How to make amazing windspinners with upcycled drinks cans

I’m always looking for interesting decorations to put on our allotment.
I spotted some upcycled wind spinners made with drinks cans online and decided to have a go at making some. I’m really pleased with the results and wanted to share the making process in this tutorial.
They are really simple to make and once you’ve made a couple, you’ll get the hang of it.
I hope you enjoy making them too, I think they look great spinning away in the wind…

You will need…
2 clean aluminium drinks cans
10” of stiff wire (I’ve used PVC-coated garden)
Kitchen scissors
Bradawl (a nail & hammer work just as well)
Long nose pliers
Combination pliers (to cut the wire)
Tin opener
4-6 beads (plastic or wooden)
Masking tape
Marker pen

For my wind spinners I have used tall aluminium cans, the type you get beer or cider in. The taller cans make a larger spinner. You can use smaller soft drinks cans if you prefer.

Step 1:
Using a tin opener, cut the tops off the cans (ring pull end). Once the top has been taken off, rinse out thoroughly and leave to dry. Once dry, trim down the excess aluminium at the top of the cans.

Step 2:
Now you need to cut the cans to create 12 fairly equal ‘spokes’. One method is to wrap a piece of masking tape around the can and mark off equal sections with marker pen to guide you. Try to get the spokes as equal as possible, but don’t get too hung up on it. Once the spokes are joined together, the overall effect looks good even if you haven't got every single spoke exactly the same width...

Step 3:
Once you are happy with the marking off of your 12 spokes, use the kitchen scissors to cut slits from the top edge to within 1/4" from the bottom.

Step 4:
Next, open out each of the spokes outward and down. Tip: press your thumb against the bottom of each spoke before bending them out - it will help stop the metal from crimping.

Step 5:
Once you have fanned out the spokes, you should have something that looks like this. Repeat with the other can…

Step 6:
Using the bradawl (or hammer and nail) punch a hole in the bottom of both cans.

Step 7:
Use the long nose pliers to fold over the end of each spoke (about 1/4" is enough). Repeat process on both cans.

Step 8:
Now you are ready to construct your windspinner by joining the spokes together. Overlap the end of a spoke from one can with the end of a spoke from the second can. Slide the corners together and hold firmly with the fingers of one hand, use the long nose pliers to bend the corner over. Use the pliers to crimp the corner tightly together to secure the spokes.

Step 9:
Move onto the next spoke and repeat the above process. Keep linking the spokes together until they are all joined up. Your wind spinner should now look like this…

Step 10:
Using the long nose pliers bend the end of the wire to make a small loop. Thread 2-3 beads onto the wire and then thread the wire through the holes, top and bottom, in the cans. The wire should now run through the centre of your wind spinner. Thread the remaining 2-3 beads onto the wire.

Your wind spinner is now ready to hang either in your garden or on an allotment plot. It is possible to stack 2-3 spinners on top of each other. Just join the wires together or thread a longer piece of wire through the centre. Just remember to thread beads between each spinner or they wont rotate in the wind.

They really come alive when they are spinning in the wind. So I'm going to try and get a video of one of my spinners 'in action' on our allotment plot...

There you go, a great way to upcycle empty drinks cans…enjoy!

Feel free to pin the image below to your Pinterest, but please link back to this post, thank you!

I'm linking up with...

Trash2Treasure over on www.coombemill.com

HomeEtc over on www.thetwinklediaries.co.uk and mummyofboygirltwins.com

Making Home over on www.mrscraftyb.co.uk

Children's Craft Project: Autumn Leaves Jar Lantern

Magoo made this pretty lantern whilst on a school trip to Wildspace near Bristol. The children were asked to collect fallen Autumn leaves from the woodland. We then went back to the education room to use the leaves. I volunteered to help on the school trip and saw the lanterns being made. I wanted to share them with you...

The children were asked to take a piece of double sided tape and stick it around an empty glass jar in a spiral motion. Once the backing tape was removed, it left a sticky surface for the children to attach the leaves to the jar. Once they had squeezed on as many leaves as they felt happy with, the adults added the wired twine. I think it may be called Bindwire and used by florists. I found some here from oasisfloral.co.uk. The adults twisted the twine to create a handle for the lantern.

The children loved making the lanterns and took them home at the end of the day. I think they look very appealing once they have a candle glowing inside.

