A Round Tuit (20)

Hello and welcome to this week's 'Round Tuit'

MOTIVATION and INSPIRATION and the key factors behind my Monday posts and opportunity to link up and encourage, motivate and inspire each other....with your very own ROUND TUIT

Tuits are very hard to come by, especially the round ones. For years people have been saying, "I'll do it as soon as I get a round tuit". Well now you can have one of your very own, and all those jobs that have needed doing will finally get done!

Thanks to those who linked up last week. Here's my favourites!

First of all, another true Round Tuit project!  a fantastic little shelving unit from Glover's Lane:

This project was started a while ago...., then left for another while...... and finally gotten around to being finished!  Doesn't it look great!  A bargain find - and would you believe the pretty pattern at the back is tissue paper!! 
Go and check out this lovely blog at:
http://gloverslane.blogspot.com/

Next this fabulous body double from Nancy's Couture:

Isn't it amazing! You have to go and check out how she made it!

and then look at all the other great projects she has on her lovely blog:

http://nancyscouture.blogspot.com/

Finally, a mirror transformation from Dream Home DIY

I loved her blog post that went with it - go and have a read!

Then check out all the other great posts and projects at her lovely blog:

http://dreamhomediy.blogspot.com/

For those featured, feel free to grab a 'featured on' button

 <center><a href= http://jembellish.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20Round%20Tuit><img border="0" src="http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac152/creatingtosuccess/blog%20buttons%20-%20Creating%20my%20way%20to%20Success/ARoundTuitnewfeaturedon.jpg "/></a></center>

As for me this week - I finished my repurposing backpacks projects
All in all I made the bike pack, paint brush holders, padded microphone holders for our karaoke machine and a witches hat with the scraps.  So now my boxes of materials and 'useful' bits and pieces are slighty less full! Go here if you want to see a summary of the pictures!


This week I'm going to make a start on finding a better way for my girls to store their jewellery!  Right now their rings, bracelets, and necklaces are in a mixture of boxes and tins and some just loose all around their room! - Surely I can come up with a better solution than that!!!  Here's what it kind of looks like now....

I have to admit this photo is from when their jewellery AND all their hair ties and clips were mixed in together!  I have since made them hanging hair tie holders, so the boxes are only half full now - but still just as impossible to find anything in!  Here's the hair tie hangers made from an old pair of their jeans that they'd both grown out of, for those of you who haven't seen them. (tutorial here if you'd lke to make your own!)  Perhaps I can do something similar for their jewellery??... We'll see

For now, please feel free to link up your posts - maybe it's a project you've completed that you're proud of - something you have wanted to get done for a while and need some extra motivation to get going on it - or you'd just like some of that fabulous encouragement, praise and motivation that bloggers are so good at spreading around.

Whatever the reason - grab your very own "Round Tuit" button, and link up.

Then head on over to some of the other links and praise, encourage and motivate.

I'll feature my favourite posts next week.

(by linking up here you're giving me permission to use photos from your linked post on my blog)

<a <br /> <center><a href="http://jembellish.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20Round%20Tuit"><img border=”0” src=http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/ac329/jembellish/Blog%20buttons/ARoundTuit.jpg /></a><center><br />

I hope everyone has a lovely week! I'm looking forward to seeing all your great projects this week!

Jill

My Creative Space - backpack repurposing project 4!

I'm feeling quite proud of myself having found several uses for my pile of old and broken backpacks that has sat in a box in my cupboard for a long time....

I've turned 3 backpacks into:

A bike pack for my daughter:

2 paintbrush organisers:

Padded microphone holders for our karaoke mics!

 Which are now velcroed to the karaoke machine for nice easy and convenient storage!

And here is what I did with all the left over scraps of nice firm backpack material!
Patchworked them together very very roughly...

To create a nicely authentic crumpled witches hat...

Covered with a little ghostly fabric I bought on clearance 2 years ago thinking 'that'll be useful one day'

And wonderfully modelled by  Dorothy...

 Hope my daughter likes it!!  Just got to make a cape for her now (not from a backpack though!! :) )

And now all I've got left is a pile of cut up zips......Not sure if I'll get to these this week though - maybe another time!  At least they don't take up very much space in my fabric stash now!!



What do you have in your cupboard that needs using up??  Go on, have a look!  I've ended up having lots of fun with these old backpacks - and have gained a few useful handmade things, along with some much needed space in my sewing boxes!!

For more creative spaces, head over to Kirsty's place at Kootoyoo!

Hope you're all having a lovely day!

Jill



Backpack repurposing continued - project 3!

So the work continues on finding new uses for old broken backpacks!!

So far I've made a bike pack for my daughter.

And a paintbrush roll, and paintbrush bag from two of the backpacks.

Today I finished of project 3 with the third backpack.  This time I used the soft padded part from the back of the pack.  But what did I make?

Well first I have to admit to being a bit of a karaoke lover - so much so that we have our own karaoke machine in our living room:

Earlier this year, my parents bought us some cordless microphones for it (pesky wires kept getting in the way of grooving while we were singing!!

