DIY project to make you fall in love with wooden cable reels

One thing missing from our garden is a decent table for outdoor dining. Now the weather is warming up, we wanted to source a piece of furniture that would be robust enough to live outside all year round.

Somerset Wood Recycling is one of our favourite places to mooch around on a Saturday morning. I blogged last year about the wood we bought to make Magoo's upcycled garden swing. They have so many pieces of wood in all shapes and sizes at SWR. I don't have any carpentry skills, but I love looking at the wide range of patinas and grains on display.

However, Mr M does see himself as something of a woodsman. This year he bought himself an axe which we used to break up our allotment shed back in February. I think he has visions of living in the woods, carving his own bow and arrows. At Christmas I also bought him some wood whittling tools and a 'how-to whittle' book. Working with wood seems to be his thing, so he doesn't need much persuading if I suggest visiting Somerset Wood Recycling.

Last time we visited, a large pile of wooden cable reels stacked up outside caught our eye. We have considered making a table from one of these reels for quite a while now.

We decided a few weeks ago to buy the largest reel we could fit in the car. Once it was home, Mr M set about sanding it down. It was always going to be a rustic table so we weren't aiming for a perfect finish. Even so, the reel still had some very rough edges, we couldn't use it as a table until it was smoothed down.

After the sanding, Magoo wanted to pitch in and get involved with the project. Magoo and her dad set about painting varnish onto the wood. This table will sit outside all year, so we want to try and preserve it as much as possible.

And that's pretty much all we did to create a strong, wooden dining table. Over the past few weeks we have used it for meals, playing board games and outdoor colouring sessions. It really adds an extra dimension to our garden and it was a bargain at only £20.

One of the best things about the wooden cable reel is there is a pre-existing hole right down the middle. Perfect for putting your sun umbrella in and no drilling required.

The next stage is to install a patio in the corner of the garden where the upcycled table will sit. We managed to get hold of some amazing slabs from FreelyWheely and they didn't cost a penny.

All in all it has turned out to be a thrifty DIY project. Since getting hold of our reel I have looked online to see how other people have upcycled theirs. There are so many fantastic example out there. We quite like the rustic look of the plain wood, but there is plenty of scope to get more creative with the cable reels. Some ideas include adding mosaic to the top, whitewashing the wood and wrapping rope around the central column.

I love these cable reels so much I'm going to go back and buy a smaller one for the allotment. It will be perfect for putting our cups of tea and sandwiches on...

I'm linking up with these lovely blogs:

"Trash 2 Treasure" over on www.coombemill.com

"Making Home" over on www.mrscraftyb.co.uk

"Let Kids Be Kids" over on letkidsbekids.co.uk

"Country Kids" over on www.coombemill.com

"Sweet Inspiration" over on repurposingjunkie.com

"Home Etc" over on www.thetwinklediaries.co.uk

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

25% off all vintage trims

I'm having a Summer Sale and offering 25% off all vintage trims

Add a vintage twist to your next crafting project with my striking woven trims, loads to choose from

Perfect for appliqué, collage, mixed-media artwork, scrapbooking and much, much more...

I'm down to the last few yards of certain trims, so grab them before they go!

See the full selection by clicking here

Celebrating creative upcycling and crafts at Children's Scrapstores

When I was a child I loved nothing better than making stuff out of bits and bobs destined for the bin. I cannot count the number of cardboard box, tin foil, loo roll monsters I made when I was little. A pile of cardboard, string, glue and poster paints fired up my imagination and made me think ‘what shall I create today?’

Across the UK there are a network of Scraptores UK that continue the tradition of helping children to use their imaginations and create something with their hands. Each scrapstore is a treasure trove of clean scrap waste materials donated by business to be reused by local children in whatever way their creative urge takes them. The range of materials in any of the scrapstore changes each day and could include card, paper, textiles, paint, cork, wool, cardboard tubes, netting, gauze and many other things.