What you will need:

Clean, empty glass jar

Wired kraft paper twine or Bindwire

Double sided tape

Tea light candles

Magoo and I added some Hydrangea petals to our jar once we were home. In the Autumn the Hydrangeas in our garden turn a beautiful maroon shade. we couldn't resist adding them in amongst the leaves.

I'm linking up with Trash to Treasure (#Trash2Treasure) over on www.coombemill.com

Let Kids be Kids over on letkidsbekids.co.uk

Magic Moments hosted by theoliversmadhouse.co.uk

I'm also linking up with How Does Your Garden Grow #HDYGG over on mammasaurus.co.uk

Naturally Crafty over on growingfamily.co.uk

Fun on our handmade upcycled wooden garden swing

My husband made this child's swing from upcycled wood for Magoo last Summer. It's been a firm favourite with our daughter and her friends ever since. I thought it was about time I wrote about it & shared some photos of the project. We bought the wood from Somerset Wood Recycling for a bargain price of £10. They also threw in the two large bolts we needed to attach the swing ropes to the frame.

Somerset Wood Recycling is one of our favourite places to visit on a Saturday morning. They have a large warehouse full of wood waiting to be repurposed into new things. Much of the wood is donated and we like walking around looking at the crates, pallets, railway sleepers, old doors and piles of floorboards. Somerset Wood Recycling also sell a range of products made by volunteers and adults with learning disabilities. They have a fantastic selection of wooden benches, deckchairs, tables, chopping boards, garden planters and even upcycled wooden coffins.


Once my husband had chosen the pieces of wood he wanted to use, he started to put the swing frame together. Magoo helped with making holes to put the screws through. She loved being involved with the making-process.
Once the frame was complete, we attached the swing ropes and seat. Magoo couldn't wait to try it out and it was given the thumbs up.
Once the swing was in place we gave it a coat of cornflower blue wood paint.
This swing is made with upcycled wood which would have otherwise gone to waste. It also really solid and much firmer than mass-produced plastic or metal counterparts. Magoo loves her swing and has been playing on it in all weathers ever since it was finished...


I'm linking up with the lovely Country Kids #countrykids over on the Coombe Mill blog, Let Kids be Kids over on letkidsbekids.co.uk, #ordinarymoments over on www.mummydaddyandmemakesthree.co.uk, Image of the Week #IOTW over on www.trulymadlykids.co.uk, Point + Shoot over on youbabymemummy.com, Trash to Treasure over on www.coombemill.com

Fun making upcycled Easter hats at the Children's Scrapstore

I'm a huge fan of the Children's Scrapstore. I wrote a feature about them for UK Handmade back in the Summer of 2013. I love the ethos of taking varied scrap materials collected from local businesses and using it for creative play.

We often visit the Scrapstore on a Saturday morning & love spending time rummaging through the scrap. Children are encourage to create something on a particular theme, like robots or sea creatures. Last Saturday it was Easter hats.

There's so much to love about the Scrapstore, lots of large tubs filled with brightly couloured fabrics, stickers, card and foam. Magoo can never resist throwing herself on the neon netting in glee, it's a visual feast for any child's eyes.

Once we'd had a look round, Magoo got to work with cardboard, pens, glue & shiny paper. She made a natty rabbit-hat with decorated ears, a foam nose & googly eyes.

I also had a go at making a rabbit-hat. I used cardboard, foam and strips of the neon netting Magoo loves so much.

Only thing was, I got my measurements a bit wrong & it's too small for my head. It's even too small for Magoo's head. So teddy had to model it!

I'm linking up with Let Kids be Kids, #ordinarymoments over on www.mummydaddyandmemakesthree.co.uk, My Best Post of the Week #MBPW over on www.britmums.com

New Years Resolution: decluttering

I'm not keen on making loads of New Years Resolutions which fall by the wayside come the end of January. One I am planning on sticking to is making an attempt to declutter our house.

This plastic jug pictured above just about sums up my problem. It sits tucked away under my toilet cistern, in our bathroom. Everytime a toothbrush gets too worn out to be used on our teeth, I put it in the jug where it might 'come in handy' for something. My husband thinks I'm mad, but tolerates these things. Whilst I am not a hoarder on this type of scale, I do hate to throw things out. The thought of all the waste making it's way to landfill in this country alone on a daily basis makes me shudder.

