the ReFab Diaries

So as we come up with crafts that we love, and that require only stuff that you probably already have in your home, I'll share them here.

1. Find a way to keep meaningful things around and functioning
2. Find resources for recycling cork
3. Keep it simple

Goals - Week 13:

• See the potential in waste
• Reduce recycling
• Remain hyper aware of how much packaging I generate

Stretch goal: keep upcycling! 
Read on for links to 40+ tutorials for upcycling common packaging items.

It's Sunday and I'm feeling nostalgic. Maybe it's seeing all my friends' (and cousins') children growing up and starting to look exactly like them! Anyway, I have albums of old photographs and negatives from a time when that's how we did things. 

And today I went looking for some ideas for "keeping" these things in a different way:

If you're trying give a little differently this holiday season, these ideas might work for you! They're easy DIYs, don't cost that much (time or money) and make meaningful, unique gifts for book lovers. Or friends who know that you're a book lover!

Sidenote: if you're worried about upcycling books, please read this.

1. A book planter. It can also be used as a vase and is much easier to make than you'd think. This is a great way to repurpose an outdated reference book.

2. A book clock. This is an elegant way to re-use a book with a beautiful hardback cover (and junky content). I'm always drawn to unusual colors and quirky titles.

3. Dress up gifts with bows made from book or magazine pages.

4. Or use book pages to roll your own beads and make simple bookmarks.

A couple of days ago, a friend sent me a message: "I have a ton of old tshirts that I don't want to throw out. Any upcycle ideas for me?" I was about to fire back links to lots of great ideas when I realized:

a. Most ideas for upcycling t-shirts involve seriously repurposing the shirts. In other words, some serious destruction followed by reconstruction.
b. Most ideas for upcycling t-shirts result in things women will like, use or wear. This friend is a man.
c. Most of the ideas are DIYs. My friend Jason is not about to sew himself... well... anything really.

My mom started collecting decorative plates when I was 12. Her collection adorns the top of the cabinets in her kitchen. And when I say collection, I mean 40+ plates. I have always been, at best, blind to them. At worst... well, not very nice about her dust collectors. But. I already know that when the time comes to choose what of hers to keep, I will choose a selection of her damned plates. So, in the spirit of imagining (and re-imagining) their future, this is a collection of ideas I really like.

It's a decorating rule-of-thumb: a coat of paint and new drawer handles = a complete makeover. Right? This is true of kitchen cabinets, dressers... doors of any sort. And it seems you can repurpose pretty much anything as a drawer pull. These are my 12 favorites (please click on each one to go to the complete tutorial)


1. Champagne corks


2. Alphabet blocks


3. Sewing machine bobbins


4. Vintage jewelry


5. Paintbrushes


6. Vintage car door handles / window winders


7. Nuts and bolts


9. Doll limbs (and head!)


10. Purse strap (or leather belt)


11. Plastic toys


12.  Vintage rulers or yardsticks

So. It feels appropriate to be posting a collection of marble upcycles. Because I've felt like I was losing mine this week. But I think they're regrouping.

Starting at the top...

1. The colors in these marble topped tables - the one at the top is perfectly sweet shop, don't you think? The one at the bottom is little more grown up, with it's earth tones.

2. A little sensory marble massage? Not just for kids I think!

3. This marble toothbrush storage idea is simple and proper old marbles would work just as well and look better I think! I also like the idea for paintbrushes, pens, flowers...

4. And finally, the marble fence idea. Not at all new, but there's a reason bloggers keep talking about it. It's a LOVELY idea! See examples and tutorials here, here and here.