Upcycling Ideas That will Inspire you
Definitions of the term upcycling taken from the net
The word “upcycling” was coined by William McDonaugh and Michael Braugart in their book Cradle to Cradle. In the simplest terms, upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value
or
upcycle to reuse ordinary objects to make something extraordinary
Ok now we have that straight , as far as I’m concerned it just means repurposing things destined to be recycled or discarded and giving them a new lease of life in another form or use…just like the old and damaged books I use to make Pages from the Heart Gift books ….. upcycling.
We’re diving into the blue bins again today for more frugal and beautiful gifts upcycling ideas that anyone with a little creativity can put into practice, all links to all upcycling tutorials can be found at the foot of the page. Just check out some of these imaginative upcycling ideas for reusing old tin cans…we don’t use many tinned goods in our house I’m still busily hoarding ours to make the deck lights (seen in earlier post) for next summer. But looking at some of these great upcycling ideas ,perhaps I’ll have to start raiding the neighbors recycling boxes for extra tin cans.
- A couple of great upcycling ideas old tins repurposed into lamp and decorative storage
This is a vintage looking sugar canister upcycled very creatively into a lamp with kind of a cottage feel, if you like the look you can pick up these old tins for a few cents at most charity stores and garage sales or similar look could could be achieved by upcycling an old painted coffee tin. The tutorial on Sue Clarks blog unique-re-tiques , has a whole list of neat crafty items to upcycle and make yourself, I particularly Liked the embellished lampshade,take a peek and while you’re weighing up how to make an upcycled lamp base you may as well make yourself a shade too. One of the things I like most about her tutorials is that they have loads and loads of pictures
Creating art for candy tins
“many ordinary tin cans and containers that come into our homes can be upcycled with computer-generated art and used as pencil or brush holders, letter boxes, storage containers and so on. Thrift stores are a good source for tin boxes with lids, of the type used for holiday cookies and candies.
I like Altoids peppermints and consequently have a collection of empty tins which seem too cute and potentially useful to throw away” In the tutorial on the J Ashford computer crafts site she outlines just how easy it is to use your computer and printer to upcycle everyday throw away items into
wonderful keepsakes and gifts. (See foot notes)
Not from this lady’s tutorials but something along similar lines is a lampshade that I made for one of my grandsons I decoupaged it with computer printouts and glazed it with watered down white glue.
In real life it looks a lot more spectacular than it does in the photo, the sheep and the cow jumping over the moon are all 3D paper tole and stand out from the shade by at least a half inch in places but try as I might I can’t get this to display in the pictures I take , its the same with Pages from the Heart I am never satisfied with the pictures…..perhaps I am just a poor photographer. But here is a picture anyway. In another home I decorated a headboard and matching pelmet in this fashion, and countless vases and trinket boxes over the years.
- An old lamp shade I decorated with 3D decoupage and upcycled it so it could be used in my grandsons bedroom
Below you see another whole bunch of tin cans that have been upcycled lets start with the image on the bottom left this project was found on the Green Ugrader website ,this caused a few mixed reactions among their visitors and I can quite understand why, not really sure if I like it either. Now in a modern home office perhaps it could serve double duty as wall art and a storage unit, perhaps its overall appeal might be improved if a few lights were added at random into the cans. But you can visit their site for the tutorial not that I think you really need one for such a simple project.
Beside this image to left is another simple upcycling idea , this is a covered Christmas tootsie roll container ,not being completely sure what a tootsie roll is , I’m certain pringles tubes could be used in it’s place , I use these quite a lot for things like storing rolls of paper ,paint brushes ,rulers and pencils.
- A collage of upcycling ideas for tin cans
Next are the little 3D tree ornaments found on Carol Kings blog, used to do a very similar upcycled project out of the flat pilchard tins that used to come with a key and roll off lid, now that’s going back along way, to when we lived in the UK , and I’m not certain that pilchards like so many other things may be called by some other name over here and I’m afraid I have no idea what that may be …so you are now probably just a little confused so let me clarify pilchards are fish which came in shallow tins like salmon does here but the tins were oval rather than round and just lent them selves perfectly to little 3D mini profile silhouettes like a reverse cameo as seen here
- silhouette of girl suitable for using to upcycle small shallow tin cans
But there were no computers and printers or even an internet back then that was about 20 years ago my goodness doesn’t time fly, on the 9th of Nov (which is my husbands birthday) 19 years ago we moved to Canada. Back then you had to trace an outline from a photograph and then reverse trace it onto black paper, the open front was covered in cellophane which was held in place by a wide ribbon tied in a bow at the top by which you hung it from the wall. I’d love to remake those with the added ease of computer and printer ,I’ll have to keep my eye open for suitable tins. Below is a photoshop tutorial by Jennifer Applle that outlines how you can use photoshop to make silhouettes from your own digital photo’s.
Ok its getting late now and I have a couple of custom pages gift books to work on ,I still have a whole bunch more of recycling bin crafts and upcycling ideas for gifts but they will have to wait and be my next post so come back soon.
Links
Sugar Tin lamp and other tutorials
Creating Art from Candy tins on the PC
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I guess it really is in the news! I LOVE the first lamp.
Awesome projects! Great job@
Nice!! Thank you for the wonderful ideas and links!