Decorate for the season without a lot of fuss with these simple DIY wreath ideas.

Between Halloween and Thanksgiving, autumn is the season of entertaining. Welcome your guests in style this season by crafting up a simple DIY wreath for your front door or entryway.

9 DIY Wreath Ideas for Autumn

1. Scrap Wood Wreath – If you find yourself with leftover wood from a recent DIY project, upcycle those scraps into a decorative autumn wreath. With a little wood glue and a cardboard ring you can turn trash into treasure!

2. Wrapped Yarn – By the same token, use up all that leftover yarn from the various knitting or crochet projects that you’ve completed (or never got around to completing). Wrap sections of black, orange and white for a candy corn effect!

3. Upcycled Fabric Wreath – Turn worn fabrics that are headed for the scrap bin or the thrift store into a boho chic fabric wreath. Tear fabric into strips and tie them to a foam wreath ring available at the craft store.

4. Pine Cone Wreath – Pine cones and other found natural objects are great fodder for making a homemade DIY wreath for the season. Hot glue the pine cones, acorns, dried flowers, and sprigs of autumn leaves for an ephemeral seasonal decoration.

5. Felt Wreath – If you are looking for something more permanent, cut leaf shapes out of felt leftover from other projects and affix them to a wreath form.

6. Newspaper Wreath – For a spookier DIY wreath, spray paint newspaper with black paint, crumple it up and glue it to a foam wreath ring. Add fake spider webbing and felt spiders for an easy Halloween-themed wreath.

7. Burlap Wreath – For a super simple DIY wreath, wrap a foam wreath ring with burlap fabric and then crisscross autumn-themed sewing trims like ribbon and rickrack over the burlap. You can add a bow if you so desire.

8. Ribbon Dreamcatcher Wreath – Along the ribbon theme, you can go for a more bohemian wreath by tying long strands of ribbon, lace, and fabric scraps in autumn colors to create a dreamcatcher-like wreath.

9. Metallic Wreath – If you are going for something a little more glam, dip or spray twigs and dried leaves with metallic paints. Glue them to a twig wreath form that you have also painted with metallic paint. For extra points, mix and match your metallic colors for a cool effect–copper, gold and silver paint.

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From baby food jars to liquor bottles, get inspired to with these easy repurposing ideas to upcycle your empties.

In our mass consumerism culture, it’s all too easy to buy just what we think we need. But go back a generation or two and people made do a little more with what they had. I remember my grandfather stored about a gazillion different kinds of nails, screws, and bolts in glass baby food jars he collected. And my grandmom repotted clippings from her house plants in coffee cans until they grew big enough to replant.

Of course, today, it’s possible to order something handy from IKEA, Target, or Amazon and get it almost the next day, but what’s wrong with repurposing what we have on hand? Absolutely nothing. In fact, repurposing may actually be a virtue. At the very least, repurposing ideas are a lost skill (or art) that, with a little inspiration and practice, most of us can get the hang of easy enough.

Now, you could recycle all those empties jars and containers, but depending on the material, repurposing may actually be better for the planet. Not all materials are as easy to recycle as others and may be better being reused. Of course, not creating any waste in the first place is ideal, but just not nearly as attainable. The key is to reduce what you can, reuse and repurpose what you can, and recycle wherever possible–and in that order.

Get inspired by these repurposing ideas.

