Honey Bee DIY Decor/ Save Our Earth Challenge/ Upcycled Empty Containers, Newspaper and Cardboard

Hello my crafty tribe, this is Artsy Maddie and let's get creative! So today this is part of the Save Our Earth challenge and I'm going to be upcycling a couple of empty containers. So I'm starting off with this dishwasher tab plastic container and I think why we usually don't want to upcycle these is because of things like the missing corners. So you have to pull tab these corners off to get the lid off and then it just leaves this container with empty corners. So I tried to fix that with some beads and then I'll show you what I do later but I just masked off the top of this because I thought I would leave the inside and that upper edge just the white plastic. So I'm just masking it off with some painter's tape, making sure that it's down really well with my nail. And so I have three beads in each corner just secured with some hot glue to give myself a base to work with. So I am using some twine just for simplicity's sake. I wanted to use all recyclable and trash items but I just couldn't think of something easy enough to do for this edging. It seems to be our go-to is just to use twine or jute rope so that's what I did. I was just thinking too hard about it. It was driving me crazy so I just went for what was easy. So I'm just wrapping the twine around to hide the edge. So this top lip here it's not even. It kind of has like a bow to it so I just want it to be like a nice even finished edge. I did three strips of this jute rope. I guess, yeah, jute rope would be a description for it. It's just from the Dollar Tree. So this craft costs one dollar. So just getting that all secured down and then I'm going to burn off all the little frizzies, like the little fuzziness of the rope. It just cleans it up, makes it nice and easy to paint and finish and it just looks a lot cleaner. So if you do this at home you just want to be careful, use common sense and just be super careful with the open flame. So once that was done it's going to be a lot easier to paint and I just used some of my own chalk paint. I don't have any chalk paint at the moment. I've run out. I'm hoping there's a box on its way to me from Plaid but we'll see if those little delivery fairies arrive with a box soon or not. I have moved on from Dollar Tree sandpaper. I went out to the garage and found that my husband had bought some better sandpaper at some point and it is such a relief. That sandpaper from Dollar Tree is just absolute garbage so I'm much happier now with some better sandpaper on my craft table. So this is just homemade black chalk paint. I went to the, what is it called, the ReStore. So it's like the Habitat for Humanity ReStore shop and they actually sell a lot of mist tints and paints that like didn't get used or like were the wrong mixture or whatever and I found a whole big can, a gallon can of black latex paint and then I used the recipe that I learned from Holly over at Hot Humble Pie. She actually goes through how to make your own chalk paint with you so I will have a link to her video in my description box. I've used it a couple times now. It is fairly good. I would like to get my hands on some Waverly chalk paint but we'll see in the near future. So now I am just going to make some strips from newspaper. They're about three quarters inch wide and they are rolled about eight to ten times. So I cut newspaper pages in half the opposite way of the newspaper so that I would get lots of length from them and then I'm just folding them about, I want them to be three quarter inches when they're done so I start a little bit narrower and then as you fold it over and over it gets a little bit larger. So it's not perfect, they're not perfect. It is a fairly forgiving craft but just to know that that's kind of what you're going for is three quarter inches. I then cut them down into smaller sizes, some of them just to be the length of the container and then the other ones I just left long to paint yellow to go around the container. So for all my shorter pieces they are the black, so painted in the black chalk paint and then for the longer pieces I will be painting them yellow. So you just kind of turn yourself into a little paint factory here and I'm just painting all of the shorter pieces black and just giving them a little nudge as they're drying just because I had them drying on paper. If I had had them drying on plastic then I wouldn't have to worry about them sticking to the plastic but because they're on paper I was just trying to be careful. So now I am gluing them all to the bottom of this container only, so they're only glued to the bottom. The top half is all loosey-goosey on there just so I can do the weaving because I'm going to be weaving them with the yellow strips to do a basket weave technique. So now I'm going to go in paint all of the long strips yellow because newspaper is so colorful now and I find it messier than it ever was. I don't know if it's cheaper ink or what they do but I just thought it'd be a good idea to seal it with a primer. So I just went in, I have some primer on hand. If you don't, like if you have chalk paint, I think some of the manufactured chalk paint actually has a bit of a primer in it or a sealer that would stop the ink from coming through. But I just wanted to be sure and then because I'm painting yellow I always want to have a white base coat or a very solid light base coat because yellow is always transparent. It doesn't matter what paint it is, it always just seems to be a little transparent. So I go in with some yellow now over that nice white base coat and it goes on nice and easy. So same thing because I had these drying on paper and not plastic, I