Upcycle Living

We made a Christmas tree with some tinsels and a broken tripod in both 2015 and 2016 , with a little change in the trimmings. But the tripod has finally given way to even more wear and tear over time and humidity - all the plastic parts are falling off. It's time to have a renewed theme for our Christmas tree this year! After a few nights thinking over it and several sketches later, I've decided to make use of an existing hook on the wall and make a tree hanging down from it, and wrapping a table lamp within. I found a cardboard lid for an A4 paper box that's been tossed in the office (so that it can get one more use before going for its recycle round), and cut holes around it: Putting it through the table lamp that will be the light source: Then I tied 2 separate loops using some ribbons (out of my craft box collection) through the tree top star and hang it onto the hook: What I did next is just to poke each strip of tinsel through 2 h...

Since the broken tripod from making last year's tinsel tree is still here, I thought I'd cut myself some slack this year and redo the same thing but with a little tweaking here and there. Start the long tinsel on the top with a knot then twirl it around the tripod until it's all covered up. Tie the end to one of the tripod legs to secure it. Connect all the tinsels together to make a really long one This time I first wrap up the tripod with some red net fabric we saved from a gift hamper. This way the tinsel holds better in place when twirled around the frame. And the angel lights are placed first so that the wire is not visible over the tree.

Angel lights are placed inside of the tree for a softer feel The bad news is, our tripod was broken (the top bit - heaven knows when and how that happened). The good news is, I can now use it for something else with no guilt (especially to all the photography enthusiasts out there) - as a base for our 2015 DIY Christmas tree! DIY Christmas tree from a broken tripod and some Christmas tinsel This has got to be the easiest-to-assemble Christmas tree to date. All I did was set the tripod up to the height I want, then tie the strips of Christmas tinsel around it. Everything can be packed away easily and reused for next Christmas. The wired ribbon has been used a few times on the 2012 Christmas tree on the wall , the 2010 CD Christmas tree , and our very first DIY Christmas tree in 2008 .

This Christmas is going to be a quiet one for us as we are in the midst of moving, so a big(ish) tree like previous years is just impractical. But not having a tree at all would make it even sadder. And the solution is: a tiny, mini, tabletop cardboard Christmas tree!  The making is pretty simple: View larger image in new tab or window 1. Material: some patterned or printed cardboard (old Christmas cards, Christmas merchandise packaging, etc), I cut these from last year's Christmas crackers packaging box. 2. Cut them into equal sizes: 2 per tree. 3. Take 2 and stick them together, back to back using double sided tape. 4. Make sure they are adhered nicely together, trim away any jutting out edges. 5. Cut each piece into 2 equal pieces. 6&7. Using a pencil, trace the outline of a simple pine tree onto each piece with a cut out shape prepared ahead (it can also be just a simple triangle). 8. Place 2 half-tree shapes together and secure with cellotape al...

A friend of mine is volunteering at The Heavenly Gift for Community at Heart , a non-profit organisation, to help raise funds for underprivileged children in Malaysia to grant their little Christmas wishes. The event is held at Tropicana City Mall which is in my area, so I went personally for a little donation and to see if there's anything I can help (keep them accompanied and look helpful as I'm really not a very good salesperson lol). They have a free gift wrapping service counter next to the donation table so I thought I could at least help doing some gift wrapping. Then we realised that people aren't really aware of the free service because there isn't any signage apart from one bunting standee. So I offered to make them some signboards. This one here is for the booth top. Apart from the words being printed from my own home-use black-and-white laser printer, everything is taken from existing material in my craft box: the old textured paper it is...

It's that time of the year again - you're right - time to get busy preparing for Christmas! And what can be more fun than getting the tree up? As usual, the rules here is to have nothing (or very little) bought. Everything must be old, used, or recycled. We had a great success last year with our CD Christmas tree , and the CDs were then stored away for their future use in God-knows-what; maybe rebuild the same tree, who knows? But this year we're going to be away for the holiday so we'll just have something really simple and doesn't require much work. As I was going through my craft boxes, I found this stack of beautiful glossy cardboard that used to be the body of some Christmas crackers we used last year (yes I actually saved those bits). Was initially thinking of making some party crowns for my nieces, but then it strikes me that I can use them to make a Christmas tree. It's really simple; each card has a die-cut slit and slot mechanism, that made ...

