Upcycling Archives - Page 3 of 31

arts and craft, autumn fall decor, Birdhouse, bloggers, DIY, Do It Yourself, Gift Ideas, gifts, Make It May, power tools, Tutorial, Upcycling

DIY Log Bird Feeder

Hello readers, I’m Larissa coming to share with you a nature-inspired DIY project. Today, we’ll learn how to create a special DIY Log Bird Feeder treat for our feathered friends. The best part is that this can be a family fun activity to do AND to give as a gift for anyone who loves bird watching.

DIY Log Bird Feeder

We are avid bird lovers in our home and were delighted when a friend of mine gave us this bird feeder made from a piece of firewood and rope. How easy is that?

What a delight it is to see our tree clinging birds (nuthatches, tufted titmice, and woodpeckers) come for a visit and see their excitement at the treat they’ve found, especially the birds that overwinter. Did you know that migratory birds will remember your home the next time they’re passing through and will come back again year after year if you continue to provide nourishment for them? It’s like a reunion each spring and winter. Fun!

So, let’s grab some materials and get ready to create a DIY log bird feeder!

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

a log (can be firewood) about 3-4″ diameter and 16″ long or as long as you like
1/4″ diameter rope
scissors
drill
1″ spade bit
5/16″ drill bit

Picking Your Log:

We are blessed to have a fireplace, so we always have a stash of firewood on hand. For your log, you can use a downed branch or head to your own stash to grab a piece of wood.

The tree-clingers prefer a chunky bark, but any tree variety will do.

Instructions:

Clamp your log and keep your hand clear from the drill bit. Wear appropriate eye protection.

To start, use a 1″ spade bit to drill a hole approximately 1/2″ deep, 2 inches down from the top.

Drill a second hole on the same face about 6″ below the first.

Roll the log a quarter turn and drill in the next face starting with the first hole about 5″ from the top and then a second hole 6″ below that one. (This does not have to be exact and gives a more rustic feel when randomly chosen.)

Repeat those steps until you have two sets of matching faces on opposing sides.

Drill your rope hole using a 5/16″ bit. Starting on the face that has the first hole 5″ down, drill your rope hole 2″ from the top, making sure to go completely through the log.

Cut a 2′ or longer piece of rope and thread it into the hole. If you turn the rope in the direction of the braid (counter-clockwise) while inserting it, that will help the rope go through smoothly.

Once through, tie the rope ends together using a basic knot.

On to the fun part! Birds burn a ton of protein flitting about, so they need to store up as much as they can. We prefer to use chunky peanut butter and then roll it in seeds like this.

Grab a tablespoon of peanut butter and place it in a bowl of birdseed.

Then sprinkle the peanut butter with seed.

After coating with the seed, press the mixture into the holes using the back of a spoon, or if you’re nutty like me (catch the pun?) it’s more fun to use your fingers.

The kids love this part!

You’re done and it’s ready to hang. Yay!

For a fun twist, and if you’re feeling handy, you could also add dowels for other species to be able to roost at each hole, but for this project I kept it simple.

Got questions? Please feel free to ask.

If you enjoyed this project, do pin and share!

Pin this project for later!

Liked this project? Then you’ll love these birdhouses:

May 4, 2020/6 Comments/by Larissa Prodigal Pieces

arts and craft, Crafts, DIY, kids art, Landscaping & Gardening, Summer, Upcycling

Kid-Friendly Craft: DIY Hummingbird Feeder

Happy Spring Everyone! What a difference a few weeks can make. Like many of you, I am grappling with the uncertainty of this challenging time. My children are now home with me every day, for the foreseeable future. In Seattle, life has completely changed. Almost everything is shut down, even playgrounds are closed at the moment. And so, I’ve been focused on creating little projects that my kids and I can do while stuck at home. Let’s talk about DIY Hummingbird Feeder.

I came across these DIY hummingbird feeders with jelly jars and was instantly inspired! I’ve had a hummingbird feeder on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time. I’m not sure why I never considered making my own instead. This turned out to be a very kid-friendly project and they even learned a little bit about hummingbirds.

The only issue was, I didn’t have jelly jars. So I improvised a bit and used these 1oz McCormick spice jars. I emptied out the contents and washed them out thoroughly. These little spice jars are the perfect size for those dainty hummingbirds.

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

1 oz Spice Jars or Jelly Jars
Jute Twine
Scissors
Goo Gone
Sugar and Water – (to make the hummingbird food, recipe below!)

Instructions:

Follow these steps to make your own hummingbird feeder.

Step 1: Prepare your spice jars

Thoroughly wash your spice jars and lids with hot, soapy water. You don’t want any lingering spice odors or tastes that will turn off potential hummingbirds. I also removed the stickers from the jars with a little goo gone.

