...from a mountain of ugly, non-recyclable packing clips for skis. If you missed the opening ceremonies, click here to read all about it. Briefly, I challenged myself to repurpose 247 of these landfill-bound doohickies:
...and I think I've got a good chance of doing it. In Round One I used 48 of them, making Asian-inspired scroll-leg platforms for planters and objets d'art.
Don't these things make awesome tray handles?
They're great fun to embellish with beads, but I also love them plain, simple and slightly industrial-looking, as in these made from reclaimed scrap wood:
I cut 2 pieces of hefty 20 gauge wire and made tiny loops on the ends. Then threaded the wire through matching holes I drilled in the ski clips and the wood.
Underneath, I twirled more tiny loops to hold everything tight. I smashed the loops flat, and covered them up with fuzzy adhesive dots.
That's a tray, baby! An ideal blank slate, all ready to paint, stencil or decoupage.
I tried a stenciled graphic on the plainest one: number 49 because I already used 48 of the clips.
To make the fancier, bead-embellished tray, I started with a dollar store picture frame featuring Leo The Generic Lion. I replaced Leo with pretty paper and drilled four holes.
Here's how I made the beaded handles:
I attached the handles to the tray using the same method as before.
Awfully cute, eh?
I shopped my house and found several more trays (or tray analogs) that look fantastic with their new, industrial black handles. This first one is a 1960's vintage TV dinner tray:
I also added handles to a plain-jane mirror and a cute Melamine dish from the dollar store:
In all I made six trays (but could have kept going for days). So in Round Two, I used 12 more clips, bringing my total to 60.
Round Three? Bring it on.
In case you missed any:
Round One
Round Two
Round Three
Round Four
Round Five
Round Six
Round Seven
Round Eight
Now all the ski places here in WA are going to be over run with ladies trying to find ski clips. Love them.
ReplyDeleteOMG.. super dooooper cute & awesome idea, these are perfect handles for the trays! black colors is going well with all the colorful trays.. too good! Love your idea :)
ReplyDeleteBravo! Love 'em all, but my favorite is the TV tray.
ReplyDeleteTray-riffic. the beaded on is my favorite. Live near the shore, though, so ski packing clips aren't abundant, and don't know many people who ski a lot, even though many families here ski a few states north in Vermont.
ReplyDeleteThe clips look similar, on a larger scale, to the plastic shopping back clips that retailers used to give out with purchases.
I love it Mich! You have done a fabulous job so far! You're probably going to need to build yourself some kind of case for all of your gold medals!! You've given me some inspiration because i saved some cabinet doors from the reno!
ReplyDeleteI am loving this one.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! Love how you embellished those handles too - so cute!
ReplyDeleteI love these "Winter games"! inspiring me to take another look at "junk"
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can see, you've won the gold medal for eco creativity!
ReplyDeletevery cool!
ReplyDelete