DIY Upcycled Cardboard Polyominoes
You don’t need another set of plastic game pieces kicking around your home, though. Instead, here’s how to make any set of polyominoes that you want from sturdy, upcycled, recyclable cardboard.
You don’t need another set of plastic game pieces kicking around your home, though. Instead, here’s how to make any set of polyominoes that you want from sturdy, upcycled, recyclable cardboard.
These fabric baskets are purposefully a bit on the droopy side, because I don’t like to sew with artificial materials like interfacing. A little interfacing or even cereal box cardboard would firm them up, though, if you prefer that look.
Wildlife rescues use fleece pouches to contain small and baby animals in a way that keeps them feeling safe and comfortable. It mimics the type of pouch that a marsupial animal will be familiar with, and recreates the feeling of a nest for other animals.
This upcycled cardboard cat scratcher is a great way to use up all your corrugated cardboard boxes. Cats love it, and it’s a useful donation to your local animal shelter.
This is a great way to use up small scraps from your recent projects, and especially other projects that you’ve sewn for these same kids.
My go-to process for cleaning wax out of jar candles used to be tedious and time-consuming. But now I’ve successfully used the Power of Science to come up with THE quickest and easiest go-to process.
This mini heart bunting is a low-key gift, since it’s nice and small. Big hearts are corny, but small hearts are cute!
Here’s how to deep clean wooden building blocks and simple wooden toys, how to refurbish them, and even how to polish them up so they look beautiful and fancy and like the high-quality heirlooms that they are.
However, you can do a lot more with the classic paper chain, especially in terms of Christmas tree decor. Because wouldn’t you rather have an eco-friendly, customized garland that fits your specific vibe?
Be warned: pants zippers are tedious and painstaking to replace. What they are not, however, is difficult. If you’ve sewn with zippers before, and you’re comfortable using a zipper foot, you can make this repair.
Scrunchies are one of my favorite stashbuster projects. Like the other projects that I mentioned, scrunchies are very forgiving, so you can fudge fabric dimensions as needed to fit your scraps.
Somehow, until I made the effort to really think about how I could reuse plastic 2-liter bottles, it never occurred to me that a plastic 2-liter bottle is a nearly perfect planter. It’s cheap. It’s sturdy. It’s light. It’s easy to modify to fit a variety of needs.
Reinforcing that entire thigh area, both the rip and the surrounding real estate, with a denim patch, as well as quilting the snot out of that patch, stops the rip.
This method results in a pair of bell bottoms that are wide and blousy and flowy. You couldn’t get away with wearing them in all circumstances, but they’re also super dramatic and super fun for every bell bottom-appropriate occasion.
Take a few pages out of the camp counselor handbook and check out my list of my favorite summer camp-style crafts. They’re all highly kid-approved, and you can very likely source all the necessary supplies from around your house, yard, or recycling bin.
This DIY yarn tassel is the perfect outdoor craft when it’s beautiful outside, and also a pretty terrific indoor craft when outside sucks.
A little Mod Podge, a little polyurethane sealant, and my old plastic light switch plate and outlet cover are good as new, with some antique wallpaper street cred, too!
Drilling through glass isn’t as hard as it looks, and it’s a specific skill that is honestly pretty amazing to have.
I cut up several old towels to piece together a cute applique mushroom, quilted it onto a couple other old towels, and now have a brand-new custom bath mat that the kids and I are delighted with.
It’s possible to remove most candle wax from most fabric, even if your candle wax is highly pigmented, and even if your fabric is precious and delicate.
These glass bottle bottom ring holders are quick and easy to make, and don’t require any additional supplies other than several grits of sandpaper.
A drawstring bag is a terrific go-to when you’re thinking about sustainable gift packaging. It’s customizable, re-usable, and easy to put to a huge number of alternate uses.
The solution for displaying your favorite treasures is that cardboard box hanging out in your recycling bin!
Homemade Christmas tree ornaments are my favorite holiday decoration. Every year, my kids and I add more handmade ornaments to our collection and I cull a couple more store-bought ornaments. My ultimate goal is to have a Christmas tree so bedazzled that you can barely see its branches, with nary a store-bought ornament in sight.
Painting a wicker basket is a super quick project that makes a big change in the overall look of your room. And when you get tired of your current color scheme, repainting that basket is just as quick and easy!
A well-made sock can stand up to a lot of wear, and when a hole does finally work its way through, then you can darn that sock to make it even better than it was when it was new.
A scratch-off card is a really fun way to present all kinds of experience gifts or fun activities. Everybody loves a scratch-off, and it adds an element of surprise that makes an already great gift even better.
You can DIY cooking equipment every bit as good from two tin cans, a cardboard box, and candlewax.
Dog brushes brush the mats out of both dog fur AND fuzzy blankets!
I don’t have any kind of yearning to restore my wonky old house to its original condition, but it would be pretty cool to clean and refurbish just those antique door fixtures, just to see what they actually look like.
It’s easier than you think to cut ceramics with a couple of standard tools, and there are loads of ways to finish off the pendant to your taste.
No matter how big you want your star to be, or how many points you want it to have, you can make the pattern for it completely from scratch, and the assembly is the same no matter which type you create.
Fortunately, sewing a button back on your pants is a super easy and low-fuss skill that requires only a basic amount of hand-eye coordination. Anyone can do it!