07/01-07/18/2012

07/01/2012 -Rubber Band Headband
July 1st was a busy day for me. I worked all day then rushed home to get ready for my hubby to take me out for my wonderful birthday dinner. I didn't think I would want to work on anything after my hot date, so I did this project in the car ride to the restaurant. I cut 1/4" segments along the width of the tube. (If you are in a pinch and need rubber bands and have an inner tube, just cut the size you want by cutting through the width of the tube.) Then started pulling one band through the other to connect them together. I don't know how to describe the process, but when I got to the end I had to use a long strip to tie the ends together.

07/02-06/2012 - Really Big Inner Tube Basket
This is an offshoot from my 12 basket project for my sister-in-law. I love this giant size (2'x3') but the frame was too weak to support the rubber. This will be revisited with a stronger frame. Well, revisited four times since four baskets are needed.






07/07/2012 - Zoe's Lacey Skirt
This is another adult sized skirt that was stuck in with fabric at a fabric pricing party at SCRAP a few months prior. Zoe, of course, looks adorable wearing it. It reminds me of a girly steampunk skirt and I want to make a matching fitted vest and little top hat to go with it.

07/08/2012 - Practice Rubber Wrist Cuff
Wrist cuffs seem to be my "go to" craft. I think it was the first of my daily crafts. I made a practice cuff to lead a craft for Destination DIY's "Makin' It" Event on July 18th.


 

07/09-12/2012 - Camping Roll Slings
We have those wonderful self-inflating bed roll mattress thingies. The problem is containing them when not in use. I created a yoga mat-type sling to carry them and keep them together, out of, yes, you guessed it, rubber inner tubes. There are some kinks to be worked out, but I was happy with how they turned out. I got them done in time for out family camping trip.




07/13/2012 -Beer Can Lantern
Considering I freehand cut this lantern with a camping knife it didn't turn out too shabby. The ribbon I hung it from didn't seem like a good idea to combine with a citronella candle though.





07/14/2012 - Glow Bottle
I had read on Pinterest comment that you could make a glow bottle by opening a glow stick and pouring it in a water bottle filled with water. WRONG! I emptied about 6 glow sticks into a half filled water bottle before I finally gave up. All I could think of was those funny "nailed it" memes when people try to copy things from Pinterest. No photo of the lameness, but my sister-in-law did a hilarious thing where she taped glow sticks to herself to look like a stick figure lady. When it got really dark we walked around the campground cracking people up.

07/15/2012 - Rubber Wrist Cuffs
I was pretty pooped after getting home from our trip and made a simple rubber cuff to use as a sample for the Makin' It DIY event.







07/16/2012 - Wooden Bracelets
Another Pinterest attempt. I like how these turned out for the most part, but the white one didn't keep it's shape so it is too big to wear. I started the soaking process before the camping trip. Here are the instructions to give it a try: Wooden Bracelets.





07/17-18/2012 - More Wrist Cuffs 

I made a couple more examples of cuffs and led a quick tutorial at the Makin' It DIY event on the 18th. I didn't realize until a couple weeks later and had it pointed out by someone that this is not the peace symbol I intended. It was a big "duh" moment that I was showcasing an upcycled rubber cuff promoting the Mercedes Benz logo.

04/12/2012 - Starbucks Pin

This was part of an experiment for a college classmate who was looking for a Starbucks themed gift for someone. I haven't done a resin bottle cap in a while so I created this diorama-like pin.

Reclaimed Material: bottle cap, coffee sleeve, aluminum logo, lapel pin
Other Material: modeling clay, resin, clear nail polish
Tools: scissors, safety pin, jewelry pliers, glue, green paint pen

How I did it: The first step I did was to cut out the coffee sleeve to fit inside the bottle cap and cut the logo from an aluminum can. I glued the cardboard circle, corrugated side up inside the bottle cap, then glued the logo in place. I used the paint pen to paint over the outside of the bottle cap. While the paint dried, I modeled the coffee cup to fit (shhh...don't tell Zoe I used some of her modeling clay for this project) and glued it inside the cap. The tip of the paint pen was to fat, so I used the safety pin as a paint brush of sorts to paint on a semblance of the S-bucks logo. I didn't actually set the resin until the next day since it was too late to go to the store when I decided to do this. I mixed a small amount of resin in an old container and poured it into the bottle cap and let it set. After the resin set, I painted over it with a couple coats of clear nail polish. I glued the old lapel pin to the back of the bottle cap using an epoxy glue to make sure the metals would stick together.