Now these have been stored in their orignial cardboad box on the floor next to the karaoke machine..

Out of the way and safe in their padded box, but not exactly pretty - and I've also been concerned as, living in the tropics, we do have lots of friendly cockroaches who just LOVE to nest in cardboard boxes...

So, my third backpack was cut up and transformed into...

Snug padded cases for our microphones!!

And with the help of some strong sicky velcro.. they can be kept neatly on the side of the karaoke machine itself..

Perfectly neat and ready for action - and another backpack successfully repurposed!!

Now I've just got scraps to use up 

(2 of the backpacks I deemed possible to fix up and use as...well...backpacks!)

Do come back tomorrow to see what my next broken backpack repurpose project is!

Jill





Backpack repurposing project

As you may know, I decided it was time to do something with my pile of broken backpacks that I have been hoarding for several months (some for years!).

Yesterday I showed my first project, when I turned this:

Into this bike pack for my daughter:

For the bike pack, I kept the bottom half of the backpack intact, cut off the top and restitched various pieces and straps to make it fit! And of course added the pretty pink doggie at the front (from an old pair of pyjamas!) Click here to see more pictures or scroll down to the previous post!

Today I want to show you my second project.

This time I used this backpack - with broken zip..

First I deconstructed the whole thing into parts:

And then reconstructed them into..

.....new holders for my daughter's paintbrushes!

A long pouch for the long brushes..(using an old shoe lace for the tie at the top)

And a roll up pouch for the smaller brushes..

And here they are both together - full of paintbrushes!
(Until now the brushes have all been loose in a box with the paints and other bits and bobs!  I'm trying to tidy that up into a more organised painting container!!) 

What do you think??

Come back tomorrow when I'll show you the next backpack and what I've done with that!

Do you have any other repurposing projects? either finished or that you need inspiration for?
Why not link them up to my Round Tuit linky party here. I love seeing everyone's great ideas, and being inspired by them to create more myself!

Hope you're all having a great day!

I'll be linking this project up to some of the wonderful linky parties on my linky party page!

Jill 





A Round Tuit (19)

Hello and welcome to this week's 'Round Tuit'

MOTIVATION and INSPIRATION and the key factors behind my Monday posts and opportunity to link up and encourage, motivate and inspire each other....with your very own ROUND TUIT

Tuits are very hard to come by, especially the round ones. For years people have been saying, "I'll do it as soon as I get a round tuit". Well now you can have one of your very own, and all those jobs that have needed doing will finally get done!

Thanks to those who linked up last week. Here's my favourites!

First of all some really cute shower caps from Mummy Crafts:

I love that she chose to hand make cute ones instead of buying cheap plastic ones! Much prettier and no doubt much more appreciated!!

She has such a lovely blog - do go and check it out at:

http://mummycrafts.blogspot.com/

Next some beautiful pendant necklaces made from bracelet tiles at Mich L. in LA!

They are just lovely - she has wonderful creative ideas for jewellery - which have inspired me to try some creative jewellery making with my daughters soon!!  Go and see at her blog at

http://mlinla.blogspot.com/

Finally, this lovely flutter flower hat at Polka Dots and Pizza (what a great name for a blog!)

Wonderfully creative with a $1.50 beanie and an old t-shirt! 

She has a lovely blog at:

http://polkadotsandpizza.blogspot.com/

For those featured, feel free to grab a 'featured on' button

 <center><a href= http://jembellish.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20Round%20Tuit><img border="0" src="http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac152/creatingtosuccess/blog%20buttons%20-%20Creating%20my%20way%20to%20Success/ARoundTuitnewfeaturedon.jpg "/></a></center>

As for me this week - I've finally had success repurposing my old backpacks.  I had several, so I will show one project a day this week! Here's the first:
This is the backpack I used - broken zip and the blue fabric at the top ripped and torn through:

I cut the top off the backpack - and also the straps. 

 Then with a bit of cutting and reattaching, and decoration on the front from an old pair of pink pyjamas!!) I made my daughter a bike pack!!

We took the bikes to the park this morning, and it's a great size for fitting all our water bottles in, so it meant I could have a nice jog with the girls without having to carry anything myself!!
What do you think??  I'm glad to have found a use for this old backpack - which has sat in a box in my cupboard for many months!  I'm happy to have finally gotten a round to getting something done with it!

Come back each day this week to see what else I've made from the rest of my old, broken backpacks!!

For now, please feel free to link up your posts - maybe it's a project you've completed that you're proud of - something you have wanted to get done for a while and need some extra motivation to get going on it - or you'd just like some of that fabulous encouragement, praise and motivation that bloggers are so good at spreading around.

Whatever the reason - grab your very own "Round Tuit" button, and link up.

Then head on over to some of the other links and praise, encourage and motivate.

I'll feature my favourite posts next week.