Kerbside recycling has improved dramatically over the past few years and we can easily put out paper, cardboard, certain plastics, food waste and garden waste to be picked up from our doorsteps. I'm also keen on passing on sellable things and regularly fill bags for charity. We've also used Freecycle on many occasions and I think it's a fantastic site and must help to prevent more waste going to landfill. We've passed on old TVs, a stereo, old toys, plant pots, boxes of tiles and even a double mattress. The fact that someone is willing to collect from your house is fantastic. I think since we've lived in our current house, we've been to the local rubbish dump about 5 times over 5 years, which is pretty good going and I think Freecycle has been a big help in keeping those trips to the dump to a minimum.

But what about the jug of toothbrushes? There are just some things that don't fit into the kerbside collections and noone would want these in a charity shop and I think they are even beyond Freecyclers, yet I can't bring myself to chuck them in the bin...I know one of the golden rules on recycling is not to buy items in the first place if you can possibly help it, which is something I try to stick to, but as far as toothbrushes go, I don't want to lose my teeth, so I'm going to keep on brushing them. Which leaves the problem of what to do with the old brushes.

And there are lots of other household items that fall into that category, video tapes, old CDs, wine bottle corks, plastic spoons...the list goes on.

Which is why am I so glad I stumbled across this website when trying to find ways to recycle my growing collection of toothbrushes.

How can I recycle this? is a fantastic source of ideas for all those hard to recycle items. It's run by two people who were in exactly the same position as I am now when faced with waste which could be reused if only they knew how. The site works by taking suggestions for items to be reused, then it's up to the good people of the internet to post their suggestions underneath said item. The site also likes to promote people's clever, interesting and creative ideas for recycling something.

A quick search of the site throws up this post on "How can I reuse or recycle … old toothbrushes?". There are some interesting suggestions, including using a Terradent toothbrush, which helps to eliminate the need to keep buying new toothbrushes in the first place. Apart from toothbrushes there are so many other clever ideas, in fact the site has over 14,000 suggestions for a plethora of items. It's definitely a site I will be bookmarking for later use!

New for 2011: vintage fabric cushion covers

Back in April, I sourced a fantastic selection of vintage fabric. It's been calling out to be made into retro cushion covers ever since it arrived at my house. I have spent the Summer months creating a new range for Pouch and they are now live in my Etsy and Folksy stores!



I am so pleased with the way they have turned out, the colours really pop. They make a fab addition to any vintage-addicts house! Due to the fact we use vintage fabric, these cushion covers are limited edition, once the fabric has gone, we can't make more!



I currently have six colourways for sale, they are:
vintage fabric cushion cover in buttercup and chestnut
vintage fabric cushion cover in mauve and purple
vintage fabric cushion cover in turquoise and cobalt blue
vintage fabric cushion cover in plum purple
vintage fabric cushion cover in turquoise and midnight blue
vintage fabric cushion cover in jade and scarlet

To view the full range, please visit my Etsy and Folksy stores!

New listing: Reversible lavender and lilac vintage fabric tote

I have just listed this lavender and lilac vintage fabric tote in Pouch's Etsy store

This tote makes a great beach bag, knitting bag, book bag or gym bag. It's also perfect for taking to the shops or farmers market to stock up on provisions.

This tote has no visible seams, so it is reversible – making this two bags in one!

Made with upcycled, vintage fabric featuring a floral pattern in shades of pale lilac, rich purple and soft lavender. It is fully lined with repurposed, damson purple corduroy fabric.



It has a total of 5 pockets, 3 on the vintage fabric side and 2 on the corduroy side. The handles are made from strong white webbing and covered on one side with the same lavender and lilac fabric.

Fun, stylish and eco-friendly.

Full listing details with measurements here:
Reversible lavender and lilac vintage fabric tote

New Listing: peppermint and charcoal mini messenger purse

I've just listed a new mini-messenger in Pouch's Etsy store


The outside is made from repurposed black denim. It is fully lined with vintage fabric which features a striking criss cross pattern in shades of mint green, lime green and pure white.



This is a robust, eco-friendly mini-purse
Pretty and stylish, great for year-round use





To see the full listing, click here

Don't forget, free worldwide shipping on all bags, totes and clutch purses in March!

new listings: vintage fabric laundry bags

Pouch currently has a number of vintage fabric laundry bags listed here

Made with repurposed, vintage fabric, they come in three designs:
Flower meadow drawstring laundry bag
Harvest berries drawstring laundry bag
and
Cotton candy drawstring laundry bag

Brighten up your wash-day with these pretty laundry bags