What I would do differently: I poured the resin outside near the end of a beautifully sunny day and didn't pay attention to the quick shower that blew in...I should have known better since I have lived in Oregon close to a year now. A drop of  rain got in the resin before it was fully set, so that little bit didn't set right, which why I ended up covering it with a few coats of nail polish. This would be fun to make little scenes in the bottle caps.

02/04/2012 - Pull Tab Cuff

I was determined to make this bracelet work. I wouldn't call this exactly a successful project, but it is the general idea of what I wanted to accomplish. From what I understand, aluminum cannot be soldered and I believe welding a small aluminum tab would just melt it, so I am on a quest to find a way to hold these pieces together and super glue was just my temporary solution.

Reclaimed Material: aluminum pull tab
Other/New Material: none 
Tools: super glue, (2) pliers, patience

How I did it: I took 8 pull tabs from cat food cans and made sure they were clean and bend down the jagged part on the bottom hole. I began by overlapping two tabs with the bottom overlapping, using super glue in between the tabs, then overlapping the top over a new tab, super gluing, etc. After the super glue set, I put the strip of tabs over my wrist to determine where to bend it to fit. I clamped a pair of pliers on one side of the hole where I wanted to bend the piece and the second pair of pliers on the other side of the hole and slowly bent the aluminum and continued this in the sections needed to fit my wrist. To be quite honest, I was very impatient with this and did not give the super glue enough to fully set and the tabs popped away from each other when I first started bending them by hand.
 
What I would do differently: I am determined to find a solution to melting this tabs together other than using caustic glue which really is not a great solution because it can break apart. Using the pliers scuffed up the aluminum, which could be good if I want a weathered look.

01/27/2012 - Aluminum Flower Hair Pins

This is an easy and cute way to snazz up bobby pins or old barrettes.

Reclaimed Material: aluminum can, beads from SCRAP, old wire
Other/New Material: bobby pins
Tools: small flower punch, straight pin

How I did it: I used the flower shaped craft to punch out four flowers from the aluminum, two blue and two silver. I put one blue flower over a silver one and used the straight pin to poke holes in the centers of the flowers. Then I cut a piece of the wire about 2" and threaded the bead onto the wire and pulled the two ends of the wire through the centers of both flowers. I wrapped the wire around one side of the bobby pin, trimmed the excess and tucked in the edges. I repeated it the steps with the second bobby pin.

What I would do differently: I thought I was being clever by reusing a piece of wire from a string of beads I purchased, but this only made this project take about 10x longer than it should have. I was happy to reuse wire, but I would have saved myself a lot of time by using jewelry wire which is more pliable. I will try this again using other shapes and material like colored plastic bits from lids or laundry soap bottles.

01/21/2012 - Aluminum Wrist Cufflet

I don't know if the proper term for this is "cuff" or "cufflet" so I will go with cufflet because it sounds fancier. The black fabric is sexy fabric I found at SCRAP, one of my favorite places in Portland. They take donations of scrap material from businesses and individuals and resell it to fund their school and community programs. The place is an artist's/teacher's/crafter's/garbage picker's (me) dream come true. I am going next week to start my volunteer training, hooray!

Recycled Material: aluminum can, SCRAP fabric, old ribbon
Other Material: decorative brads
Tools: scissors, ruler, X-acto knife, Crop-A-Dile, double-sided tape, rubber electrical tape

How I did it: I cut the top and bottom off the aluminum can then cut a vertical line to open the can body. There is usually a line down the side of the can by the nutritional information and the print overlaps that I use as a guide to cut a straight line. I cut the can body so it was about 3.25" in height and left the length of the can, about 8" to fit my wrist. I marked the aluminum horizontally down the center .5" apart for placement of the brads, used the X-acto to poke little horizontal notches on the marks, and inserted the brads. I used the electrical tape to hold the brads in place on the back of the aluminum. I folded the top and bottom of the aluminum down towards the front a little less than .5", but did not press the aluminum all the way down until the fabric was attached. I cut the fabric 2 inches larger than the aluminum to have room for the edging. I lined the double-sided tape under the aluminum fold, taking care to make sure none would be sticking out from under the fold. I tucked one edge of the fabric under the fold so the back of the fabric stuck to the tape then wrapped the fabric over the back of the aluminum. I applied the double-stick tape to the bottom fold and then trimmed down the fabric a bit to make sure the fabric would be flush with the fold when I tucked it under the aluminum. I pressed the folds flat with my hands, but pliers can be used, which helped hold the fabric in place and to make sure it adhered to the tape.

