Let’s get creative, folks! As the summer months are racing to the finish line (slow down already, for the love of ice pops and flip flops, sheesh!), don’t spend them in the garden of boring. To end your craft-tastic summer with a fun bang, we’ve rounded up our list of planter ideas using some of the most funky and unusual items we could find. Martha Stewart would be so proud!

Funky Planter Ideas

1. Old Floppy Disk Planter

Listen, technology isn’t just digital anymore and floppy disks are not obsolete, contrary to what you may have been told. You can prove it to all of  your pals too by making some of these quirky little floppy disk planters. Who’s the smarty-pants now?? This is a fantastic way to reuse an old object that would otherwise be tossed out for the cooler, sleeker, keychain-size USB stick. All you really need to make them is glue and maybe a small square box if you need a guide to build around. So floppies, don’t cry! You still serve an important purpose… On a sunny windowsill next to someone’s brand new MacBook.

2. Mini Cork Magnet Planter

Now we’re not trying to condone excess drinking over the weekend (or are we?). Really though, think about it for a minute. After a grueling work-week, you know you’re going to let loose with your ladies and probably get a little friendly with one or three bottles of wine. Instead of throwing out all your cork tops from weekends current and past, hang on to ‘em and recycle them into little homes for some baby succulents! Glue a magnet onto them and VOILA! Your refrigerator just got a whole lot snazzier. You can now justify drinking like a fish because you’re playing your renewable part in society.

3. French Press Terrarium

Where are all the coffee lovers at?! This one’s for you. Nothing like a good cup of joe to get those inventive juices flowing, are we right? French presses are the bomb-dot-com, so why stifle their amazingness by just utilizing them for coffee! Spread a little whimsy in your kitchen by creating a teeny, tiny, enchanted world for your countertop.

4. Repurposed Dresser Planter

Instead of growing a wardrobe, give back to Mother Nature and let your garden grow. Repurposing an old dresser for gardening is definitely one of the most unusual items used as a planter, but so lovely when done right! Finding a used dresser is pretty easy too. See if your neighbors are chucking any treasures or scour a local antique shop. Sand it, paint it, re-finish it, the design approaches are endless. You’re bound to stumble upon one fit for a fashionable fairy princess.

5. Retro Stereo Planter

Get all “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” with yourself and break out that boombox to bump some flowery beats. Hell, the idea of a boombox used as a planter makes us want to get all “Carlton Banks” with ourselves, how about you? Whoever it was that imagined this grand idea, we seriously commend you. Stereos are certainly unusual items used as planters, but we’re sure glad that some talented genius could potentially be saving hundreds of these archaic gems from littering landfills where they can now instead sing some sweet sustainable tunes.

6. Gumball Machine Terrarium

Terrariums are too cool so we had to throw another one on the list. Let your inner child get its hands dirty by transforming a simple gumball machine into a mini sphere of life. Gumball machines are the absolute perfect size and shape, inexpensive, and relatively easy to find. However, we don’t recommended stealing candy from a baby, catch our drift? That would just be mean. So trade your sweet tooth for a green thumb! You’ll be so glad you did.

So much DIY, so little summer left! So hop to it and start getting crafty! What are your favorite planter ideas?

Related on EcoSalon

Sumptuous Succulent Plants: Fatten Up Your Garden and Home with the Plants Du Jour

17 Clever Repurposed Garden Planters to Add More Plants to Your Space

Gardens in Glass: Make Your Own Upcycled Terrarium

Images via Pinterest

The post 6 Planter Ideas Using Funky and Unusual Items appeared first on EcoSalon.

If you’ve got a green thumb but are burdened with a dark, shadowy yard, then you need to check out this clever idea. One of the brainiacs over at Instructables devised an easy way to make a mobile vegetable cart so you can chase the sun around your backyard to give your seedlings all the light they need.

You don’t have to be a master builder to put this cart together. Run to the local home improvement store and grab some plywood, wood screws, wheels, axles, and a few other goodies. The detailed post gives you exact measurements of the materials you’ll need and step-by-step directions on how to put the cart together.

Once assembled, don’t fill the bed of the cart with 25 bags of potting soil – it will be too heavy too move. Instead, take a cue from the designer who recommends, “a layer of lucerne, a layer of fertilizer, a layer of pea straw, a layer of fertilizer, a layer of dirt, and compost a layer…” and so on.

If the sunlight in your growing area is a moving target, this is a great solution for dealing with it. Mobile vegetable carts are also a terrific idea if you’re the kind of person who likes to mix up the look of her backyard on a whim. Put together a couple of these bad boys and go nuts “redecorating” the next time your landscaping starts to bore you.

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I was an artistic kid, but I had not an ounce of interest in learning how to sew, much to my mother’s chagrin.

She was quite the seamstress. Her Singer sat prominently in our playroom where she’d stitch and sew me new dresses, always searching for the coolest Vogue patterns”¦but nothing could change my mind. In the years since, I’ve had brief pangs of regret but they never lasted long. The kinds of crafts I like are more of the random sans-pattern variety, which is probably why I’m drawn to OutsaPop Trashion.

Here’s a classic case of DIY. OutsaPop’s real name is Outi, a self-proclaimed “crafty fashion addicted girl from Finland…[who’s] most into customizing clothes for herself.” Her brand of sewing involves secondhand sweater reconstruction and the rules she follows are all her own.

Take the Lightning knitwear sweater (above) she made using material from three of four thrift store finds. Interested in making your own? Her detailed tutorial guides you through each step – and voilà, your old clothes are transformed into something new and unique.

You can see more of her reconstructed creations on flickr and at OutsaPop.

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Just the other night I scolded my preteen daughter for kvetching about her minimal chores – setting the table and feeding Smokey and Audrey, our gluttonous pug and arthritic cat.

