CD Cup Pads

"Now I love my coffee, it's probably the only thing 

I cherish in this foresaken mud ball called Earth!"

                                                                                                                               (License to drive, 1988)

After making the cook notebooks I had some of the oilcloth left. So I decided to make a new tutorial using them. I’ve always wondered what’s the purpose of those plastic circles in CD packages. I have plenty of them so I was thinking how I can recycle them. At first, I wanted to make a small rack but my attempts were all failures. However, this oilcloth is pretty inspiring – I came up with an idea for cup pads. So, gather all of your old, broken CDs and get to work!

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

 "Mr Yoinks, I CAN HEAR THE BELLS!"

                                                                                        (Lakier do włosów; 2007)

For a long time I wanted to create some kind of bells but I couldn’t find anything with the right shape to recycle. I was trying to use deodorant caps or toilet paper tubes but the effect wasn’t satisfactory. My salvation came when I saw those perfectly shaped bottles at the mall. I think my mother is still wondering what I had in mind when I popped out of the kitchen and shouted “Don’t you throw away those bottles! I can see bells in them!” with madness in my eyes… Tee hee.. Anyway, I am very proud of the effect and I’m going to hang them on my window. I think it can also be a good addition to Christmas wreaths.

I Love Cooking – A Recipe Notebook

"What do I always say? Anyone can cook!"

                                                                  (Ratatouille; 2007)

I have seen many ideas for recipe notebooks but none of them met my needs. They often were made of regular school notebooks which discredits their practicality in a kitchen environment… It’s common knowledge – kitchens get messy during work and the paper cover would get covered with greasy stains in no time. Besides, I really don’t like having a limited number of pages ‘cause any additional recipes would have to be kept loose. Therefore, I want to show you a new generation of recipe notebooks – with a 100% washable cover, with adjustable number of pages and with recipes easily sorted by type. Basically, with every feature I look for in such notebooks. I’m going to donate four of those notebooks to a charity fair in my town.

Syringe Pen

"The colour of the pen! That I hold in my hand is Rr.rr.ROYAL BLUE!"

                                                                                                        (Liar, liar;1997)

Today's tutorial was inspired by a student from my uni, who has got a quite unusual pen - something like this. Upon closer inspection, it turned out it isn't what I expected - it just pretends to be a syringe, but in fact there is a normal ballpen inside it. But, it has inspired me to further experiments, which were succesful and ended with my new blog entry. I especially recommend this tutorial for medical students :)

Levitating Pumpkins

"It's Halloween, I guess everyone's entitled to one good scare."

                                                                (Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later;1998)

Halloween is not very popular here in Poland but every year more and more people start celebrating this joyful day, mostly teenagers. Every year there are more and more Halloween stuff you can get at shopping centres, so maybe someday it’ll be an integral part of All Saints’ Day. That’s why I decided to make a Halloween tutorial for you.  I’m sorry for the quality of the photos but I had to come back to my job and I don’t have a lot of free time. That’s why there are differences in light – some of them were taken in the morning and some in the evening. But nevertheless - Happy Halloween!

A Handy Drawing Pad

"Did you do all these drawings, Doctor?"

                                                                                      (Silence of the Lambs;1991)

I have got my first e-mail with a tutorial request in June. I was very happy to know that someone likes my blog and find it interesting. The request concerned a drawing pad, which the author of the e-mail had found on the Internet. I have send her a preliminary version of the tutorial but I didn't have time for posting it here. This week I finally found time for completing this project. The final version vary from what I send as an answer, but the result should be the same. It is also a good opportunity to learn the patchwork technique.

CD Photo Frame

"Did you get your precious photos?"

                                                                  (Blade Runner;1982)

My younger sister and I had got lots of various magazines with CD-ROMs when we were kids. But they took up a lot of space so I decided to put them in the CD sleeves. The empty jewel cases have been lying on the shelf for a long time, 'cause I thought they would be useful someday. And "someday" is today! I was thinking of transforming them into photo frames and realization came last week. Check it out - it's fast and easy!

Nuka Cola Earrings

"These earrings are a form of torture."

                                         (Made in America;1993)

In March, I was at Pyrkon in Poznań, one of the polish conventions, where I found Nuka Cola earrings on one of the stalls. I loved them until I saw their price - 25 $! They were obviously overpriced! I decided to make a pair myself since it's not that hard. It is also a perfect tutorial for my blog plus I can protect you all from ripoffs like that. It takes only few minutes to make them so feel free to use it.

Striped Bottle Vase

"Do you have a vase? A vaaase??"

                                             (You've Got Mail; 1998)

Today, I’m going to show you how you can make an old bottle into an original colorful vase for flowers from your husband/fiancé/boyfriend. Besides its useful functions, it is also an interesting element for a house decoration. This idea comes more or less from my art class in primary school (I remember making paper Easter eggs using crepe paper like in this tutorial). That’s why I urge children to make one, too.

What you can do with a broken mirror...

"Magic Mirror on the wall who's the fairest one of all?"

                                                               (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves; 1939)

They say that when you break a mirror, 7 years of bad luck will be upon you. But the mirror will not always burst into pieces when falling. Sometimes it can only cause the frame to break apart. You can fix it by using some glue but sometimes it’s not enough.  That’s how you get a piece of silver glass, which doesn’t look too fabulous and, what is more, you can get hurt because of its sharp edges. Not used for months, it lays somewhere you don’t look and finally, when it’s found, you decide to throw it away. I’ll show you today how you can give it a “second chance” and transform it into a cute little dressing table. The idea is mine but inspired by those photos.