The short ends of the cuff were too thick to fold so I used the rubber electrical tape to cover the edges. I used the Crop-A-Dile to punch 3 holes and set 3 eyelets on each end of the bracelet. The final thing I did was to lace the bracelet like a corset (or shoe, but corset sounds saucier) and tie it off. 

What I would do differently: My original plan was to try to stitch the fabric to the aluminum, but I got sidetracked watching Wall•E with my family and ended up making it by hand. I still need to experiment sewing on aluminum, so that will have to happen with another project. There seem to be many things I would have done differently with this project. I don't think it was necessary to do the fold down, other than it give the fabric and tape a stronger hold. I need to use a better eyelet next time, but I used up the ones I had left. The ribbon does seem like overkill for this bracelet, so I will most likely change it out regardless. I chose the blue fabric scrap to pull out little accents of clue from the fabric, but the piece I ended up cutting didn't have blue on it.

01/19/2012 - Pop Tab Bowl

I was curious to see if I could make a little change or jewelry bowl by weaving pop tabs together. This took me much longer than I thought it would and didn't quite turn out how I pictured it in my mind. I guess this could also be used as a doll hat instead.


Recycled Material: aluminum pop tabs
Other Material: ribbon
Tools: scissors, small safety pin, long nosed pliers


How I did it: I began by weaving the bottom row of tabs together then added another row by using the ribbon to weave the bottom of the second row of tabs to the tops of the first row (I will create a detailed instruction page with photos on how to weave pop tabs at a later date). I then pulled the ends of the ribbon to form a circle with the woven tabs and tied the ribbon off. I thought about stopping there and just making a flower brooch, but I would have just wondered...what could have been, so I kept going. For the third row, I used the pliers to bend the tabs in half between the top and the bottom then used the ribbon to attach it to the second row. I added three more rows, tying off the ribbon as I completed each row.

What I would do differently: I think my vision would have come to life if I used wire so that I could have shaped the bowl better. The ribbon is too soft to hold the shape very well. I may try soldering tabs into a bowl and see what happens. I also thought about turning this into a tulip somehow since that is what it looks like to me.

01/18/2012 - Tic Tac Toe Game

Sometimes things "speak to me" and this aluminum tray from a package of frozen bread seemed to be screaming to me "I want to be a tic tac toe game! I want to be a tic tac toe game!" This was fun to make and is on the refrigerator now for my family to enjoy.

Recycled Material: aluminum tray, game pieces
Other Material: round magnets, magnet sheet 
Tools: hot glue gun, multi-purpose glue


How I did it: I had some printable magnet sheets left over from a project from a few years ago and cut one of the sheets down to fit the back of this tray. I used the multi-purpose glue to affix the magnet sheet to the back of the aluminum. (Hot glue and aluminum do not play well together.) I used 10 checkers pieces (5 of each color) and hot glued a round magnet to the back of each of the game pieces. I let the magnets cool/dry and stuck it on the fridge.

What I would do differently: I have a stash of random game pieces so I used the checkers pieces, but this would be just as fun using bottle caps, milk tops or other plastic caps. I left the edge on the aluminum for easy storage for the pieces when it was taken off the fridge since the back magnet was too weak to hold the checker magnets.

01/17/2012 - Aluminum Animal Sculpture

My sweet grandmother-in-law, Betty June, showed me a picture of a sculpture she saw in a magazine of a horse made from a steel drum. She asked me to try to make something like it, so this is my rendition of it.