5 Repurposing Ideas for Everyday Recyclables

1. Liquor, Beer, and Wine Bottles – Reuse liquor bottles in actually pretty simple. Add a pump to turn your vodka bottle into a hand soap dispenser, create a succulent planter from an empty Sapphire Bombay bottle, spray paint empty wine bottles to use as bud vases, or make handmade candles from beer bottles that have been cut in half.
2. Medicine Bottles – Whether you take preventive medicine for migraines, or you need antibiotics to get over that sinus infection, many of us end up with empty prescription bottles. They can be repurposed as handy bottles for storing everything from quarters in the car to carry jewelry while traveling. Definitely hold onto these bottles, as you will find yourself needing to store something tiny securely.
3. Glass Jars – So, you don’t make homemade sauce or salsa, so what? You can repurpose those glass jars, though. Use them to store your colored Sharpies, turn them into mini-terrariums, or decorate them with glass paints and an add votive candles to create magical mood lighting. They are also pretty handy for making salad-in-a-jar lunches too!
4. Cereal Boxes  – While the rest of the world has gone gluten-free, some of us still eat cereal for breakfast. While cardboard is pretty easy to recycle, those cereal boxes can come in handy around the house. Cut them up and cover them with gift wrap to make homemade gift tags or bookmarks. They can also be used to make a homework storage boxes for kids or are a great way to store paper dolls, coloring books, and crayons in the car.
5. Plastic Bottles – You might think there’s not much to be done to repurpose plastic bottles like lotion or shampoo bottles, but think again. Here’s a simple how-to for making a hanging cell phone charger from a lotion bottle–and another one for making a hanging storage bins system!

Related on EcoSalon

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Bombay Sapphire Planter via Rehabulous

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Turn your backyard into the oasis you’ve always dreamed of having with ten of the coolest – and easiest – outdoor DIY projects for spring.

We’ve scoured the do-it-yourself depths of the internet for several of our favorite and user friendly projects that should take no more than a day or two to complete for the most complex and just thirty minutes or less to put together for some of the simplest. There are also tutorials and examples provided in the title for each venture. We hope you enjoy our picks and get inspired for spring!

1. Branch Chandelier

Create a conversation piece for your next outdoor dinner party with an amazingly elegant and earthy halo-shaped branch chandelier. The key to this project, according to the tutorial, is to find trees with long, slender branches like the elderberry. And don’t worry if it’s already in bloom, the foliage and/or flowers will give it a lovely touch of color.

2. Small Fire Pit

Create the chic, modern, and super simple fire pit from the tutorial we’ve provided with just a few materials and a little patience. The instructions call for a traditional gel flame, but you can make it more eco-friendly by opting for the Ecoflame gel found here. It’s a completely biodegradable and non-toxic ethanol warming gel committed to sustainability.

3. Tree Swing

Every adult needs a tree swing, right? Right! So head on over to the tutorial for one of the simplest and easiest to follow DIY projects. Use a piece of salvaged wood to make this project more sustainable and follow up with the TriCoPolymer VOC free non-toxic lumber sealer for a finish that can withstand the elements without harming the environment.

4. Cinder Block Planter

Have fun with building blocks for big people – cinder blocks, that is! The small funky version of the concrete planters from the tutorial would look great tucked into a cute little corner. Or, if you’re feeling adventurous, create a larger version with protruding “mini planters” popping out sporadically along the wall’s span. Use what you can from leftover home projects or take the unwanted blocks off other people’s hands for a DIY that will cost very little.

5. Outdoor Orb Lights

Outdoor lighting can become super pricey in a heartbeat, but the clever tutorial over at The Art of Doing Stuff has solved that little problem for just a few dollars. With a few thrifted white glass orbs from old ceiling mounted light fixtures filled with Christmas lights, you’ll have a garden full of modern ambiance.

6. Wood Garden Edging

This salvaged wood garden edging project is super cute and looks hella easy to execute. With some wood, a saw, a few screws, and some non-toxic paint, you can have cute little picket fence-like border around your garden. Simply darling!

7. Simple Bird Bath

The bird bath tutorial in the link above is nothing short of thrifty genius. With wooden dowels and virtually any sort of shallow tray that you have on hand (she used one from Ikea), you can totally conquer this sweet, modern birdbath.