just kept moving them a little bit giving them that little bit of nudging as they're drying just so that they don't end up sticking to the paper and so I don't have too many problems with them ripping or getting stuck. So I went in gave them a second coat and that was good to go, just two coats of the acrylic because I had that nice white base coat. So now is the fun part, I get to braid them all or weave them all together. So this is super fun, it's just that normal basket weave that you did as a kid with construction paper I'm sure at some point in your life and it was just really fun. And I was a little concerned because the container slopes upwards as you get to the top but this newspaper I painted was actually super forgiving and there was just that little bit of space with the black pieces because it sloped up and I just found the whole project was really forgiving, I didn't really have to finagle anything too much at all. So it all just works out, just take your time and just make sure you're not super tired so you're getting that pattern right as you go. And I was just using a little bead, just a little drop of hot glue just to keep everything locked in place because the basket weave kind of helps hold it together anyway. So now at the top I'll just have to secure each piece including the black on top of the yellow. So just a little bit more time consuming, just be a little bit careful that you don't mess up your pattern but it was just easy, easy peasy, nice fun craft to do. I think this would be great with a little bit older kids, just teaching them weaving. I don't know if they do that in the schools anymore, probably don't have time. So then I just took off all the tape that was protecting that little white rim around the top, that ridge there. I didn't know where to cut it off otherwise and I think this worked out really well, it just has a nice clean look to it. So I found some bees just doing a google search for watercolor bees and this came up. I think it's actually the preview of a napkin I think that they sell on Amazon, I want to say it was. So just like the image of a napkin that had bees on it. So this worked out perfectly, I printed out two sheets which gave me two big bees and four little bees, actually eight little bees, so two big bees and eight little ones. And then I just mounted them to some of the cardboard that I had, just some white cardboard, and I just used Mod Podge to glue them all down. Now these two I wanted it to be double-sided because this is going to be like a tag hanging off of the container, so I just glued them together. I lined them up as best I could, it was a little bit off but not too bad. I'll show you how I cut it out here so that it's a little bit forgiving. And I just sealed them up with some Mod Podge, they were printed on a laser printer so I didn't really have to worry about sealing them. If you use an inkjet just use some hairspray or a clear acrylic sealer or spray varnish, anything that you have that will seal the ink in. So I just cut, I left room, I left some of the white around the bee just so that it would be forgiving because they're not lined up exactly perfect, and it worked out, it's fine. And then I just poked a little hole in the top of the bee after to tie it on with. So for the tie I'm using this yellow and white twine that is also from Dollar Tree, and I'm making a tassel. So I happened to find this little wooden bowl at a thrift store and look at how great it works for this tassel. So I think I'll just keep it as a tassel maker. So if you haven't seen this done before I'm sure there's lots of better tutorials on making a tassel on YouTube. I'm not always the best step-by-step teacher but hopefully you get the idea. You just wrap it around about 30-40 times and then you're just creating your own little tassel. So put a hole through that bee and just put the twine through and knotted it so it would stay in place. And then just figured out how to wrap it around the top of my little container here. So I just wanted the bee and the tassel to hang together in the middle of the container. So just working out getting the right length and just take your time, make sure it's knotted really well so that it will hold. And then once I had them where I wanted and got them all knotted, I just put in a little bit of hot glue as well just to make sure they're secured there. And then you give your little tassel a haircut. The finished product. I just put in some dollar store florals. Half of them are from Dollar Tree, the other half is from Dollarama and just staged it a little bit. That gnome and the camera from a previous bee tiered tray that I did quite a while ago. If you're interested I'll have a link to that video in my description as well. And like I mentioned, today is part of the Save Our Earth Challenge and it's hosted by the Purple Pixie, Crystal, my friend. And it's just a wonderful collaboration. She really encourages nice budget friendly crafts. She's kind of the queen of that and she's super creative that way. So I'll have a link to her channel in my description and her co-host is Danielita AF and she's the crafty mixologist. So she teaches you a fun drink with her craft videos. It's super fun. So check them both out. I'll have a link to the playlist and a link to their channels in my description box and be sure to get more Save Our Earth inspiration. So I'm just going through, this is another empty container, just that iced tea canister that you saw there and just stripped it down. And then I am making one centimeter strips of cardboard. So this is actually the backing of an old gift box that I had held on to. So it has the white on the one side and then just the cardboard showing on