“Imagine if you lived on the prairie and had to churn your own butter and mold your own soap bars and sew your own petticoats and britches,” I said to my love child of the YouTube generation. It would be easier to get her attention if my face were a flat screen monitor.

Boy, they have it easy – not like us kids who had to walk several blocks to school on those monotonous clear and sunny L.A. mornings.

When you think of it, why not push your family to make soap and get handier during these here hard times? I’m no Laura Ingalls Wilder, but I’m always up for a craft project or two, especially fun ones to do with my girls.

Here is a list of some accessible green DIY projects that will conjure your homespun pioneer spirit:

1. Make your own coffee-scented soap.

Yes, wake up and smell the java with these bars suitable for vegans and latte fiends alike. The formula shuns synthetic additives like artificial fragrances that can have unhealthy side effects. The guide found on Greeniacs calls for the following ingredients:

“¢ 8 ounces (227 grams) soybean oil
“¢ 4 ounces (113 grams) coconut oil
“¢ 4 ounces (113 grams) olive oil
“¢ 5 ounces (142 grams) coffee (to be used instead of water)
“¢ 2 ounces (57 grams) lye

Apparently, the right amount of lye is the tricky part. The process demands wearing safety glasses, but it looks easy enough to pull off, sort of like making candles, and you can even make the soap in bulk. Check it out. It’s good clean fun.

2. Homemade Dog Shampoo commands us to take better care of our pets.

The problem: most pet shampoos contain the same chemicals as products made for people, including parabens, sodium lauryl sulfate and fragrances not found in nature. This option by Melissa Breyer at Care2 includes glycerin, apple cider vinegar, natural dish soap like Seventh Generation and plain old water. If you can shake it, you can make it.

3. Chopstick Birdhouse from those take-out Chinese dinners.

Architect Michelle Kaufmann provides the blueprint and walks you through the construction on this video. The idea would please Jane and Michael Banks of Mary Poppins, as well as all of those birds in your garden whose nests are so bare. I found out about this great project via CasaSugar.

Building a better green birdhouse:

• Chopsticks
• Non-toxic exterior glue
• String or wire

4. Patchwork Pet Bed recycle old sweaters and pillows.

This cushion fetched at Apartment Therapy is so decorative and adorable, Smokey and Audrey would no doubt fight over who has dibs when watching reruns of The Office in the living room. Here is what you need. Follow the link to sew for little baby, the one who always runs to you when it’s time for supper.

Bed Basics

“¢ an assortment of old sweaters (at least 50% animal fiber such as wool, alpaca, cashmere, etc.)
“¢ an old pillow
“¢ scrap paper and tape
“¢ ruler
“¢ scissors and/or rotary cutter
“¢ pins
“¢ access to a washer, dryer, and sewing machine

5. Cloth Fabric tote bag pattern.

Forgo the plastic and make yourself a reversible “Tee-shirt bag” using this pattern from Etsy. It’s only $4.50 and you probably have all the materials you need at home, selecting an old shirt or other garment, perhaps a vintage dress. I love the pink print at the top of this page. Friends will be putting in their orders and you could make some extra income to stash in your own bag.

6. Blend your own shampoo.

Rather lather like Willa Cather? Say no to acid and follow the squeaky clean directions provided by Anne Marie, Helmmenstine, Ph.D at About, who argues if the pH in conventional shampoo (alkaline) tis too high, the sulfur bridges in the hair keratin can break, damaging your pretty do.

Her homespun recipe for making your own gentle shampoo (olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, etc.) is chemically a liquid soap with the exception of vegetable shortening instead of animal fat and a small amount of alcohol and glycerine added during the process. She recommends making it in a well-ventilated room or outdoors, and be sure to read all of the safety precautions on the ingredients.

7. Sewing green organic clothing.

The book Sewing Green by renowned felter and green crafter, Betz White, is a how-to of cool stitchery, from wrap skirts and lunch totes to cashmere slippers and vintage fabric napkins. This is the DIY source for sewers looking to craft garments as stunning as those found in favorite boutiques and online stores.

8. Create your own eye pillow.

Sometimes you just cannot be bothered (see Holly Golightly) and that’s where the DIY Couch Potato Eye Pillow Kit comes in handy. All the steps you need to cut, sew, and lounge are available for $15. Naturally, the sweet find is from Etsy. The kit features Scarlet Fig’s exclusive couch design fabric and you can apparently cure the pattern out in 20 minutes, fill the pillow with dried lavender, apply to eyes, then rest. Also makes a groovy gift.

9. Stitch your own reusable sanitary napkins.

I’ve enlightened you about these before and thought they are great to add to this list, since they aren’t as high-maintenance as one of my friends thinks (she rolled her eyes at the notion of DIY pads, saying, “You have to draw the line, somewhere.”) Here is the how-to from Hillbilly Housewife (look out Miley!) who says she got the information about homemade cloth menstrual pads on a Christian Ladies’ message board in 2002.

She makes her own on her sewing machine and has been a convert to the homespun approach. Our own Sarah Irani says she has been wearing them for years!

10. Design and make your own wedding runner.

This is exclusive from the Luanne Bradley design file of custom art projects for your wedding (because you have so much time on your hands to take on an extra project). But really, this element added so much to my own beautiful wedding at the SF Fairmont and I have lasting memories with the treasured fabric.

I simply bought yardage of cotton canvas at an art supply store (about 20 feet of it) and hired an artist friend to paint an Italian motif with cherubs and flowers, as well as a poem. She spread the fabric down the entire length of the hall outside my old apartment to paint the runner. The good news is it lives on after the wedding. I stretched the first part of the canvas which now hangs as art over my bed, and the rest of the fabric is in storage to be used for upholstery, curtains or for my daughters to have some day.

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