8. Cement Block Bench

With twelve cinder blocks, a generous helping of heavy duty concrete glue, four pieces of 4×4 lumber, paint, and some cushions, you can recreate the stunning and vibrant bench seen in the tutorial. This is perfect for spring and the colors couldn’t be any lovelier. Although it can be done, if you’d rather avoid having to add a “back” to this seat, plan to have a wall somewhere in your yard serve as the backrest.

9. Tire Table

A simple, yet completely functional outdoor DIY is this tire table project. Check out salvage yards, Craigslist, or landfills for old tires that you can snag to complete this project. Don’t have a large, thick piece of glass? Try locating one as part of a table at a thrift store or yard sale. Paint the tires, if you wish, and then pop on the glass, which you want to be heavy enough so that is does not tip over once it’s in place

10. Cabinet Potting Bench

Probably one of our favorites is this revamped china cabinet project that features a boldly colored hutch that’s been transformed into the perfect little place to tend to your plants and store your supplies. Have fun with this – from the color to the functionality details – because the possibilities are endless. Not into gardening? Then transform it into a mini outdoor bar slash serving area instead.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our (almost) instantly gratifying outdoor DIY projects for spring. Let us know which one if your favorite over at the EcoSalon Facebook page!

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Image of Hanging Flowers via Shutterstock

The post 10 (Almost) Instantly Gratifying Outdoor DIY Projects to Try for Spring appeared first on EcoSalon.

Wine bottles are great at what they do – they hold the elixir of love, laughter and life and I wouldn’t change a thing about that. And wine bottle crafts bring new meaning to these sacred vessels.

But, as we all know, wine can have a huge turnover rate in the household and the recycle bin fills up with bottles that could otherwise be reused around the house in both a functional and aesthetic way. The following 3 wine bottle crafts will bring new meaning to being a “wino.”

3 DIY Wine Bottle Crafts

1. Candle Holder

There are two ways to go about turning a wine bottle into a candle holder. The first is quite easy. The second requires a bit more effort and is not the most failproof.

Method one: Wash the bottle and slide a candle into the wine bottle hole. You can carve the candle so that its diameter is fitting. As you light the candle and let the wax drip, it creates a trail of wax along all sides of the wine bottle’s throat. It looks very rustic and adds a unique charm to any setting.

Method two: This method requires some elbow grease, and in my experience, slight uncertainty. Either way, it’s worth a shot, and you will be quite proud of the resulting candle holder. Using the entire length of a bottle as the base to a candle is quite high and a bit inconvenient. To remedy this, it helps to cut the bottle in half, or at any particular area so as to reduce its height to your liking. To do this, score a consistent line around the bottle at the height you desire to cut the bottle. Do this repetitively, applying deep pressure. Next, apply heat to the scored lines. Hold a candle light to the scored lines or pour boiling water over them. Concentrate the heat around the line, only. After about 10-15 minutes of applied head, immediately put the bottle under cold running water, turning it so the entire scored line is covered. Continue to do so until you hear a “pop”. The bottle will split into two pieces. The top portion can be used as a smaller candle holder to that mentioned in method one, or you could use the top as a pedestal for the bottom half, fit for holder larger candles – simply glue the tip of the top of the wine bottle in the indent at the bottom of most wine bottles.

2. Vase or Cup

The bottom of the split wine bottle can be used as a vase for flowers or a growing space herbs. Fill them up with soil and watch seeds grow. The bottom also makes for a solid cup – just make sure the edges are smoothed and sealed and not in the position to harm your mouth while drinking. You could also just use the entire wine bottle as a vase for long-stem flowers, such as roses. Paint the bottles to your liking to add an affect that complement the décor of your home.

3. Grain & Spices Storage Decoration

It may seem odd to fill wine bottles up with grains, especially when the hole is quite narrow, but it actually works quite well and helps to decorate a room at the same time. Fill grains, spices and even olive oil in used and washed wine bottles. Display them in your kitchen so that they have both a functional and an aesthetic purpose.

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Photo Credit: Angelo Amboldi, Jordan Johnson, Christine Majul, Baynham Goredema

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