I love recycling in my crafts, so when I found a cabinet full of plastic lids that have somehow lost their containers, I knew I had to think of some use for them. Inspiration was just a room away. We are ‘tweening up my daughters room with lots of pink and orange and denim. So, I pulled out an old pair of jeans and started cutting. Here’s how you can recycle with style and make your own easy DIY wall hanging.
Here’s what you need:
- An old plastic lid (Mine is from a square ice cream container)
- Craft knife, scissors
- Old pair of jeans
- Cardboard (Anyone who knows me knows that I used foam core board!)
- Clear drying craft glue
- Two contrasting sheets of scrapbook paper
- Hot glue gun and sticks
- 2-inch piece of narrow ribbon
- Pencil
Start by cutting out the inside section of the lid, leaving only the ridge of it. If your lid has a tab like mine id, cut it away too. The easiest way to cut thin plastic is with scissors. My lid was rather thick, so I started a hole with the craft knife, then worked the scissors in and cut the rest away. Trace the inside of the lid onto your cardboard and set aside for later.
Rip strips of the jeans. I used the leg section and cut a snip about an inch long into the jeans then ripped the rest of the way. Rip out a large section of jeans that is 6 inches wide. Cut across this piece, snipping pieces that are 1/2 to 1 inch wide. Once you have ripped all your strips, you are ready to make the frame of your wall hanging.
Tie strips around the lid’s ridge. If the tie is long enough, knot it. Ties an knots should be on the “front” of the frame. The back will look smoother. After all the strips have been tied around the lid, prepare the decorative inset.
Cut out the tracing you made earlier. Cut a sheet of scrapbook paper, using the tracing as your guide. Cut the paper about an inch wider all the way around so it can wrap around the edges of your cardboard. Glue the scrapbook paper onto the cardboard and wrap the edges to the back side. Glue them in place, too.
Cut your initial from the second piece of scrapbook paper and glue it onto the covered cardboard (or foam core!) as desired. Allow ample drying time.
Adhere the cardboard to the denim frame with a few dabs of hot glue. Dime-sized dollops in each corner should be enough to hold it just fine. Hot glue the ribbon into the desired location on the back of the cardboard to create a light-weight hanger. This will hang easily from a thumb tack.
