Recycled bottle with dot painting

Thanks for your lovely comments on my previous post, Weekly Market(Santhe)

I have been experimenting with Batik Design Technique on fabric for a long time, I have been successful to get the desired result in few,  and few of them were totally disastrous and unexpected. To take break from that, and to cheer myself I am exploring other crafts which are in my To-Do list.

There are few wine bottles that I have been hoarding for a long time to get them painted.  My first thought was to try dot painting with acrylics on the bottle. Before doing that, I tried dot painting with Fevicryl Liquid embroidery tubes. These are actually used for doing liquid embroidery on fabric but I have used to paint my bottle with them.

I got few limited colors in the shop, and the shop was selling more metallic colors. I bought orange, blue, yellow. I was looking for white color but I got pearly white which I thought was OK and still doable. Before I got started I had to remove the labels from the bottle.

How to remove the labels from bottle
There are methods to remove the labels which many swear by but this following process has most of the time worked for me.
Initially soak the bottle in hot water(not boiling) for about an hour. If the label has any paper part, it would come off with scrubbing.
To take off the tough, sticky glue, apply some oil and baking soda on the sticky label. Leave it for a while(about 10 min). Take a scrubber and scrub the label off. This should get you a sparkling bottle.

How to paint

I have used the fine tipped pen to draw my designs on the bottle. I didn't go about drawing the entire design initially instead drew only what was necessary. . I just drew step by step, as my design demanded it.  Keep a wet cloth handy, because if you do not like what you have drawn, you can immediately wipe it.
Start with slowly squeezing the bottle. You would get tiny dots, which looks like tiny spikes.

I tried first on the plain glass bottle, free hand without any particular design in mind. I am happy how both have turned out. Best way show them off is to have golden pothos in them.

Linking this post to Craft Schooling Sunday by Creative Jewish Mom

Diwali DIY : Bangles Tea Light Holder

It's just a day to go for Deepavali, Indian festival of lights and I haven't done any decoration so far. I am down with heavy cold and severe lower back pain. In between I am busy in cleaning the house for the festival. Searching my crafts stuff I realized, I could do a quick craft for a tea light holder.

It's a tradition in Hindu religion, to gift bangles to the married women along with vermilion. This is something we women cannot refuse. Over years bangles have piled up in my home, some pretty some very dull. Often I donate them to my helper.  For our DIY today, gather some of your old unused bangles, strong adhesive(fevicol), some small golden/pearl decorative buttons/artificial stones.

Roughly arrange the bangles of same size, and start gluing each one on top of other.

In between make sure that your tower of bangles is straight and not slanted or in other shape. You can take break in between to make sure that glue has dried properly.

I managed to decorate with the items that I had in my home at the instant. On the top bangles I decorated with the golden buttons, gluing them.

I used approximately around 15 bangles for one tea light holder.

Finally place your bangle tower on the card stock, measure from outside and cut it.
Stick it to the base of the tower. This is optional step.

Wasn't this simple? Place the tea light inside and watch the glittering light. Have a happy and safe Diwali.

Update :
Adding this to Craft Schooling Sunday @ Creative Jewish Mom

DIY : Paper rolled pens

The other day my gel pen got over while doodling something and I was in urgent need of the black gel pen.The nearest store fellow tried to sell me couple of new branded pens as he did not stock pen refills. I inquired in few other ordinary shops and to my surprise none of them had refills. When the cost of refill and the pen are almost the same, people would more likely to buy new pens rather than buying a refill. Ever thought what would happen to your old pen? You would either hoard it, throw it or if you are eco conscious and old fashioned like me, you would put a new refill. I have seen many people around me buying new pens on a whim. Finally I got my pen refill at a stationary shop.
I remembered seeing these paper pens in few craft stalls that I frequented in the past. I decided to make these pens at home, try and use it myself. These are cute and you don't have to feel guilty when the ink is over.

Things you need.
Pen refill, Paper. The thickness of the pen depends on the thickness of paper. If you are using newspaper strip, you need a long one as they are thin. I used the paper bag's paper which was slightly thick.
Glue, scissors, ruler, pencil/sketch pens.

Cut out a rectangular shaped paper whose height is that of the pen refill(width is approximately 30 cm).

Draw a slanting line from the top left corner, to the right side like shown below. This is for tapering of the pen, to get cone shaped tip for the pen. Cut the paper along the line.

Lay the pen on the left edge and firmly glue the refill onto the paper initially. This step is the only tricky step and if you do it correctly then your rolling would come out perfect.

Start rolling and apply glue at the end of the roll.

To make the cap, take a rectangular strip(height less than half length of the pen, width less than half of what you had taken for the pen).

