/repurposing Stuff?

[Goth Mummy]

I have a craft and pinterest addiction as well as a desire to recycling and save money. My current projects are trying to make a patchwork cover for the Dog's sofa out of old jeans and painting old Yankee Candle jars for hallloween tea light displays. I try to find material from charity shops such as old curtains/duvet covers for my various craft projects.

is anyone else into upcycling and if so what are you doing?

I'm currently staring at an old wooden play pen, it was old fashioned when I bought it 10 years ago and I dont think people use them for their children now. I'm sure that it can be re-purposed into something guinea pig related Its 100 cm x 100cm. Perhaps a cage with correx as a base?

 

[Tim]

I have been known to make piggy runs and hides out of old bed frames but I tend to fiddle about with electronics more. In our rally car we had pop bottle with a pump in it, this was the widscreen washer
I like to play about with flashes and rewire them to get the effect I want when doing photography. My mum is the one who salvages old watering cans and pots, pants them up and uses them as planters. She even had some of my old work clothes and used them as a strawberry planter!

 

[Chief Guinea Pig]

Once I made a purse out of old felt.

 

[Flutterby]

I've never done it, but always thought that some of the things people make are amazing! I wish I had those skills!

 

[nicky]

I love doing things like that at the moment I am making a rag rug and a puff quilt from materials I pick up at charity shops etc I have also made cushion covers from old linen napkins etc. I grow my herbs on the windowsill in tin cans decorated with coulored tape i make cushions for the dogs beds out of old pillowcases and sew patches of bright materials on them.

 

[VickiA]

I've shrunk old jumpers down and turned them into cushion covers, made aprons for the local preschool from tea towels and old curtains and made a run of sorts for my last piggies from an old bookcase that was being thrown out.

 

[Goth Mummy]

@nicky I am mulling around the idea of a rag rug at the moment, I have the tool as I was given a load of craft stuff belonging to my husband's great aunt.

@VickiA bookcase run - that is a genius idea! It would be easy too, if you had an old bookcase and some chicken wire and some timber to make a frame for the lid, I have never thought of that though (now I want to look out for a bookcase to do this with!)
Curtains into aprons is a really good idea. I have a stack of curtains that were in this house when I moved in, I have kept them because the material is cotton, but I dont like the pattern. I wonder if my daughter's preschool needs aprons!

 

[nicky]

@Goth Mummy the rag rug is lovely to do but takes loads of material the good thing about it is it does use all the scraps up that are not much good for anything else.

 

[Chief Guinea Pig]

I also love pinterest. Haha

 

[Coco&Luna]

I'm rubbish at it....sometimes i see stuff on pintrest or etsy and think...pffft! I could make that myself for a fraction of the price.

no. no i cannot.

 

[Goth Mummy]

@nicky I was thinking of doing a rag rug with t-shirt material - my toddler daughter has loads and when she grows out of them they are often not in a condition to pass on to anyone else, but are pretty colours and it seems a shame to just use them as rags.

Well, today I "repurposed" an old hutch as a log store (thinking ahead to winter!). Well, i say I did it what I actually did was lay with my feet up in the garden whilst instructing my husband on what to do

 

[nicky]

@Goth Mummy that's a really lovely idea