McCormick spice jars have a lid with holes in it, covered by a snap-top. All you need to do is rip off the snap-top section, we don’t need it. Hummingbirds will use their long beaks to drink the nectar from each hole.

Step 2: Make Hummingbird Nectar

The recipe for making Hummingbird nectar couldn’t be easier. It’s just sugar water – but you need to know the correct ratio. Too much sugar can be harmful to hummingbirds and too little sugar doesn’t provide enough calories for them.

I followed the recipe from the Audubon website. It’s ¼ cup of refined white sugar and 1 cup of boiling water. Mix until the sugar dissolves. Cool the mixture and then fill your spice jars to the top. Now, just replace the lid with holes in it.

Step 3: Attach Jute Twine for Hanging

I used some jute twine to create a little loop for hanging. Tie your knots tight and make sure the lid is secure.

Now just hang it up somewhere outside and wait for those hummingbirds!

We haven’t had a visitor yet that I could photograph, but I know those hummingbirds are on the way.

Thanks so much for reading and being here today.

~ See More of Karen’s Tutorials ~

Hello! I’m Karen, the creator of the Home Decor and DIY Blog: Decor Hint. I’m a Native of the East Coast, but I currently live in beautiful Seattle with my hubby, our two wonderful children, and our spunky wheaten terrier.

You can usually find me with some sort of craft in one hand and a coffee in the other. And I’m always rearranging furniture or moving lamps from room to room. I have a passion (read: obsession) for decorating, DIY, and gardening. In short, I love making my house into a home.

Like many, I’m inspired by what I see in home decor magazines, but I’m not so inspired by the price tags. Consequently, I love finding and creating beautiful budget-friendly home decor items. In a head to head competition, I bet you’d never know the difference between the designer items and my DIY creations! Many of my DIY projects focus on sewing, crafting, upcycling and organizing. Some of my favorite projects have been making pretty wreaths, sewing my own tassel hand towels, and crafting these trendy wood bead garlands. I can’t wait to inspire you and spark your creativity through my DIY projects.

Liked this project? You’ll love this beautiful glass bottle hummingbird feeder using a bottle from the recycling bin.

Check out these DIY Hanging Beaded Vases for another upcycled craft!

April 22, 2020/1 Comment/by Karen Decor Hint

DIY, Home Decor, spray paint, thrifting, Upcycling

DIY Pedestal Kitchen Sponge Holder

Tired of your sponge or soap taking up valuable sink space in your kitchen? Turn thrifted or dollar store glassware into a functional DIY pedestal kitchen sponge holder that doubles as beautiful decor.

DIY Pedestal Kitchen Sponge Holder

It’s Amanda from Domestically Creative and I’m back with a new way to organize or declutter your kitchen sink space! If you are anything like me, you don’t like a lot of clutter sitting around your kitchen sink. Things like dish soap, hand soap, sponges, and dishcloths sitting around my kitchen sink drive me insane!

Unfortunately, you have to have them out to be easily accessible. I decided to make a pedestal sponge holder as a functional place to keep the sponge, dishcloth, and even hand soap (if you want). This holder also serves as a beautiful decor item too. It’s easy to make your own sponge holder from dollar store or thrift store items, let me show you how.

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Short candle holder (mine is from Dollar tree!)
Plate, tray or other piece as the top (mine is a thrifted find)
Glossy Spray Paint
Comfort Grip nozzle
Construction Adhesive
Caulk Gun

Instructions:

Step 1: Prep the surfaces for paint

Clean both pieces really well with soap and water, and let them dry completely. If either piece came from a thrift store, it may be extra dirty. Consider using a mild degreaser or Murphy’s Oil Soap first. Then clean well with regular soap and water. Don’t leave any sticky or greasy spots behind because the paint will not stick in the next step.

Step 2: Spray paint both pieces

Give each piece two to three coats of white spray paint. Using a high gloss paint gives the glass pieces a Milk Glass look.

Tips for Even Spray Painting:

Paint outdoors on a calm, mild day, or use a painting tent to protect the wet pieces from debris and bugs.
Keep the nozzle 12-15” away from the surface you are painting.
Spray in short, even, horizontal lines across the surface, working top to bottom. The burst of spray should start and end just slightly off the sides of the object being painted.
Avoid drips by doing multiple light coats, allowing the paint to dry between coats.

Step 3 – Attach pieces together

Before doing this step, it is very important that both pieces are completely dry and the paint is cured.