The diameter of the cap is slightly more than the pen. Take the pen and start rolling the strip to the other end of the pen. Do not roll tightly and you should be able to remove the pen in the end.

Apply glue to one end of the rolled cap and press it hard to close it. Let it dry.

My pen was simple but you could finish it with a strip of nice gift wrapping paper to make it attractive.

Please note that this may not be appropriate for students who have heavy writing work but more suitable for casual use.

Quick Coasters

I seem to be doing a lot of recycle related posts nowadays. I promise, this would be last for this month. You must have seen my garden some time back which was a total wreck due to renovation and painting of our home. The good news is that the me and my husband have managed to resurrect it back. Yes, the plants seem to be forgiving and they have decided to cheer back. I would be soon sharing my garden.

Coming to my post, this is about making coasters out of your old CD's. In the age of pen drives, mobiles the CD's are almost obsolete. My son's few text book publications have have attached CD's along with them. I didn't know what to with them other than throwing them once the year passed by. I had this fabric which I loved and bought it cheap to wrap the boxes. I utilized the left over cloth for the CD's. The project is very very easy and hardly takes time provided you know the basics of stitching.
Things you need.
CD's, Cloth, Glue, matching thread, needle, scissor, something to trace the CD

With the CD trace the outline of the CD. Leave 2 cm more.

Cut the fabric.

Apply glue on both sides of the CD and lay down the fabric on both the sides of the CD. Let it dry. Take care to remove any creases.

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Using the matching thread, stitch the rim of the fabric, I chose the simple blanket stitch and dark blue color,three strands.
Trim any extra threads.
Do not worry if its not perfect and enjoy your tea/coffee!!!!

Linking this to Craft Schooling Sunday of 2nd July by CreativeJewishMom

Recycling for the Environment Day

Hello friends, how are you doing? World Environment day was over a few days ago but that should not stop you from celebrating this day whole year. Here is one very tiny recycling project that I did a few days ago.

There are many things in our daily life that we throw away when no longer working or finished their shelf life. My analog clock was one such thing which under went repair twice and often took change in the batteries. I am being a green person was thinking to recycle it instead of  throwing it. For many months it laid low as a small stand and finally one fine day it caught my husband's fury. It was the time to act upon and I thought a good way to use it. I removed the internals of the clock.

Before

Our native is on the west coast of India and its just 2 km from my home. For us the sea fascinating, the waves, sand and varieties of  sea shells. Visiting the beach is complete with few collection of shells every time.

What better way to store them in the clock, this way I had kill two birds with one stone.

It had plain brown frame so I just doodled something with acrylic paint. After painting it, I felt it didn't turn out to be that great. I sealed with the screws. For now it is more sitting like a photo, as I am a bit apprehensive about hanging it. 

After

So tell me how did you like it? Have a nice day!!!!

Linking this to Nifty Thrifty Sunday

Stitching Time: Cross Stitch project

Finishing off limited data pack means more concentration on the craft projects and less time on the Internet. Yes, I finished our subscribed data pack way before it's renewal date. I was Internet addicted and I had to find some ways to get de-addicted.
Taking inspiration from the fellow bloggers I returned to my half done cross stitch project. I had abandoned it because of lack of threads. First thing I did was to immediately get threads and set upon to finish it.

This one is tribal motif taken from the book by Dorothy Wood. It has beautiful projects few in Anchor and few in using the DMC threads. For this I used the home cleaning cloth(mop cloth) and 6 strands of the anchor skein and finished it in no time. Laugh at me for my choice of fabric but I found it cute to use as a microwave oven cover. The border in the book was a different one, in rhombus shape but I found it difficult to count on the type of fabric I had chosen. So I had my own border.
Meanwhile I am also working on recycling my aunts sari. The fabric is poly cotton and I am hoping that it would be good.

Have a nice month ahead everyone!!!

DIY: Pistachio shells tea light holder

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It's days of Diwali celebrations in India and it's a tradition to exchange and gift dry fruits among other gifts. So while you are eating those pistachios, don't toss away those pistachio shells and instead make something beautiful out them. I and my kids made tea light holder from these shells. Here are the easy steps to do these.

 

Things you need corrugated cardboard, glue(fevicol), pistachio shells, tea lights, scissor, pencil.

• Cut out circle of about 4 inch diameter of cardboard. 
• Place the tea light at the center. Draw the rough outline of the tea light.

• Apply glue on the rim of the cardboard. Start sticking the pistachio shells upside down. The base should be inside towards the circle and the pointed end should be pointing out. Wait for at least 15 min to for it to dry.

 

• Start sticking the second round of the shells on the first round of shells.
•  Continue till you reach the penciled circle. And you are done!!