Recycled Material: aluminum tray
Other Material: none 
Tools: scissors


How I did it: The aluminum that I used was a mini loaf pan. I loosely folded the pan in half lengthwise being careful not to crease it. I pinched one side of the pan down for the head then cut the opposite side to make a tail. I cut up to what would have been the base of the loaf pan if it was still intact. I cut it a little bit wider than the end product to fold down to avoid sharp aluminum edges. I estimated the leg placement and cut it so there was enough aluminum to wrap the legs in a semi-cylinder. I also left extra aluminum to fold the edges along the body. I cut out the head shape on the pinched section of aluminum. After folding down all the sharp edges I made the legs then had to make sure the body kept it shape by loosely using my hands. I bent the front leg of the horse because it was not even with the rest.

What I would do differently: If I do try something like this again, I will use aluminum from a soda can because the pan aluminum is thinner and wrinkled. I think an elephant would be fun to try. 

01/14/2012 - Pop Tab Stretchy Bracelet

Again, I am going to toot my own horn about my pop tab prowess...after working with thousands and thousands of these things, I have figured out a few tips that will make working with them much easier.

1. Make sure you wash them. If you have a large quantity, just throw them in a bucket of soapy water, rinse and spread out on a towel to dry.
2. If you are taking them off the can, push the tab back and forth so there is a clean break from the piece that attaches it to the can. Trust me, this will save you time later and you won't have to remove these pieces.
3. If you have tabs that were pulled from the can and have either the whole piece of the can connector (this piece is usually square with a circle punched in it) or sharp edges from the connector, they need to be removed. This can be done with a pair of clippers or pliers by either snipping of the piece or using the pliers to bend the connector piece back and forth to make a clean(ish) break.
4. The bottom part of the back side of tab my still have sharp edges. You can try flattening it with pliers - but this could leave marks on the front of the tab. Whenever possible make sure the back of the bottom part of the tab is covered with something (ribbon, cloth, another tab with the back sides facing) if you are going to wear the piece you are making from the tabs.

Recycled Material: aluminum pop tabs 
Other Material: beads, clear stretchy jewelry cord
Tools: scissors

How I did it: This bracelet has 24 pop tabs so I made sure that they were prepared as recommended above. I took two tabs and placed the with the back sides facing together and looped the stretchy cord a couple times and tied a knot on the left side of the bottom hole of the tabs to hold it in place. This is the first time I have used this stretchy cord and I think it is absolutely annoying. The wraps holding the tabs together kept coming loose and the tabs would get all mixed up on a string on clear cord. I have made this style bracelet many times, but always used ribbon until now. After the cord was secure I suspended a bead on the cord in the middle of the bottom hole then wrapped the cord around the right side of the bottom tab a couple times then tied a knot. I found that if you stretch this cord as you are knotting it, it will hold much better. The next thing that I did was to get two new tabs and repeat the process. The only difference is that I did wrap the cord around the left side of the bottom hole of 2nd set of tabs, but didn't knot it. I pulled the cord so that both sets of tabs were flush then wrapped the cord twice around the bottom right side of the first set and bottom left of the second. Since the tabs kept getting loose because the top was not yet secured, I used a couple clothespins to hold them together. I repeated the steps of suspending the bead and wrapping the cord. I did this for 12 sets then tied off the end, but did not close the bracelet at that time. You don't have to use 12 sets of pop tabs, you can make it as big or small as you need it. If I am making something for myself, I always try to put is on as I go along to get an idea of size....measuring is an ever smarter idea. I repeated the entire process for the top set of holes on the pop tabs. The last thing I did was tied the two ends together - top hole to top hole, bottom hole to bottom hole. I was paranoid about the cord coming loose so I must tied about six knots on both the top and bottom then trimmed the excess cord.

What I would do differently: I need to look up tips on working with this stretchy cord because there must be a smarter way to use it. I do like the stretchiness of the cord (obviously) and its transparency. In the future, I will probably weave a ribbon through the top while I am securing the bottom or vice versa to hold it in place. It also looks like I have an obsession with red beads...so I need to diversify.

01/08/2012 - Aluminum Ring Box

I was inspired to make this by an old (probably at least 40 year old) aluminum cookie tin my grandmother-in-law has.