Use construction adhesive to attach the base to the top. To do this, place the plate or tray face down on a flat even surface. Using the caulk gun, add a small amount of construction adhesive to the top of the candle holder. Place the candleholder adhesive side down onto the bottom of the plate or tray.

Hold a small amount of pressure on the candle holder for about a minute. Let the adhesive dry for about 24 hours before using your new DIY pedestal sponge holder.

Use your new pedestal stand to keep your sponge and dishcloth in the kitchen and clear up some of that sink space!

You could make one of these pedestal stands for a bathroom or to hold jewelry on your dresser top! It doesn’t just have to hold sponges, the possibilities are endless. I plan to make one for our guest bath to hold a few mason jars we have cotton balls and Q-tips in. It could also serve as a place to keep soap.

What would you use one of these DIY Pedestal Kitchen Sponge Holder stands for in your home?

Don’t forget to pin this to save for later!

I’m Amanda, and I am the creator and voice behind the food and DIY blog, Domestically Creative. What started as a place to share updates with friends and family after we moved from Illinois to Tennessee and then to Texas, turned into a passion for finding creative and frugal ways to feed us and decorate our homes.

I have always had the “make it myself” attitude and I’m not afraid to bust out the power tools or get creative when it comes to decorating our home on a budget. You can usually find me scouring the local thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales looking for my next makeover (like this litter box cabinet), or dreaming up ways to make our new house feel more like home. My most recent project was giving my home office a much needed facelift. Some of the plans included creating a fun inspirational accent wall and adding pegboard to store my craft hoards.

I currently call Missouri home, where I live with my husband, dog, and 2 cats in a pretty dull, late 90’s split level. My husband and I both love to travel the U.S and recently purchased a small travel trailer to tag along in our journeys. In our free time together we can usually be found working together on a home project, exploring a new place, or just lounging with our pup, Delilah.

I’d love for you to connect with me on social media via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter!

See all of Amanda’s tutorials HERE.

February 12, 2020/0 Comments/by Domestically Creative

DIY, Upcycling

DIY Dog Treat Container from a Popcorn Tin

Take that old popcorn or cookie tin you may have received for Christmas and upcycle it into a fancy new DIY dog treat container in no time! Not only will your pup love you for it, but your wallet will be happy too!

How to Upcycle a Popcorn Tin into a Dog Treat Container

Hey Pretty Handy Girl readers! It’s Amanda from Domestically Creative and today I’m sharing how easy it is to create a unique and customizable dog treat container by upcycling a used cookie or popcorn tin! I have a 10 year old lab who is very spoiled to put it mildly, and she may have a few packages of treats taking up space in our hall closet. We also keep our coats in that closet, and since it’s Winter here we’ve been reaching for our coats more often. Well, every time we go for our coats, Miss Delilah thinks that we are getting her a treat. See the issue?

Instead of continuing to trip over the dog when we grab our coats, I decided to create a new place to keep her treats. It just so happens we had this little popcorn tin lying around after the holidays, and it fits her treats perfectly. Let me show you how I upcycled it into a new dog treat container.

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Empty metal tin with lid
Black Satin Spray Paint
White Satin Spray Paint (Black and white were used in this tutorial but any color combination works)
Comfort Grip nozzle (this is a game changer if you use spray paint a lot)
Design cut onto vinyl, or Alphabet stickers

Instructions:

Step 1: Prep the surface

Clean the tin inside and out really well and let it dry completely. If there is a food label anywhere on your tin, make sure you clean it off completely. Soak it in warm soapy water for a few hours, then come back and scrape off any glue and paper. If there is some hard to clean off residue from the sticky label, Goo Gone or lemon oil works great at getting it off. Just be sure to really clean the oil residue off before moving on to the next step.

Step 2: Spray Paint base color

Spray both the tin and the lid in the base color of your choice. In this tutorial that base color is black as this will be the color of the design in the final project.

Tips for Even Spray Painting:

Spray paint outdoors on a calm day (not too hot or cold) or use a painting tent to protect from any bugs or debris blowing onto the wet paint.
Make sure to keep the nozzle about 12-15” away from the surface you’ll be painting.
Spray in short, even, and quick horizontal lines across the surface, starting at the top and working your way down. The burst of spray should start and end just slightly off the sides of the object you are painting.
Don’t try to get total coverage on the first pass, that is how drips occur.
Let the paint dry completely in between coats and before handling or moving.

Step 3: Add the design

After the base color has dried and cured completely, add a vinyl label of your choice. You can do this by cutting out removable vinyl on a Silhouette or Circuit machine, or you can buy Alphabet stickers and use those. Either method will work, but it’s important to use removable vinyl or stickers. Do not use permanent vinyl unless you plan to skip the next steps.

