Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Upcycling Project: Part 3

Yesterday I saw a woman throwing styrofoam into a dumpster and I instantly thought of my little experiment upcycling the material.  There is a lot of styrofoam left from the small cooler, but here is another project I completed.


First, you remember what the styrofoam looked like before, right? This little guy had too much potential to throw away as we were cleaning out of closets so I cut him up and am using him for some pretty awesome projects.  You can read part 1 and part 2 if you'd like to see the other outcomes of my experiment.

In part 1, you saw the cut out of the ampersand I had done by printing out a large ampersand on the computer and tracing it then cutting it out with a knife.  Here it is after being dipped in paper mache gunk (sans newspaper) and painted.


I chose to try paper mache without the newspaper for several reasons which include being tired of dealing with soggy newspaper and knowing that all the curves and holes would be difficult to cover in a flat fashion.  Instead, I slowly dipped the form in and out of the gunk several times to build up a strong layer and left it to dry.  It turned out much better than I expected - it's strong and evenly covered, however it's not as smooth as when I use newspaper.

I also made another H (the first H can be seen here) using both paint and mod podge.



The styrofoam is such a light material to work with and using the paper mache creates strength and durability.  I think these projects would be wonderful in a child's room, a dorm room (they would easily be hung with double sided tape) and they also look awesome on my gallery wall.

I still have styrofoam left...any suggestions on what to make next??

12 comments:

Mimi said...

Love your ideas and creations here - I hate tossing styrofoam! Ohh you have started me thinking - but I just bet you come up with another amazing use soon! Can't wait :)

Donene said...

Love your letters and love that you recycled! Thanks for visiting and your very nice comments!

Dacia said...

What a great way to use old styrafoam! I'm always keeping it around too. Maybe I should actually use some of it :)

Just Jaime said...

Great idea! I love the "&"!

Unknown said...

Great idea to strengthen it with paper mache. Love the ampersand. Thanks for linking up with DIY under $5!

Emily@LovelyBeasts said...

I can't believe you did that with styrofoam. It looks amazing and even better, you saved it from getting sent to the dump! So glad I stopped by your blog!

And thanks for the kind comments. I'm following you now! Hope you follow me too :)

Emily
http://lovelybeasts.blogspot.com/

Claudia said...

I am in love with the "H". I've been searching for an "N" and I may just do one of these instead!

ambsea said...

I just found your blog and love your ideas! I also use styrofoam for the same thing. My first try I learned that you can't spray paint it! My second try I wrapped a giant "M" with Jute twine for our mantle...Free and I love it!

ambsea said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
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