Upcycled Trash: Cell Phone Holder

My evil, evil friend Mary introduced me to Pinterest a while back.   Now I spend entirely too much time there, pinning super unhealthy foods I can't eat and looking up cool crafting ideas.  This just happens to be one of them...a lotion bottle turned cell phone holder/charger!  The version I saw had the final product mod-podged with some fabric and it was really cute.  I left mine plain because it suits my kitchen better, but if i find some fabric I really like, I may change that!  Here's what you do (and don't do)...

Find an empty lotion/shampoo bottle.  Make sure your cell phone can fit down into the bottom. I rinsed mine out well, then ran them through the dishwasher to clean them out.

This bottle had a removable label, so I chose to use it for this project because it was easier.

Draw around your bottle with a Sharpie, creating one side that is lower so you can take your phone out easily and one side that is higher by several inches so you can hang it from the wall socket.  I didn't take good enough pictures of that, apparently.  Look HERE to see a more in-depth description on how to do this, but please do not cut the hole in the back portion like she did.  That poor woman took so much flack for creating a 'fire hazard'.  That's why I did mine differently.  Please read on.

You can start to carefully cut along your line with a razor blade, but it's much easier to cut the rest of the way with heavy duty scissors.  Trust me on this one.

Don't do what I did and cut off a big hunk of the back portion thinking it would be more streamlined.  If you look at the very first picture, you will see it is sitting very close to the socket.  So close, that it's a little less than simple to get the phone in and out.  Had I left it longer, the holder would hang down further and give me plenty of room to put the phone in and out.  Sheesh, now that I think of it, maybe I should redo this tutorial entirely!  Anyway, lightly sand any rough edges.

Using a screwdriver, take off the switch plate.  As a disclaimer, it might be best to turn off the power just in case your hand should slip.

Hold your plastic contraption up to the bottom screw to see how far down you'll need to cut your hole.  I decided to do mine this way so there should be no fire or melting hazards involved.

I used my CropAdile to cut a hole toward the top. At this point, you can decorate your holder if desired. 

Remove the bottom screw and put it back in through the hole.

Screw the plate back on and you are ready to charge your phone!

 

This holder goes on a socket that seldom gets used, so it really doesn't bother me that the cord interferes with plugging anything else in.  The next time I have a nice bottle, I'm going to try it again with some modifications.  It was fun to make and I've been using it every day! 

Handemade flower pouf clip

To go along with my new little ruffle scarf, I decided to try my hand at a couple of little flower poufs.  The first one is the one I based this tutorial upon, but I really like the 2nd one better.  They're made the same way, just different shapes, that's all.

LOVE this one!

Here's what you need:

An old shirt
Glue Gun/Sticks
Scissors
2 Punched Circles (mine is 1 3/4" and cut from a cereal box type of material)
Hand Drawn Template or in this case, a Sizzix die

Start by cutting off the sleeves and top part of the bodice, just under the arms.  We can save the bottom portion for another project! This shirt was actually purchased about 4 years ago, but I have never worn it!  It's always been too big and dumpy looking, so I might as well turn it into something useful!

Cut out little portions of the bodice and sleeves to cut your flowers out of.

Run them through your die cutting machine.  You will need 9 flowers.

If using a paper template, just pin it to your fabric and cut around it.  This was made using a punched flower that I increased in size with my scanner/printer and cut out.

So, now that we have them cut out, we need to start assembly.  Take a flower and fold in half.

Then fold in half again.

Apply a bit of hot glue to one of your cardstock circles and glue down four of your folded flowers, meeting
in the center.

Gently open the flap to the middle of each flower and put a spot of glue. Lay flap back down.  

Fold four more flowers and glue down in a similar fashion, this time turned an 1/8 of a turn.  

After inspection, I decided the glue should go along this edge rather than in the center.  I could be wrong.  I frequently am!

Fold your last flower in half

Then roll up one side

Put a little line of glue in there to hold it shut.

Then cut off about 1/2" from the pointed part.

Then take some glue and put it on your flower base like so.

Put the bud in the center and push down.  

Before the glue cools, pull up the petals toward the bud so they attach.

I felt like I needed to hold the center of the flower down a little just as an added precaution.

Deciding my flower was looking a tad flat, I opted to put a little more glue here and there.  I think it had to do with the weight of the fabric.

Having no clue how I was going to clip this thing to my scarf, I came up with this solution.  Punch out your 2nd circle as follows.

Then glue it down on top of your first circle.  See, you have a little place to slip a hair clip under there!  Sometimes I amaze myself.  Most of the time not, lol.

And there you have your little flower poof to dress up your scarf!  Hmmmm, this one is a little big.  But for my first try, it's not bad.  Kinda hard to see the detail in the picture.  Can't wait to try the peach colored one.

No-Sew Ruffled Scarf

Isn't this just the cutest?  Wanna make one?  Heres how...

Now that I've lost a good bit of weight, my clothes don't really fit anymore.  Take this Nike t-shirt, for example.  As you can tell from the wrinkles, it's not one I wear often.  Mostly for painting or dirty work.  The shirt is kinda nasty, has some bleach stains on it and holes in the pits, lol.  This is my 'holy cow' face.   This thing used to fit me perfectly.  Scary. 