the other side. And I just took my time, measured out one centimeter strips and you just cut them out. A little bit tedious, but put on a good YouTube and you're good to go. So I wanted to seal this as well because I'm hoping to paint it yellow. So again, I just have this primer on hand. If you have chalk paint, you probably don't need to worry about this, especially the manufactured chalk paint because it has its own kind of sealer protector in it. The homemade chalk paint, I'm not sure that it does. And when you paint latex paint over something that's bare wood or bare cardboard, it really sucks in the paint. So then I'm just going over this with the soft, I believe it's called sunny yellow, just an acrylic paint and just got a nice coat of it underneath. So I have a good yellow to work on top of. So with the strips, I'm trying to do a weaving technique that I've never done before. And I want to say it's the same technique that you would use with caning, like the caning that's in chairs, like dining room chairs, living room chairs, that sort of thing. I have an uncle in Princeton, Rhode Island, who I'm sure could teach me this in a second. He's gotten super, super good at caning, but I'm just experimenting, wanting to try this out with these cardboard strips. It wasn't ideal, I think, because I tried to start in the middle. So this is very specific. You have to have every weave correct, like under, over, under, over. And I think because I didn't start at one side of it, I just kind of started in the middle. I think that's what kind of threw me for a loop and never having done it before. But I learned so much from this. I love this weave, and it actually really inspired me to do another project. So down the road, I'll be doing another project with this weaving technique. So this was great practice, is the way I'm looking at it. But it turns out pretty cute. You guys tell me what you think, if this is something you would try or not. The cardboard was a little unforgiving, just because it doesn't have any flex or give to it at all. I think with caning, if I'm not incorrect, I think you work with it wet, like so that it is more pliable. I can't be sure about that. I'll have to talk to my uncle and find out more about his caning. I'm really curious to know more about it. But anyway, just getting this all glued down, it turns out so messy, just because I have to use so much glue with this cardboard. But I end up just taking my heat gun to it and kind of melt all the little strings and extra hot glue. I couldn't leave it on too long, because it is just hot glue holding it all together. But it did clean it up a little bit. And then I just went in with that sunny yellow and just covered the whole thing. So I have a nice base coat to work on top of. So once I got that all done with that sunny yellow, then I go in with the vivid yellow. I'm just using the just the acrylic paint from Dollar Tree. So just kind of use what you have. And just going through this brush here is from Dollar Tree as well. It's like a kids paintbrush, but I'm actually really liking them. They have a neat kind of finish to it. The bristles are natural and it kind of gives a nice finish. So after I looked at this, I kind of thought maybe what was bugging me was it didn't look finished enough. So I went back in and added one of the longer strips along the top and the bottom. And it did help it make it look more finished, because it was just so hard to get those edges perfectly cut with that fine, fine little metal part that's at the bottom and top. So this did. It just helped clean it up, make it look a little bit more finished. So then I just had to go back in and paint those too. So just did again the base coat of the sunny yellow and then went in with the vivid yellow on top. And it just gave it a more finished look. Still not quite up to my standard of crafting, but I'm just looking at it as a great practice project. And it did give me a lot of inspiration to try this again. So then just going back to those little bees mounted on the cardboard, just cutting out the smaller ones. And again, I kind of ended up fussy cutting these a little bit, but I just I did allow myself a little bit of white to show around the edges, just to make it a little bit easier on myself. So you can see the one that's cut out there. I cut them out like almost like a sticker would be, just with some of the white showing. So do whatever you have to do. I mean if you're not into fussy cutting, you could just leave them more like stickers, right, with just a really wavy kind of outline to them. And then I just got to stick them over the very imperfect parts of my container here, so they kind of help hide the little imperfections, which was nice. And I just did a random gluing of them onto the project. I feel like it kind of has a real garden vibe to it, like that kind of like you see some lanterns and stuff with this weave to it. So I just put in some sunflowers that are from Dollarama, and this is the finished look. Hopefully you guys like it. I'm really enjoying all the bright yellow in my home. I just find it brings so much happiness, and no wonder it's the color of hope. So I just really have been enjoying all the sunflowers, and the bees, and all this happy yellow. And here is everything together. So again, just if you're interested in that little gnome and the photo frame, that will be linked in the description box as well. Please be sure to go check out the playlist. Lots of my friends will be in this playlist, and have worked really hard on their videos, so be sure to go check that out. Thank you so much for watching, and I will have another bee video on Sunday, for Sunday Funday, so be sure to stay tuned for that!