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! 

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