Anyhow, rather than trash it or turn it into rags, I thought I'd find a way to re-purpose it.  Enter Pinterest!  I found a tutorial on how to make a ruffled scarf that looked pretty easy.  Here's what you'll need:

An XL/XXL t-shirt, the bigger the better.  You can steal one of your husband's!
(I found out afterward that jersey-knit would have been a better fabric choice)

Dinner sized paper plate Approx 9 1/2 inches

Scissors

Pen

Pins
Fusible Webbing or Fabric Glue (not shown)
Iron (not shown)

Start by spreading your shirt out on the table.  Stand back and be amazed at how huge this shirt really is and admit that you must have been in denial for a lonnnnnng time. Seriously, this thing is almost as wide as the tabletop, yikes!  Place the paper plate face-down in an area where you won't run into any seams or logos.  We want just plain fabric.  You are going to try to get about 4 or 5 sets of circles out of the double thickness, or a total of 8-10 individual circles.

Trace around the plate.  Move plate to another free area and continue until you have used up all the free space.

Pin the center of each circle, then cut out.  Be sure to cut inside the line so you don't have any ink marks on your finished scarf.       

You should have a nice little stack o' circles.  

Cut each circle into a coil.  Try to keep the strip around 2 inches wide.  The example below was only about 1 1/2" and it ended up being wayyyy too long when finished.  

This one is a little better.  You'll have one little corner that is somewhat squared near where you first started cutting.

Cut that little baby off so it's more rounded.

The inside of your coil should look something like this

After cutting all of your circles, cut off the little pointed tip of each.  You just want a straight line.

One video tutorial I watched said to stretch each coil of fabric.  This is really hard to do and take a picture of!  Stretching makes the fabric curl a little on itself, intensifying the ruffled look.  Since mine is a regular cotton t-shirt, I didn't stretch too much or it looked strange and limp.

Lay the strips down, 5 (or 6) going opposite directions.  Yes, I realize there are 7 going each direction.  I had two shirts, so I used them both.  I would have made two scarves, but I screwed up the first couple of coils.  I paid no attention to which direction the coils were facing as long as the straight ends were together.  

Take some fusible web and put it in between each end.

Fuse together with a hot iron.  Do for each set of strips.

Stack all of the strips on top of eachother, meeting at the seam.  I staggered them, some facing one way, some facing the other, just for the heck of it.  Another tip: I forgot to do this until later, but now is the time to use some more fusible webbing and fuse them all together so your scarf doesn't slip around when you pull on a strip.

Next, we're going to make a little dealy-bop to cover up those seams and to hold our layers together more securely.  I just kinda made this part up, so I'm not entirely sure it's necessary.  I do kind of like the look of it though.  If my sewing machine was working, I might tell you that it could be a good idea to sew this thing on for when you want to wash the scarf.  But someone took their sewing machine apart in an attempt to oil it because it was making a gawd-awful screech of death.  And then ended up with 3 extra screws and a machine that still squeaks, ah-hem.  Stupid, stupid person.  Anyyyyyyway, cut yourself a piece of shirt scrap that is about 3" x 8".

Cut a piece of fusible web just shy of 8" long and lay it down along the long side.  Fold the edge over to cover.  Iron to fuse it shut.

Repeat with other side.  It doesn't really matter how wide the piece you end up with is, so don't worry about any measurements.

Now we need to make one of the short sides look a little more finished.  Take a small piece fusible web and fold the short end under.  Iron.

Lay your stack of fused strips over your newly-fashioned little strip piece.  Decide how much you'll need to fold over by wrapping it around a couple of times and adjusting accordingly.  Cut off any excess strip from your raw edge if your piece is too long.  I know that sounds confusing.  The next couple of steps should make it more clear.

Fold the raw edge over and put some strips of webbing on top.  I extended the strips to be long enough to fuse the entire finished part I would be folding over.  We want our finished end folded over last so it looks nice.

Fold your finished end down over the webbing and fuse together.

Remember earlier when I said THEN would be a good time to fuse each strip together?  Well, I forgot that part until now.  That's what happens when you're wingin' it!  I realized that the strips could slide left and right, which is silly.  So, I actually cut the strips of webbing and tucked them in between each strip, then heated to fuse after the fact.  Learn from my mistakes, people.

Your scarf is now finished!  Try it on and see what you think!

You can wear it just as is, draped over your neck.  Hmmm, maybe it is a little thicker than I wanted.  

Seems a bit much, no?

Or fold it over itself like you would a 'normal' scarf.  What IS that black dot by my neck?  No clue!  For a minute there, I thought maybe I left a pin in the scarf!  Maybe it's dirt on my camera/phone.  LOL, I just had 

a funny thought!  This would make a great Austin Powers get-up for Halloween!  Shag-u-lous, baby!

And lastly, you could wear it with a little flower you've plucked from a silk plant in your home (oh, yes, I did!!), or with a little handmade flower pouf clip!  

I'm not really a scarf person, but I may become one!  I really like the look of this.  It really dressed up my plain white shirt! Now that it's done, I realize that this wasn't the best material to use.   It did work, but a stretchy, light-weight knit would probably work better, just FYI.  I've seen a couple other simple scarves I intend on trying.  I'll post those when I get around to them, so stay tuned.  Thanks for stopping by!  Now, go dig through your husband's skanky old t-shirt drawer!