Upcycled Plastic Bottle to Make Up Brush Holder

Ok, so as you can maybe guess from this and my previous post,  I have been reorganising my make up and really wanted a holder to put my brushes in.  Anyway I decided to make one out of an old clear plastic bottle (2 litre type), the first thing I did was cut the bottle in half which was tall enough to contain the height of my brushes.

Here it is with the brushes.

Next I measured the circumference of the bottle, realised my pretty paper was a little to narrow to fit all the way around in one strip so had to do a little joining of pieces on to the bottle.

Ok, so here is the bottle with the strips of paper glued to it.  I added a layer of clear glaze (suitable for paper) on top of the paper and sprinkled a little gold and pink glitter on there as well.  

Now, you can see that the bottom of the bottle/brush holder is a weird shape, so I lightly sanded this with fine sandpaper (it helps the acrylic paint to adhere) and painted on some hot pink acrylic paint with a little glitter.  

Lastly I covered the paper joins and the top rim with some cute trims that I had spare.  I just added these with super glue.

 And voila, here is my upcycled plastic bottle turned make up holder.  I am thinking of adding a thin layer of clear varnish to the bit that I painted but will do that later :0)

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Depotting Sleek Make Up Eye Shadow Palettes into an Upcycled Pencil Tin

Ok, so I had 4 Sleek Make Up Eye Shadow Palettes and wanted all of the eye shadows in one container.

First of all I cleaned and spritzed this empty pencil tin with rubbing alcohol to sanitise it.  I have also seen people use the DVD or CD plastic cases with the black insert taken out and of course you could use any other suitable container with a lid you can think of.

Next, I took a piece of pretty glittery pink self adhesive film and on the reverse side, I drew around the shape of the pencil tin lid, adding a little "seam allowance" to cover the edges of the lid. Alternatively you could also use glue on pretty paper or fabric and could add trims, ribbons, embellishments, stickers etc 

This is the tin lid covered.  

The next bit is a little tricky and requires a lot of patience which I ran short of!  Take your palette and place it on a flat iron/hair straightener..or use a hair dryer...or a lighter with caution...just heat the bottom of the palette for about 30 seconds, this will help the glue on the eyeshadow pans to loosen.

You then want to use a safety pin and a pair of tweezers to gently tease the eyeshadow pan out of the palette case.

Here they are all done with a few accidents, if you dig into your eyeshadows add a couple of drops of rubbing alcohol to them and press them back down.

Next I took a piece of strong card and superglued all of the eyeshadow pans to the card and then stuck a little bluetack to the back of the card before popping it, along with the eyeshadows, into the tin.  

Some people stick their eyeshadows directly into the tin but I didn't want to do that as I want the tin to be reuseable.  Also I have seen other crafters use magnets or those little double sided spongy stickers and attach those to the back of each eyeshadow pan so that the tin can be reused once the eyeshadows are finished.

 Voila all done!  The most time consuming and fiddly bit was depotting the eyeshadows, I would advise putting old towels on your work surface AND the floor as you can end up with little bits all over the place & you can't see until you tread on them!!! not too hot with the black or darker eyeshadows!

Sleek Make Up Palettes

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Fabric Bracelets (from plastic bottles and fabric remnants)

Ok, so I have been having some real fun today making bracelets from old plastic bottles and fabric scraps.

I normally recyle what I can but sometimes I love to just reuse the items instead plus I am always on the look out for ways to use up my fabric remnants.  These bracelets were inspired by a tutorial on Favecrafts (which is a fab site for allsorts of crafts) and I added my own twist to it as always.

 Ok, so the first thing to do is cut up a clean and dry old round plastic bottle, I used a 1 litre sized one.that had a wide enough circumference to make a bracelet to fit me.

Then, I cut out strips of plastic of various widths with some plastic left over for who knows what as yet :0)  

Once you have cut out your bracelet shapes, staple or glue the ends together (I did both as the glue didn't want to stick) to your desired circumference.  I just used a shop bought bracelet I already had to gauge this.

 The next thing you want to do is cut a long strip of fabric, I didn't measure the length or width, just winged it.  Now if you like, you may want to hem the raw edges so that you have a nice smooth wrap of fabric around your braclet.  

Then, you need to apply some hot glue or other suitable glue to the inside of your bracelet and start to wrap your fabric strip around it, adding glue each time you stick down the fabric.

 This is 1/2 way through wrapping the fabric around the bracelet...keep wrapping and glueing and wrap it tight!

 Once you get to the end, you want to cut off the end of your fabric strip (if there is a lot left) and turn the end into the inside of your bracelet

 This bit is optional, but its for a Flower embellishment: - draw  2 or 3 circles of different sizes onto the back of your fabric (or another fabric if you like), I just used a couple of different sized pots I had lying around

 Cut out the circles, they don't have to be perfect as you we will be "singing" the edges

 Then cut some little nicks into your circle (I did 4) to form the petals

 Now using the heat from a lit Tee-Lite gently waft your fabric flower close but not in the flame.  The fabric will start to curl and take more of a flower shape....please note, I used polyester satin, I am not sure how this would work with other types of fabric.
(PLEASE BE CAREFUL TO NOT CAUSE A FIRE - IT MAY BE WORTH HAVING A BOWL OF WATER NEARBY JUST IN CASE) .

 So here are the 2 layers to the flower

 Next I hot glued the smaller layer to the bigger layer, stuck the flowers to my bracelet and glued on a few rhinestones and voila!  I also made a pink one out of a remnant of Sari fabric that has been used in so many different projects it has an endless lifespan!

Until next time, Zoe xxx

I am linking this post to these fab sites linky parties...

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