Before I learned how to make mince pies, we used to buy them from the shops, and have kept the packaging boxes which I knew will come in handy one day. The red colour and the festive patterned borders on the box can be used for making any Christmas decor. So we thought we'd make a Christmas wreath out of them. I cut the boxes into short 4-5-cm strips and stick them in a random crisscross pattern to make a circle, with cellophane tapes. I've also used some left over old sequins (taken off from an old bag), an old red ribbon, and a "Happy Christmas" wording cut out from an old Christmas card. Easy peasy.

All these preparation for Christmas just reminded me of the very first handmade Christmas tree I made back in 1988, when I was still a college student living with 6 other college mates in a rented property. I was staying in the house all by myself as all my friends have gone home for the holiday and I really wanted to have a tree so I decided to make one (that was all that I could afford to do). I made mine out of some used mounting boards but you can try with any big cardboard box. Unfortunately there isn't any photograph taken (there was no digital camera so we had to really be careful not to waste our films on non assignment related stuff) but I've drawn some diagrams to show the process. 1. Cut the board into 4 equal shapes like this: 2. Mark 3 places where you will put support in for the tree (x, y, z points shown below), measure the width and cut 3 circles with radius the same as x, y, and z respectively. Cut a 2mm thick slot into the boards as shown below: Do not cut the...

Greeting cards are one of the biggest consumerism scams to get people to keep spending and "saving" time on writing sincere messages to their friends and family. Yes the cards can be so pretty that you can easily be tempted into buying some and send it to someone. But the clutter it creates is beyond imagination. I don't encourage anyone to send me cards, nor do I buy any greeting cards to give to anyone. But, as and when I can, I will try to make some cards using used and/or old material (not the type you make from ready-made trimmings and decoration/stickers you buy from the shops). I have just made 8 Christmas cards (one of them already sealed in the envelope) to send to our family and friends - exactly 8 families. They are all made according to whatever I can find in my craft box: old felt I collected from God-knows-where, pretty pictures cut out from old magazines, old greeting cards, old mince pies boxes, tissue wrapping paper saved from packaging, sequins...

Last year we made a Christmas tree out of used A4 and A3 paper with tapioca starch glue, but unfortunately we don't have the space to store it as it can't be packed away flat except the legs. So we had to dismantle the tree and send the paper for recycling. However, the cardboard baubles, the foil star and the tree legs are saved. So this year I thought we'd better have something that can be folded flat and stored away when the season is over, so that we can probably reuse it next year. There are always some ends and leftover of cardboard packaging box lying around which can't be use for anything specific. So here is what I did: Cut them into 1.5-inch strips and glue each pair into a 90-degree L shape. Join them up with a fishing line and some old beads (from a pair of broken old shoes before disposing them, as well as from my other beading projects) between every 2 L shapes. The foil star from last year's tree is sewed on to the top followed by a knotted ...

We all shop. For essential needs or for leisure, we just can't avoid shopping in this new era of humankind. What annoys me is the excessive packaging, especially the unnecessary and over use of disposable containers in food industry. I notice that not only when you have takeaway, but even when you dine out at certain food outlets, they serve you sauces and/or drinks in disposable plastic or worse, styrofoam containers. I'm not sure how many countries practise that, but at least in Asia this is extremely common. I suppose using disposable is much cheaper than hiring someone to do the washing up. Due to my nature of a hoarder, I have over the years, collected a number of these plastic tubs. I knew [ahem] they would come in handy one day. So when I needed to sort my beads in various colours and types, I found these sauce tubs really useful. I can see the size and colour of the beads, and I can stack them neatly in my craft drawers. When I ran out of the tubs, I simply cut some of ...