Place the stickers or vinyl design onto the dog treat container and smooth out any bubbles to make sure the label completely adheres to the tin. Any edges that aren’t down all the way could let paint seep underneath in the next step.

Step 4: Spray paint top color

Give the dog treat container a coat of white spray paint, following the tips above in step 2. It will probably take 2-3 coats to get good coverage. Let the paint dry completely before moving to the next step.

Step 5: Remove the vinyl design or stickers

Gently peel the vinyl or stickers from the dog treat container. I’ve found that using tweezers to grab an edge can be helpful to get the process started.

Fill up your brand new dog treat container with your pup’s favorite treats and pop the lid back on to keep them fresh! Now you’ve got a stylish new container that costs next to nothing to create.

Delilah has quickly learned the sound of me removing the lid to her dog treat container and is by my side in an instant. She can even be awakened from a deep sleep by the sound! Funny that she can’t hear me yelling her name when she’s decided to take herself on a walk around the neighborhood.

I’m Amanda, and I am the creator and voice behind the food and DIY blog, Domestically Creative. What started as a place to share updates with friends and family after we moved from Illinois to Tennessee and then to Texas, turned into a passion for finding creative and frugal ways to feed us and decorate our homes.

I have always had the “make it myself” attitude and I’m not afraid to bust out the power tools or get creative when it comes to decorating our home on a budget. You can usually find me scouring the local thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales looking for my next makeover (like this litter box cabinet), or dreaming up ways to make our new house feel more like home. My most recent project was giving my home office a much needed facelift. Some of the plans included creating a fun inspirational accent wall and adding pegboard to store my craft hoards.

I currently call Missouri home, where I live with my husband, dog, and 2 cats in a pretty dull, late 90’s split level. My husband and I both love to travel the U.S and recently purchased a small travel trailer to tag along in our journeys. In our free time together we can usually be found working together on a home project, exploring a new place, or just lounging with our pup, Delilah.

I’d love for you to connect with me on social media via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter!

See all of Amanda’s tutorials HERE.

January 13, 2020/1 Comment/by Domestically Creative

Aged, arts and craft, Before and After, decor, DIY, Furniture, Goodwill, painting, Painting & Antiquing Techniques, spray paint, Spray paint metal, thrifting, Upcycling

How to Create a Faux Zinc Texture (with Spray Paint)

Want to give something the look of zinc metal without spending money on zinc metal? You can create the look with spray paint and this technique.

How to Create a Faux Zinc Texture (with Spray Paint)

A while ago I was thrifting with a few friends and stumbled across an ugly cabinet at our local Goodwill. The metal chest had extra wide and deep storage, but the worst colors imaginable! The hot pink and mint green were disguising the true potential of the chest. Like a color-blind dog, I was able to see beyond its garish appearance. In my mind, I pictured a vintage metal cabinet with a faux zinc side and chalkboard drawer fronts.

I scooped it up and brought it home. Then the poor chest sat in our garage for months and months until I had a chance to work a little spray paint magic and turned it into….this thing of beauty:

Yes, that is the same chest of drawers! You could do the same transformation. Let’s learn How to Create a Faux Zinc Texture!

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Gray Automotive primer
Rust-oleum metallic hammered metal spray paint (silver)
Craft paper
Painter’s Tape
Rubber gloves
White chalk

Instructions:

Clean off your furniture piece really well. Remove any dirt or debris (I actually had to use a little Goo Gone to get rid of some sticky residue. But, lemon essential oil will also work for this task.)

Spray paint your object with automotive primer. (I prefer the automotive primer because it sticks to metal and can withstand a lot of abuse.)

Let the primer dry.

Adding a Faux Zinc Texture:

This is the most exciting part of the tutorial. I created this technique by trial and error and I’m excited by how well this method works for creating a faux zinc texture.

Getting a faux zinc texture is really easy. Just have some gloves on and use a crumpled up piece of craft paper. (A loose crumple works best.)

Spray paint your object with a thick coat of the hammered silver spray paint, (but not so thick that it runs). Let the paint get tacky by waiting a few seconds.

Then use the crumpled piece of craft paper to blot into the wet paint.

Work in small 1 foot sections and pounce the paper a few times. (Too much pouncing and you’ll lose the large textured pattern.)

Let the paint dry thoroughly. Then enjoy your beautiful faux zinc paint job!

Chalkboard Painted Metal Drawers:

For my cabinet, I chose to paint the drawer fronts with chalkboard paint for a nice contrast.

Remove the drawers from the chest. Tape over the drawer glides and slides. Mask off the drawer sides and insides by covering the drawers with tape and craft paper, leaving only the drawer fronts exposed.