Recycled Material: aluminum can
Other Material: none
Tools: long nose pliers, scissors and/or knife

How I did it: My aversion to patterns kicked in with this project and I just started cutting. First I made sure the can was rinsed out - nothing worse than a sticky soda can...well, there are worse things, but sticky cans are not any fun. I used a knife to saw the can as close to the top as I could. The first side you cut off is easy because it is still stiff, but once the top is cut off, the can gets flimsy and it is easier to just cut the rest with scissors. I used scissors to cut the aluminum straight down to the bottom the cut the bottom off as close to the edge as I could get. I then had a lovely sheet of aluminum to work with, but I trimmed the edges because they were kind of sharp. WARNING: in case you have not worked with cutting cans before, aluminum can get very sharp when cut and can splinter off and can be worse that wood splinters to get out of your fingers. I then started folding, cutting and tucking where the pieces seemed like they should go.

What I would do differently: Sometimes I can picture how I want something to turn out in my mind and it works out beautifully--this was not one of those times. I like the idea of this project much more than how it actually turned out so I will try it again somewhere along the line, except I will make and use a pattern. Also, I got too aggressive with the pliers when I was turning the edges down causing pieces of the aluminum to break off. While I am on the subject of aluminum and it's apparent daintiness, aluminum does not like hot glue. I have tried it on past projects and it just melts right through aluminum.

01/07/2012 - Cut Aluminum Bracelet

I consider myself to be an expert in matters related to pop tabs (trashy fashions) but this is the first time I have tried changing the tabs themselves.

Recycled Material: aluminum pop tabs
Other Material: beads, jewelry wire, bracelet closure
Tools: long nose pliers

How I did it: I snipped off the bottoms of the pop tabs but left about a and 1/8" overhand to bend over so that it turned the top of the tab into a "D" shape. I cut 14 tabs like this, then paired them up with the flat ends facing and looped jewelry wire around each pair 3 times. I did this somewhat loosely to give it a little movement. After those were done, I connected the pairs with a piece of jewelry wire with a bead on it. I only wrapped the wire around the aluminum tab once and then wrapped it tightly twice so it was tight between the bead and aluminum. Lastly, I added the jewelry closure.

What I would do differently: Next time I cut aluminum, I need to pay better attention to using pliers on them. The aluminum is so soft that the pliers left small marks on the fronts of the tabs. It kind of worked with this bracelet and gave it more character. Also, I just have the closure set to hook onto the last tab piece. Next time or if I feel the need I will add a loop for the closure. It works, but I think it does not look as finished.

01/04/2012 - Aluminum Tab Ring

These bigger aluminum tabs are from the tops of cat food cans and I thought they would be interesting to use for projects because of the gold-ish color. I ended up using more beads that I intended so it is not as much recycled content as I wanted but I am happy with how it turned out.

Recycled Material: aluminum tabs from cat food cans
Other Material: transparent green beads, jewelry wire
Tools: long nose pliers with clippers

How I did it: The first thing I did with the tabs was to make sure there were no sharp or ragged edges on the part that gets pulled of the can lid. I arranged 5 tabs so that the bottoms overlapped (when working with tabs I refer to the tops as the smooth side that is pulled and the bottoms as the part that is attached to cans) and arranged the tops like flower petals and wrapped copper-colored wire around the 5 bottoms to hold them in place. I used one long piece of wire and then strung (stringed?) 10 beads on the same wire used to hold the tabs in place. Then made a circle with the bead/wire to cover the bottoms of the tabs and wrapped the excess wire every 2 or 3 beads to attach it to the tab bottoms. Next I took another tab and used the pliers to snip off the bottom leaving about 1/8" to bend so that I had an oval and no jagged edges. Then I attached the oval ring on top of the other tabs and the beads, again using the same piece of wire. I ran out of my long piece of wire at this point and used a new piece and strung 5 beads and again circled them to cover the oval ring then pulled the wire down the center and pulled it around on two opposite sides. With the remaining wire I pulled it down the center again and wrapped it around the other pieces of wire to hold it and tucked the end in with the pliers so it wouldn't poke out. For the final step I strung one bead and bent the wire so I could pull the two ends down the center. Then I wrapped one end in a circle three times for the ring base. I used my finger as a guide for sizing. Then I wrapped the two ends between the base and the top, again tucking in the ends.

What I would do differently: First of all, I need to practice my wiring, beading and jewelry making, but overall I am happy with how this turned out.