Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Recycled DIY romantic night light


Buy cheap garland and put it into empty jar. Repurpose jars! Cover jar with foil cap just for looks, plug garland in and you have a beautiful and romantic night light.

Cardboard night stand and charging station


You will need:

1. Thick cardboard
2. Box cutter
3. White glue (wood)
4. Hot glue
5. Ruler
6. Paint tape

Part 1.
Draw the image of you future nightstand (how you want it to look from the front) on a cardboard, cut it out.


Using the first form as a pattern outline and cut 3 more forms like this, number them.

Also you will need one more for the back but outline and cut out only outside figure not touching the inside -it will be the fifth figure.
Connect figures number 2,3 and 4 with paint tape and draw holes for future ribs 4 mm width and half of the width of you form heights. For example, if I have the width of my form 5 sm, I will need 2,5 sm. size of my hole in heights.
Cut holes out, try to make them uniform.
Place figure 2 on figure 1 and outline holes. Then do the same with figure 5.

Part 2.

You need to make ribs with length = width of your nightstand-width of your cardboard*2.
I had the width of my nightstand 50 sm minus double width of cardboard (4mm*2=8mm), so I had the length of ribs 49,2 sm.
The width of the rib should equal to the width of your figure.
First draw ribs on a cardboard and cut them out. Do not forget to leave 3 holes in each rib using the same principle as with figures. Leave equal distance between holes.


Part 3.
Connect figures 2,3 4 with ribs using holes.




You should now have a volume of your future nightstand.



Take each rib and glue it to the construction with wood glue or you can use hot glue. Then make the ribs firmer by additionally enforcing the joints with paper and wood glue:





Glue the front (number 1) and back (number 5) panels to the construction using hot or wood glue:




Part 4.
Measure and cut out inside walls, glue them to the construction.


Enforce corners with additional ribs glued in diagonal order. It will make it sturdy.



Then measure and cut out outside panels of the construction. I had two 60 by 50 -right and left sides, one 50 by 50 -bottom,  3 narrow and 1 wider part of top. It is better to measure the top parts on place. Glue them to the construction. I used hot glue here.

Enforce the corners with masking tape.




Part 5.

Sand all corners and smooth everything you do not like.
Use paint tape to cover all corners inside and outside.




Part 6.
Mix wood glue with water (2 parts of glue and 1 part water). Glue paper pieces to the sides of your construction inside and outside in 2 or more layers (papier-mâché  principle). Let the glue dry between each layer.





Part 7.

Smoth some defects with sanding paper again. 

Cover the product with paint, adhesive tape or wallpapers. I have chosen yellow and white acrylic paint.

The same method I used for the drawer. Do not forget to reduce drawer sizes for 1 cm from each side.

Good luck!

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Cardboard picture/photo frame DIY


First you need a good pattern. I watched a lot of frames images before I developed my own. 

I have two frames of different width glued together, I covered them with thin paper and wooden glue which I dissolved with water by half&half.

 After it is dry I spray painted it with white and put on the wall on double-sided tape. I did not need the back side of frame because I already had adhesive chalkboard on the wall.

Good luck!

Cardboard bedside table/night stand DIY

First you need to plan desired measurements and draw them on a big sheet of cardboard. I had the following pattern with h 60; w50; d40.
If you do not have such a big piece of cardboard you can split the pattern on 3 parts as I did. In this case do not forget to leave extra (3 cm) of cardboard in the middle for them to glue together. Cut out your pattern.
This is how the one side part looks:
When you have everything cut out you need bend the cardboard by pushing in the bending lines with something edgy but not sharp. I used wooden spatula.

Then bend: 

When you have everything bent you need to glue the pattern together and wait until it is dry. I used white wooden glue.



Cut out and glue the back. It should be the size of you height and width. Now you have the main part ready.



It is time to make 2 shelves. Draw pattern, cut it out, bend lines and glue inside the box. 

It looked nice without drawers but you can make one drawer. Sorry I do not have a pattern for it. 



First I wanted to leave it in pure cardboard...:


but then I changed my mind and covered it with white paper 

then painted in yellow:

The drawer I decorated with the glass knob and yellowish fabric which was left from my previous project.

Good luck!