Scrapstores promote ‘play without rules’ and understand the importance of creative play in a child’s development. Every child needs to have the chance to squish clay, get covered in paint and look at a pile of scrap and think ‘what could I make with that?’ Scrapstores offer affordable craft materials to a wide range of bodies working in education, training, arts and culture, environment and conservation and projects involving children and young people. By taking familiar objects we all recognise from everyday use and encouraging children to use them in new and unusual ways, Scrapstores foster creative expression. The organisation has already helped out over 80,000 community groups by providing access to an exciting variety of materials.

Whilst local branches operate as separate entities, ScrapstoresUK was set up in an attempt to coordinate the work that individual scrapstores do across the UK. ScrapstoresUK acts as a champion for the movement and raises public awareness, facilitates fundraising and attempts to make each scrapstore run in an effective and efficient way. They also offer a useful online directory of all the scrapstores, so if you feel inspired to find out more, their website will have all the information you need to track down your local store.

All Scrapstores have different means of accessing their scrap materials. In some you need to pay an individual membership fee, at others you simply pay for the scrap you take on the day. Membership is generally offered to groups who work in creative play, care, educational and therapeutic settings. A number of Scrapstores also have shops open to the public selling good quality art and craft materials from glue to paintbrushes to complement the scrap.

We paid a visit to my local scrapstore which is based in Bristol to find out more about the work they do. The Bristol Children's Scrapstore is one of the oldest in the UK and has been open for over thirty years. To access the main scrap warehouse you need to be a member, but the Bristol branch also operates a craft supplies store called Artrageous Store which is open to the general public. Artrageous is a thriving business where you can find a wide selection of goods including art supplies such as glue, paint and modelling clay, they also stock puppets, wooden toys and musical instruments. Every other weekend Artrageous throws open its doors and invites children to come along and try out the craft materials. These ‘Super Saturday Sample Sessions’ encourage children to gain hands-on experience of creating a finished crafty item from scratch. The friendly staff encourage kids to get their hands on raffia, felt, glitter, crayons and lots of gloopy glue. All the proceeds from Artrageous support the Children’s Scrapstore and help to maintain local community projects working with local children.

Alongside Artrageous is the adjoining Children’s Scrapstore warehouse. There are an abundance of crafty delights with large containers filled with netting, colourful gauzes, plastic tubes, surgical masks, piles of remote controls, reels of sparkling paper, mounds of foam shapes, towers of take-away cartons and even the odd shop mannequin. Each item was destined for landfill and through Scrapstores it can now find a new life in a creative project.

The Scrapstores movement is something to be cherished and supported. By encouraging creative play, children learn communication skills, creativity and problem solving, team work and collaboration and a willingness to experiment. As with all charity projects, Scrapstores needs resources to keep functioning. Whether you donate scrap, volunteer your time or become a member, there are many ways to keep your nearest branch operating. Now I’ve discovered my local scrapstore, it would take a gang of foil covered, paint daubed, googly eyed cardboard box monsters to keep me away!

all photos were taken by my niece Jessica Chappell, you can see her blog here www.kingofthesheep.blogspot.co.uk

Scraptores UK

Bristol Children's Scrapstore

Artrageous Store

If you're interested in finding more interesting children's craft projects, you may like to follow my "Kids Crafts: gluing, cutting, sticking, painting" board on Pinterest...

Follow Pouch : blogging + craft's board Kids Crafts: gluing, cutting, sticking, painting on Pinterest.

I'm linking up with these lovely blogs:

Trash 2 Treasure over on www.coombemill.com

Brilliant Blog Posts over on honestmum.com

Share With Me over on www.letstalkmommy.com

What I'm Writing over on writingbubble.co.uk

Breathing new life into old furniture

Since moving to a 1930s house, I'm determined to furnish it with quirky, one-off pieces rather than mass produced stuff. I've already blogged about my beautiful (bargain) dining table. Now I want to show you a cabinet and shelves I recently repurposed with help from my other half. I haven't done anything fancy or ground breaking with them...but it just shows how a simple lick of paint can breathe life back into something deemed a bit 'scruffy'.

In fact the small cabinet was considered so scruffy it was making its way to the municiple tip before my Mum and husband rescued it. My Mum approached the man who was just about to fling it into the 'wood' section and he happily handed it over. They bought it home for me and declared proudly that they had 'bought me a present'. Now, I know lots of people would be a bit annoyed about their presents coming from a waste-sorting centre, but my family know me better than that...