(by linking up here you're giving me permission to use photos from your linked post on my blog)

<a <br /> <center><a href="http://jembellish.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20Round%20Tuit"><img border=”0” src=http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/ac329/jembellish/Blog%20buttons/ARoundTuit.jpg /></a><center><br />

I hope everyone has a lovely week! I'm looking forward to seeing all your great projects this week!

Jill



My Creative Repurposing Space

Last week I posted a picture of a pile of old backpacks I have with broken zips, hoping for some inspiration as to what I can do with them....  but no luck!   Short of cutting off the straps and hooks and saving for a future project, they don't seem to be a thing people have repurposed much.  I've searched the internet, but come up with nothing!

So on Monday I decided to set myself a week to come up with something to do with at least some of the pile! (which is taking up too much valuable space and has to go!)

It's all very well saving things that may be useful one day, then finally finding a project that needs exactly that hoarded item.  It's much MUCH more difficult to create a project to use up a hoarded item!

I have however made a start!  My first project is half-way there...using just the bottom half of the backpack and part of the straps...

another is at the planning stage..as part of a bigger project I've in mind..

Sorry my photo uploader has just decided to stop working - so if you imagine a photo of a backpack deconstructed and the now flat pieces of tough fabric, with a load of my girls' paintbrushes sitting on top....

I've also taken out the old defunct zips, as I'm sure I've seen things on other blogs about jewellery or flowers and the such made from zips!  Now I just need to find some pictures, tutorials, or just play around to create something fabulous!!!.

Of course, what I discovered this morning when my daughter came into my sewing room to see what I was up to, is that I should have just asked my girls in the first place what to make from the backpacks - they were full of ideas!! Some maybe a little crazy - but ideas nevertheless!! 

So I'm hoping my creativeness flows successfully today and that my photo uploader will have decided to work once I have some finished backpack upcycled items to show off!!

For many other wonderful creative spaces, pop over to Kirsty's place at kootoyoo!

Have a lovely day!

Jill

A Round Tuit (18)

Hello and welcome to this week's 'Round Tuit'

MOTIVATION and INSPIRATION and the key factors behind my Monday posts and opportunity to link up and encourage, motivate and inspire each other....with your very own ROUND TUIT

Tuits are very hard to come by, especially the round ones. For years people have been saying, "I'll do it as soon as I get a round tuit". Well now you can have one of your very own, and all those jobs that have needed doing will finally get done!

Thanks to those who linked up last week. Here's my favourites!

First of all a true Round Tuit project of a table make-over (4 years in the waiting!) at Christina's Adventures.

She posted such a lovely picture story about this makeover - and what an amazing difference!

Do go and check out her lovely blog at:

http://christinasadventures2010.blogspot.com/

Next another "Round Tuit" project waiting for a while and then done under pressure and finished beautifully in time!!

An amazing diaper trike from Pinkapotamus!

Isn't it incredible???

Do go and see her lovely blog at:

http://pinkapotamus.blogspot.com/

Finally, a cute little owl from Ellens creative passage:

She made this little cutie entirely from scraps from her fabric stash!  She has inspired me to get on with my own stash-busting as my boxes are now completely full and bursting at the seams!  Thanks for the inspiration Ellen!

Go and have a look at her wonderful blog! She makes some fabulous things:

http://ellenscreativepassage.blogspot.com/

For those featured, feel free to grab a 'featured on' button:

 <center><a href= http://jembellish.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20Round%20Tuit><img border="0" src="http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac152/creatingtosuccess/blog%20buttons%20-%20Creating%20my%20way%20to%20Success/ARoundTuitnewfeaturedon.jpg "/></a></center>

As for me this week - I managed to make up a few of my new small esky bags for our market stall at the weekend:

I had matching bucket hats for them and they went down a treat!

Now onto this week.  I've decided that I really need to get around to using up some of my stash.

Last week I posted a picture of some broken backpacks I've been keeping, to see if anyone had any bright ideas as to what to do with them!



It seems that aside from taking them apart and keeping the bits for other projects, nobody else has any inspiration for these either!  I still have no idea what I'm going to do with them, but they're taking up far too much space in my cupboard so I have to think of something!

So that's my challenge this week!  Come back next week to see what I've managed to come up with!

For now, please feel free to link up your posts - maybe it's a project you've completed that you're proud of - something you have wanted to get done for a while and need some extra motivation to get going on it - or you'd just like some of that fabulous encouragement, praise and motivation that bloggers are so good at spreading around.

Whatever the reason - grab your very own "Round Tuit" button, and link up.

Then head on over to some of the other links and praise, encourage and motivate.

I'll feature my favourite posts next week.

(by linking up here you're giving me permission to use photos from your linked post on my blog)

<a <br /> <center><a href="http://jembellish.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20Round%20Tuit"><img border=”0” src=http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/ac329/jembellish/Blog%20buttons/ARoundTuit.jpg /></a><center><br />

I hope everyone has a lovely week! I'm looking forward to seeing all your great projects this week!

Jill