reuse | Smiles..

My cat loves to scratch his nails on the carpet, stairs, couch and so on. It was surely time for a scratching pole, but the bigger ones are always quite expensive so I decided to make one myself.
Things you need:
– an old bookshelf
– 24 meters rope
– cd holder
– fluffy cushion
– old scarf
– saw
– hammer
– paint
– glue
– nails

1. I used an old bookshelf for the top and the bottom of the scratchingpole. I cut in into two parts, one part bigger than the other so you get a stable base. Cost: €0,-

2. I bought a wooden cd holder to use as the middle part of the scratching pole. I would attach the rope on to this part.Cost: €2,- second hand shop

3. I painted the part of the shelf that’s gonna be the bottom part. I just searched the shed in the backgarden and found some blue paint. Cost: €0,-

4. I bought 24 meters of rope in a hardware store and I wrapped this around the cd holder, glueing it at the corners. Cost: €10,-
5. Then I attached the top and bottom part to the cd holder and put an old fluffy cushion on the top so my cat could chill on that part. Cost: €0,-
6. At last I wrapped the rest of the cd holder with an old scarf so the whole thing would be covered. Cost: €0,-

And the result is there:

Easy, cheap and fun!

I love to be able to make things myself, it’s creative and original and this time also very good for the environment. Recycling can be a lot of fun, as well as it saves a lot of money. For this bracelet you don’t really need a lot of things, you probably already have the materials laying around somewhere at home. I had anyway, so I didn’t need to buy anything and still make something nice!

This bracelet is made out of an old magazine and some cord I found in a dusty closet. I did this with my 5th grade students and they loved it! It’s so easy, fast and fun.

Half an hour work 🙂

What do you need:

Old catalogs and magazines
Toothpicks
(elastic) cord / string
Glue stick
Scissors
Clear nailpolish?

How to make it:

Cut out 3/4″ wide strips of old magazines, 1/2 the page length. The width you can change according to how long you want your beads to be. My bracelet needed 14 strips, but I have very small writsts you you might need more. I used pages that had mostly yellow, black and orange in there, but you can do it with any colors. 🙂
To make a bead, tightly roll one triangle (base to point) around the toothpick. I used two toothpicks at the same time to get a bigger hole in the middle, since my cord was pretty thick and you need two pieces of cord go through the bead. Glue the end of the strips. Take the bead off the tookthpicks and let it dry while you continue on making the other beads. I didn’t have anything to cover the beads, but you can use clear nailpolish to make them waterproof and strong.
Thread the first bead onto the center of the cord. Take one side of the cord to thread the next bead, and then take the other side of the cord and pull it through the bead, making a cross in the middle (inside) of the bead. Continue adding beads in this way, tightening and straightening them as you go, until the bracelet is long enough to stretch around your wrist.

You can make it with with beads inbetween as well, different colors and shapes.

Or thread it in an easier way

The video below shows clearly how to make awesome paper beads, they’re a bit smaller than the ones I used for my bracelet, but like I said, you can make them as wide as you like!!