 

We did about four of these. My son insisted on coloring one, but it wasn't  pretty as the natural one.

 

Have a wonderful and happy Deepavali folks..... 

 

Fabric covered boxes

Hi friends, how are you all doing?

We all come across the cardboard boxes that comes along with packaging in our daily life. Few of us keep them for storing things instead of throwing them, isn't it? I use them usually to store my kids toys, blocks, receipts and all those petty things lying around.  For the boxes which are visible I wrap them with gift wrapping paper, and store documents, bills etc.,  While browsing through Pinterest I came across couple DIYs which involved fabric and boxes. I had few extra fabric left out from my dress, so I thought to give these boxes a new look. Here is the tutorials for the same. To add that extra charm, I wrapped them with jute twine. I was in that great DIY mood so up-cycled three boxes at a stretch. Hope this inspires you to do something on the world environment day.

Have a great weekend friends!!!

 

A small box to hold shampoos in the bathroom

 

 

A magazine holder

 

A small box to hold my cookbooks.

Recycled Jute Vase

I love Jute and to recycle anything possible. Having length of Jute twines at home made me to think of recycling a can into a vase. These cans were lying with me when we bought Fastrack watches last year.
Its super easy and only takes less than an hour.

Things you need :
1. Jute twines ( The length depends on the can)
2. Colorful yarn Pom Poms
3. Fevicol
4. Needle and thread.
5. Can(Tin or any material)

1. I started from the base of the can and worked way up to the top. Apply thick line of glue to the base/bottom of the can. Start sticking the jute twine. After sticking one round around the can, wait for five minutes for the glue to dry.

2. Apply glue in a thick line around the can and stick the twine close together. There should not be any gap.

3. After a couple of rounds of sticking, stich the pom pom to the twine and continue gluing and sticking.

4. Stich the pom pom at required interval and continue sticking,gluing till you reach the top.

5. Voila!! You are done..

I used pom pom because they are easy to create. You can try sticking other things like felt flowers, paper flowers, buttons or beads onto jute.

Since Jute and the color green make an excellent pair, I took a small bottle and placed some leaves and plants..

Linking this to ColoursDekor the-weekly-story-wk7
 

Shriman Shrimathi(Recycled pencil holder)

How do you spend quality time with your kids? One way is by crafting with them. Ask for your kid's ideas, execute them. This is about a recent craft activity done with elder 'P'. The detailed instructions are here .No matter how it's turns out they would always love to show off the end product. I love to see his face of satisfaction in the end.
We have done this with the kitchen paper rolls. Few activities like cutting the roll, drawing was done by me and the REST by elder 'P'.

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When I posted it on my blog and showed it to him, he was even more proud of it and enthusiastic to do more such activities -:). Good isn't it?
Linking this to Colours Dekor Weekly-story-wk-26

Wind Chime from Xylophone

Who doesn't like the tinkling sound of the wind chimes? When there is ample space and constant breeze I think you should hang a wind chime in your home.

                          

I recently came across a post Creative ways to re-use your old toys  from Swapna's blog The Mom Views.
I liked the idea of re-cycling the xylophone to a wind chime. Three of the bars from the xylophone had already come-off, but it could still be played with.  I wanted to try this idea so badly that I took off the remaining ones with children hardly noticing the missing xylophone -:). I tied it to the pergolas in the backyard.
It doesn't look great, but it keeps tinkling all day. That's what I love to hear..

Recycling old sarees

What better way to feel your mother's warmth than to make a quilt out of her sarees?
My mother is not fond of cotton sarees, like many people she feels that wearing it makes her to look fat. But it is inevitable in coastal Karnataka in hot summers. Old cotton sarees are in great demand in my native village. People there always want old cotton sarees, not to wear them but to sleep in them and mostly to make diapers for the new born babies.
I had couple of my mother's old torn sarees and one of mine. So I thought why not make a quilt out of it.
For this quilt I used three sarees, old duppatta, cotton threads.
Lay down two of the sarees and thoroughly press them so that there are no folds. This also helps in stitching.
Use the less torn one/ good looking one out side. Just put the second saree inside the first one.
Since the saree is too long, I didn't want the whole 5 m+, so I cut it to the required length. In this case I cut out the pallu part.
Use running stich along the width of the sarees to stitch them together. Here you can see a saree inside and outside of which you can see a balck saree with red border.

After stitching the above, I had to give them a border for two reasons.
1. I did n't like the uncomfortable zari border.
2. I wanted extra width to the normal saree width.
For this I had an old dupatta. So I cut it into half, made the two layers of the third saree(exactly of the same lengh and width of the dupatta) and stitched it as a border.

It almost took me a week, to stitch everything by hand.
End result is not perfect but it's warm and cozy...