My husband sanded it down and chiselled off the yucky cork matting which was glued to the top. It was then painted in an ivory shade and once dry, we put it in our conservatory. It's the perfect place for me to put my cup of tea and my daughter has filled it with her books. It's a sturdy, little multi-functional piece of furniture and I love it.

A few weeks back my Mum gave me a set of shelves. They had been hanging in her garage for years and were looking a bit unloved, but I could see they still had potential! We repeated the same process with the shelves as the cabinet, sanded it down and a coat of ivory paint to spruce them up a bit. They now hang in our bathroom and keep all our toiletry gubbins tidy.

Even Mr Bump is amazed by the transformation!

**update**

Since writing this blog post I have watched the first episode of "Kirstie's Fill Your House For Free". I wanted to write a quick update. I've always been keen on getting my hands on furniture for free or at a bargain price. I've been using Freecycle for years and often scour Ebay and Gumtree for second hand items for our house. I had a quick look on Twitter after the first episode had aired and there was alot of cynicism and negativity. Many people were saying the items aren't truly 'free' if you have to use power tools, paint and the skills of top designers to alter them. But I think that misses the point. This is telly-land after all and lots of these shows are based on the 'big reveal' at the end. Even by employing designers, there was nothing on the show that the average Joe couldn't replicate. Well, maybe sawing an iron bath in half with an angle grinder isn't for everyone...but most of it was pretty do-able. Some basic DIY and a bit of elbow grease is all you need to start filling your home with quirky, one-off pieces. I think any show that encourages people to re-use rather than buy new is good in my books.

What I do hope this show encourages, is not just getting stuff off freecycle etc...I hope it encourages people to donate to freecyle, charity shops, local recycling projects. We need people to think twice about taking old furniture to the tip. What's not to like about clearing your clutter via freecycle? People come and get stuff you don't want direct from your house - you don't have to lug it into the boot & drive to the local waste centre. And many charity shops & furniture projects collect items from your house for free.

In fact, after watching Kirstie's program, I was inspired to write to my local MP. I've been to our local waste recycling centre with garden waste on a number of occasions and seen wonderful pieces of furniture being chucked into the wood section. On one occasion a perfectly usuable cabinet was thrown away & I approached a member of staff to ask if I could have it. I was told that staff are not allowed to pull things out of the containers because they will get sacked for 'theft'. I think it's awful that my local council does not seem to want to send less waste to landfill. It's actively discouraging the reuse of furniture and encouraging more waste. It's a case of trying to join up the people who want to get rid of stuff with the people who want to reuse the stuff.

I'm still awaiting a response from my MP, I'll keep you posted......

Making recycled paper pots

My daughter and I spent a happy half hour making some paper pots for our seedlings. Now she is three years old she is able to help me with planting out seeds. It's been lovely to watch her planting out beetroot, beans and basil seeds and then seeing them pop up from the soil. It's all very magical to her. Although she keeps asking when we can start eating them...

I first blogged about my paper potter back in 2011. It is a fantastic little tool, really handy for making inexpensive pots to put small plants in. By using newspaper you can plant them out, the paper will biodegrade and the roots wont be disturbed.

My paper potter came from the Nether Wallop Trading Company and was a Christmas gift from my brother and his family. I can't recommend them highly enough.

It also helps if you have some offspring you can recruit to help you make them...their little fingers are very good and winding the paper round!

I'm linking up with Trash 2 Treasure over on the www.coombemill.com blog.

Finalist in the Ecouterre Recycled Denim Challenge

Pouch has been selected as a finalist in the Ecouterre Recycled Denim Challenge! It would be great if my blog readers could take a moment to vote for my entry here

I submitted a "Reversible Recycled Denim Handbag". It is 100 percent recycled; even the straps are made from an upcycled denim waistband. The bag also has no visible seams, so it is completely reversible, making this two totes in one!

The challenge is designed to showcase innovative recycling ideas using denim fabric. I am so excited to be selected for the final vote! There are some great ideas featured, so take a look at all the finalists here