Showing posts with label upcycle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label upcycle. Show all posts

Friday, September 30, 2011

Tutorial: Upcycled Fridge Organizer

For the past year, I have been sitting on this couch with a view directly into the kitchen.  Not such a bad thing, especially since I love to cook and bake.  What is a bad thing?  My direct view of my overly-cluttered fridge.  I keep seeing it, and thinking "ugh, I have got to fix that."  Here's my direct view:

 Ew.  I hate clutter, and my fridge screamed "AHHH THERE'S TOO MUCH STUFF ON ME!!"  I couldn't stand it anymore, so today I decided to do something about it!  I didn't want to spend any money, though, so I decided to upcycle :)

Get your stuff:
-Empty snack food boxes
-Spray adhesive
-Scissors
-Magnet roll
-Paper
 First, cut the flaps off the top of your box.  Then, trace your box onto the paper.  I wanted to roll it around the edges of my box so it was as close to seamless as possible.  I made sure to leave a little overlap on the sides, and I traced where the edges were so I can line them up.
 I also made sure there was a little to wrap over the edge at the top.  You can see that it didn't totally cover the box, so I cut one more side panel to cover it.  On the bigger box, I had to cut 2 sides at a time.  Also, I cut a panel to cover the bottom of the box. 

 Next, I used the stencils to stencil "bills" onto one box and "misc" onto the other.  I figure that about covers the majority of what clutters up my fridge front!  Once again, stenciling while taking a picture is not easy. 
 So here are my boxes post-paper and paint:
 Next I cut strips of the magnet (the kind with the self-adhesive on the back) to fit across the box back so it will work on the fridge.  I cut one strip for the top of each box and one strip for the bottom of each, just to make sure it was strong enough to hold.

 So here is my fridge, sans clutter!  I also took a small tin that H had lying around and put paper around the sides and the lid with a magnet on the back to hold all the purple magnetic words so it's a little cleaner.
 Here's the close-up of my upcycled fridge organizers!  Turned out so good, and best part?  FREE!
Breakdown time:
Boxes and tin: Free (well, I mean, I paid for the food that was in them...)
Magnet roll: Had it
Spray adhesive: Had it
Paper: Had it

Total cost for these nice new fridge organizers that match our kitchen decor:  FREE!!!  :)  Gotta love that!

Now I don't hate looking at my fridge so much--what a good feeling! 
So go ahead and give it a try!  Let me know how yours turn out!

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Saturday, September 17, 2011

Tutorial: Upcycled Cookie Sheet to Message Holder

Confession:  I have ugly pans.
Burnt, stained, tarnished, ugly pans.
But we're just starting out creating our family and our home, so that's totally okay.  Unfortunately, when the finish starts to come off on your food, it's time to get new ones, no matter what stage of life you're in.  No bueno.

What to do with the old pans, though?
I saw an idea on Pinterest but their pan was shiny and new-looking.  Mine was...well, ugly.  There's really no nice way to say it.  So how could I take this basic idea and make it even better, so that my not-so-shiny and new-looking pan would still work?

I do love paint...

So today's tutorial is how to upcycle a cookie sheet into a magnetic message holder.  If you don't need to cover up an ugly cookie sheet, go check out this pin (and while you're there, follow me on Pinterest!), but if you want to find a new use for an ugly old pan, check out my tutorial.

First, get your materials:
-Cookie sheet
-Scrapbook paper
-Spray adhesive
-Spray paint (for a primer)
-Contact paper
-Colored paint (not pictured)
-Painter's tape (not pictured)

 See how ugly my pan is?  It's soooo ready to be upcycled!  The first thing I did was clean my pan using steel wool to make sure the primer will adhere to the pan.  Make sure it's really dry before you paint it, or else your pan may reject the paint.  Then I primed my pan with white spray paint.  Once it dried I sprayed it with spray adhesive and attached my scrapbook paper.  **Make sure you do all of this outside or in a very well-ventilated area--outside is best because the spray adhesive will make everything it lands on very sticky**  I didn't take pics of these steps because they seem pretty self-explanatory.  Here is my pan after it's been primed and papered:
 Next, I used painters tape to tape off the edges--I wanted to do the inside sides one color and the outside edge another to create a double frame.  If you want to do it just one color, you don't really need the tape.  Anyway, I taped off the edges and painted the inside sides deep red (our kitchen is black and white, but our livingroom that connects is red, so I wanted to tie them together).
 I did 2 coats of red paint to make sure it was evenly covered.  Once it was all totally dried, I peeled off the tape and painted the top edge black.  See how pretty it all looks together!
I plan on using my board to hold recipe cards, coupons, grocery lists, etc. and want to hang it above my counter.  We tend to get a little messy, so I thought it would be a good idea to cover the paper with contact paper, that way if it gets splashed with anything it can easily be wiped off without ruining the paper.

Next, measure out the inside of the pan so you can properly cut the contact paper.  You'll want to note if your corners are square or rounded, because you'll need to cut the contact paper to fit the corners.  Carefully smooth on the contact paper so you don't have any bubbles or wrinkles.
 I'm going to use 3M removeable mounts to hang this on the wall, but here it is sitting on the counter.  With a couple magnets, it will hold your recipe cards, coupons, reminders, notes, etc. and it can be done basically free or super cheap (depending on your stock of crafting supplies)

Here's the breakdown: 
Pan = already had it
Paper = $0.50 ($0.25/page x 2 pages to cover my pan)
Spray adhesive = $5.99 (but will be used on a million other projects)
Paints = already had them
Contact paper = already had it
Magnets = already had them

Total cost of a "new" kitchen magnet board: $6.49

Success!  So if you have an old ugly pan or two and a need for more magnetic space in your kitchen, or anywhere in your house really (think: kids room, near the door, office, etc.), go ahead and give this a try!  Let me know how it goes, and feel free to leave some love and feedback on this post!


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