Ok, let’s face it. The result is pretty lame. However, I chose to post this link because the technique shown can be applied to many other things, like making furniture, miniature models, etc.

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How to make a macro lens from an old slide projector.

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What’s the perfect remedy to winter? Tomato/cucumber salad, with basil and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. It’s even better when you grow your own herbs. With this homemade greenhouse, you can have your own mini-garden year-round.

Homemade mini-greenhouse [link]

I swear, I didn’t see this until I posted yesterday’s post: it’s basically the same thing, but mono (so much for stereo separation anyways), and amplified! I’ll definitely build myself one of these. They’d also make great gifts for guitar playing friends. Refer to yesterday’s project for installing felt in the tin, as it probably helps with the overall sound quality.

Altoids Tin Amplified Mini Speaker [link]

I love just about every project that’s built around the Altoids tins. This one is no exception: mini speakers made of recycled headphones. You could also use those cheap mini-speakers that they sell at your local electronic parts store.

Altoids Tin Mini Speakers [link]

What to do when the global stock of instant film has been depleted? Turn your old Polaroid camera into a web cam! Re-purposing this cultural icon (is it the theme of the week?) is a great idea, bringing this classic design into the 21st century. A great gift idea too.

Long live the Polaroid Webcam [link]

I altered the time stamp so this post shows up yesterday, because I was out having a nice dinner with friends instead of writing this entry. Hope you won’t mind.

Turn that Valentine’s Day candy box into a heart-shaped frame.

Or better yet, make your own valentine’s day chocolates and don’t buy that heart-shaped box in the first place.

Recycled Valentine’s Candy Box Picture Frame [link][via]

While most hardcore bike messengers/couriers are made out of nearly indestructible Cordura®, one can use other recycled materials to build a custom courier bag. You can use the fabric from the vinyl banners that you see at public events (the ones with the moon-shaped cut-outs that let the wind through. Just wait until the event is over and swiftly “borrow” a giant vinyl banner. Cutters will be a must, as those vinyl signs are often fastened using tie-wraps (zip-ties).

Another possibility is using garbage bags, which are welt together using a simple technique that anyone can do at home. I tried the technique demonstrated in Bre Pettis’ Weekend Projects podcast (the second link) and it works out great. Turns out that garbage bags can be turned in a rugged waterproof fabric.

DIY Messenger Bag out of Re-purposed Vinyl Signs [link]

DIY Messenger Bag out of Garbage Bags [link]

Thanks to Bold Lentil for this submission:

« You’ll never look at a screw the same way again. Starting with an
anecdote from a bar in Brazil, this post has a simple DIY to make
your own bottle opener. From there it’s simple to consider how
to fill your world with built in bottle openers and a decent example
of extreme re-use. »

Simple and elegant. There’s no excuse to go thirsty!

World’s simplest bottle opener [link]

This is a great find. I love to drink water and hate having piles of crap everywhere (I really need to clean my office). This upcycling project reuses 2 gallon water jugs and turns them into a brilliant (and modular) storage system.

Modular Storage Bins made from Water Jugs [link]

This is yet another gift wrapping post. This one focuses on reusing old newspapers (or this morning’s newspaper) to wrap gifts.

Wrapping gifts with newspapers is a great idea considering that most wrapping papers are produced overseas, with little or no recycled content, and are used to re-package something that’s already packaged! The general idea is to wrap the gifts as nicely as you can. If you wrap them sloppily, they won’t look good. If done properly, you can make a statement and feel even better about giving.

Remember the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Something that isn’t consumed never needs to get Recycled at all. Whatever you do, recycle all wrapping papers. Keep and reuse gift bags and nice wrapper decorations, such as ribbons. It’s as easy as putting them away for next year instead of tossing them. You’ll also save a trip to the store come next holiday season.

Green Gift Wrapping [link]

Yay. I’m done with the crazyness. I’ve finished my Christmas shopping tonight. No more long lineups at the cash register, no more fighting in the parking lots, no more fracking Christmas music.

All that’s left is to wrap those gifts. How about you? Done with the Christmas gifts? Maybe you don’t celebrate the Christian holiday. If that’s the case, consider yourself lucky and enjoy the holidays with your friends and family, or take a few days off and relax.

For the rest of us, awaiting the food shoveling and aunt kissing and handshaking and driving too fast in the snow because we’re late for the party, here’s a nice collection of gift wrapping tips. It would be much better if it were more illustrated, but hey, you can figure it out!

Good luck and happy wrapping

Homemade Holiday Cards and Gift Wrapping [link]

This nice set of instructions shows you how to make your own paper from recycled paper. If you’re like most people, you get lots of flyers, papers and ads in your mailbox (I don’t because we have official stickers we can put on our mailboxes that say we don’t want any unsolicited bulk mail in Montréal). Nevertheless, I still get some bills and non-bulk paper waste. Handmade paper is much more interesting than its industrially produced equivalent. It has a texture, and each sheet is unique and special.

<rant>This project could appeal to scrapbookers. Real DIY ones, not the ones that buy cheesy pre-made kits or stupid sticker sheets. Scrapbooking should be about recycling, not generating more waste.</rant>

Imagine binding your own book (I’ll post something about that this weekend) made of paper you made yourself. You could also make your own holiday cards with them, or whatever project you can think of.

How To Recycle and Make Your Own Paper [link] [via]

Christmas is a capitalistic orgy of overconsumption. You know it’s true. If we’re not ready to cut down on the Christmas junk we give each other, maybe we can cut down on the junk used to wrap the gifts. This project is an interesting take on this concept: turning cracker boxes, or cereal boxes into cool boxes to wrap your gifts.

It’ll be that much junk in the landfills down the road. If you do wrap your gifts with the boring paper they sell everywhere, please make sure it’s recycled once the gifts are unwrapped.

How to Wrap Christmas Gifts Using Trash [link] [via]

Instructions on how to make a nice sleeve for the iPod Nano made from an recycled bicycle inner tube. Simple, functional, elegant.

iPod Nano Case from a Bike Inner-tube [link]

This is a great tutorial on how to make a cheap Aluminum (or aluminium, depending on where you live) Forge. What’s especially nice is that you don’t need anything special. In fact I think I have everything that’s needed to build it in my basement. I wouldn’t do it in the house though, for multiple safety reasons, and since there’s a couple of feet of snow outside, I’ll have to wait until next spring to tackle this project. Maybe you’re lucky and have a garage, or live in a temperate climate.

Once you’ve smelted whatever aluminum scraps you had on hand (old parts, soda cans, etc.), you can use the molten metal to make ingots for later use, or you can pour them into molds to cast whatever you’d like.

Smelting metal is obviously dangerous and should be done very carefully. When doing potentially risky projects like that, I make sure I’m not alone, just in case something happens.

Aluminum factoids:

• Ancient Greeks and Romans used aluminium salts as dyeing mordants and as astringents for dressing wounds; alum is still used as a styptic.
• Discovered in 1825 by Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted.
• Isolated in 1827 by Friedrich Wöhler.
• The most abundant metal in the earth’s crust.
• 8% of the weight of the earth’s solid surface.
• Nontoxic, nonmagnetic, and non-sparking.
• Recycling involves melting the scrap, a process that uses only 5% of the energy needed to produce aluminum from ore.
• A small percent of people are allergic to it.
• Melting point: 933.47 K (660.32 °C, 1220.58 °F).

Aluminum Forge [link]