bean and soda pop bottle vase

Well, we all know I love me a good bean project and I love me a good recycling project, so I designed this vase out of beans and a 2-liter plastic soda pop bottle.  The result is a little surprising coming from a handful of beans and a plastic bottle, isn’t it?  It’s so simple and a striking way to display the flowers growing in our backyards this summer.  And we have one less piece of plastic being thrown into the recycling bin (well, for now, anyway).

I decided to clip a few of the daylilies copiously consuming my backyard.  Daylilies are not conventional cut flowers.  I thought daylilies needed their beauty sleep at night, but truth be told (after some reading) , a daylily flower has only a single day’s worth of life.  On a good note, the other buds have their turn at life the next morning.  Even so, whether or not the new buds will sprout in my vase tomorrow, I had to clip them.  They’re just so pretty and so vividly orange, which makes for such a great contrast to my very pale taupe vase.  I had conveniently invested in a couple of cans of spray paint on clearance for $1 at Michaels at the beginning of the year.  It’s amazing to pick up an irresistible bargain for later use and actually use it for a project so perfectly suited.  Most times, I’m sure some of you can relate, a lot of our “Oh, what an amazing deal, I’ll buy two or three or a dozen” bargain hoards seldom find a use.

You will need:

a. 2-liter plastic soda pop bottle

b. Beans, shape and size of your choice.  I chose navy beans only because I still have some left over from previous projects: bean-by-number Turkish tiles, bean-by-number Venetian mask, and gold bean banges.

c. An X-acto knife, a ruler, a marker, hot glue gun with glue sticks, and a can of spray paint.

1. Cut off the spout of the bottle using an X-Acto knife.  You may cut the opening to your preferred diameter.

2. Using a ruler and a marker, draw vertical lines along the length of the bottle.  Use the bottom grooves of the pop bottle as points to start your lines.  I alternated full-height lines with random-height lines.

3. Using a hot glue gun, affix beans one at a time, applying glue in 1-1/2″ lengths.  The longer your line of glue, the quicker you will have to work before the glue quickly dries.  Continue until you have all of your lines covered with beans.

4. Spray paint and let dry.

This is the lovely time of year when we have the luxury of clipping flowers from our backyards.  I think it’s wonderful to be able to display our backyard flowers in our very own handcrafted vases.  Even better when the vases cost so little to make.  But it’s the best when making them means that some of our garbage could be repurposed into surprisingly beautiful creations.

I’m sure you’ve started to notice, I’m developing a collection of unique vases from my pile of recyclables.  You’ve seen the collection start with the peek-through vases earlier this year, and the basket weave vases in the spring.  Since it’s summer, I really want to add more to my assortment of recyclable vases.  There will be more recyclable vase projects to come!

gold bean bangles

Yes, a few strips of paper, a small handful of beans, and the golden touch of paint can make quite some fashionista cuff bangles.

 

I was hoping this would be my third installment of my bean-by-number series (the first being the Turkish tiles back in November and the second, Venetian masks, for mardi gras in February).  However, the concept is so simple, there is no need to bean-by-number.  Just a few straight lines of beans do the trick.

You will need some beans, a sheet of cardstock, white glue, self-adhesive velcro (I got mine at the dollar store), and gold paint.  PLEASE NOTE: I wore my gold bean bangles to work today and small parts of the paint have chipped off.  If you are going to use spray paint, as I did, perhaps the problem would be negated by a bit of primer.  Or, what I would best suggest: use acrylic paint and a paint brush instead.  The finish would be quite different, however, the end result would look like brushed metal, which has as much impact.

1.. Cut cardboard to preferred width and length, taking into account the extra space required by the velcro.  Adhere velcro.

2. Bean away.  You don’t have to follow the straight patterns you see here.  You can create all sorts of shapes and curves, which I’d like to try, too.

3. Paint one side.  Let dry.  Paint other side.  Let dry.

I’d love to hear if you try this out and how you’ve managed to negate the issue of paint chipping.

bean-by-number: venetian mask

Lent and Mardi Gras are right around the corner, always preceded by The Carnival of Venice beginning this weekend.  Although I’m nowhere near that side of the world nor am I going to a masquerade, I just had to fulfill the urge to craft a Venetian mask.

Back in November, I mentioned my big aspiration to design a series of bean-by-number crafts, and started with the bean-by-number Turkish tiles.  Well, it’s been long overdue, but I finally have a second to add to the series.  This Venetian mask is embellished with black-eyed peas and black turtle beans.

You can download the bean-by-number: venetian mask template here. I designed the template with the intention of using a third bean, but I decided to stick with only two types in the process.  Of course, you can use whichever beans and as many varieties as you’d like.

On a related note, I often burst out in song, the likelihood of which is Broadway.  It’s in fact not a rare occasion that I’m repeatedly singing the most catchy line from Phantom of the Opera: “Masqueraaaaade, paper faces on parade.  Masquerade.  Hide your face so the world will never find you… ”  🙂