Posts Tagged "diy"

Upcycle: “Work” Books

Posted by Michelle on Jul 16, 2010 in Crafting, Therapy | 4 comments

Now this upcycle is so simple that I don’t think I really need to write a tutorial for it. But I’m going to anyway. Sort of.

Take an old, large paperback book. (As a former IT ninja support peon person, I have a library of certification books laying around. Unfortunately, since the certification industry likes to change tests every, oh, three years or so, many of the books I  still have are woefully out of date. This is a decent way to upcycle them. If you don’t happen to have a books from a former IT career laying around, you can use phone books for this upcycle.) Also grab a pair of scissors and duct tape.

Duct tape, duct tape, duct tape. It’s fun to say! [Note to self: Time to stop channeling Deadpool...]

Book, duct tape, scissors

Cover the book in duct tape and you have…

Duct tape "work" book

A DUCT TAPE COVERED PHONE BOOK!

Um, yay?

Whatever would you use this for? (Other than, of course, admiring your duct tape handiwork?)

Well, one of the first toys I noticed at The Little Empress’ developmental preschool were the duct tape covered phone books. They are a simple, open ended toy that can be used for anything from heavy work activities to strength building exercise to toddler obstacle courses. One day, as I arrived to pick up TLE from school, one of her teachers was sitting close by as TLE set up an obstacle course for herself and hopped from book to book. That was when I knew I had to add this to our home sensory toy collection.

So what sort of activities can you do with this deceptively simple toy? Stay tuned…

WIP – Lilac interlock pouch (practice)

Posted by Michelle on Nov 26, 2008 in Crafting | 2 comments

I scored some fabric off of Freecycle shortly after getting my sewing machine. Since I’m not too sure exactly what all the fabric is made of, I can’t exactly use them for carriers since I’m not sure if they’re safe. But I’ve found that the fabric makes for great practice!

I found some stretchy, interlock fabric that I decided to turn into a prototype pouch, not so much for use but to at least figure out how to make one. I used Jan from Sleeping Baby Productions has a great page on DIY baby carriers so I used her pouch instructions. I had to read it several times over but I think I got it. See?

Of course, I’ve never worn a pouch before so I wasn’t quite sure how to wear it. This was just the test fitting to see whether or not I’d measured correctly. The pouch was a bit tight when worn correctly so I’ll probably remeasure and try again. Luckily, this particular fabric was very wide so I’ll have more than enough to try again. And again. And again.