Wood
Step by step recycling Wood projects
Garden Signage
Create something unique and upcycled for your garden! Try your hand at painting old wooden boards to make inspirational signs for your garden.
Wooden Birdhouse
A few old planks from an old cupboard make fantastic materials to create this beautiful upcycled birdhouse!
Wooden love blocks
This is a fantastic way to use up bits of wood off-cuts. We made our Valentine's blocks by recycling old wooden pallets that were destined for a landfill site.
Teak floor Coasters
If you find any wooden parquet flooring, a great way to reuse them is by turning them into beautiful wooden coasters!
Pigeonhole Chipboard Box
Pigeonhole boxes are easy to make and make great storage containers. We made a number of pigeonhole boxes by recycling chipboard and use them to sort and store all our recycling.
Wooden Cross
There is so much scrap wood lying around from old pallets or broken furniture - put it to good use with this upcycled cross.
Clothes Peg Rocking Chair
This is a great way to keep your kids busy, while using up all your old clothes pegs at the same time. Recycle them in this great craft!
Wood and its Upcycle Potential
Wood is amazing stuff! Even once it has fulfilled its original purpose it can continue to enrich our lives in the form of a new, repurposed creation. The artistic minds at Crafty Corner have learnt how to look at a supposed piece of 'waste,' such as discarded wood, and imagine the many ways it can be Upcycled into something functional and attractive.
In today's day and age of consumerism, we all need to become utilitarian in our thinking. We have exhausted our earth's resources. Those of us who choose to do something about this issue find that recycling and Upcycling are practical and important ways to help slow the destruction of our environment. And of course repairing the damage we have caused is no-one's responsibility but our own!
Check out Crafty Corner's Upcycle section, there is a wide variety of repurposed products made from all sorts of "waste" materials! There are many Upcycled options for wood - from beautiful wooden crosses to handy bar stools to cute word blocks. If you have a spare piece of wood lying around, do not burn it or throw it away! The Upcycle potential it has could be enormous. Rather contact Crafty Corner and let the creative possibilities begin! By choosing to Upcycle, you will be doing your part in being eco-friendly.
Products derived from wood are a huge part of our lives and this desire for wood (as well as for more and more land) has led to devastatingly large pieces of forest and woodland being totalled. Deforestation's many impacts on our world are slowly being discovered and the experts are consistently telling us that its progress needs to be halted and furthermore, we need to try and reforest large tracts of land.
Deforestation impacts our climate and geography in catastrophic ways. With regards to climate, deforestation is a major contributor to global warming. This is due partly to the logical fact that less trees means less oxygen but more carbon production. It doesn't take a tree hugger to know that an increase in carbon is the last thing our planet needs! On top of this contribution, wood that has been cut down to clear land is usually burnt or left to decay – these processes also add to the atmosphere's carbon levels.
Deforestation affects the very important water cycles of our earth's different ecosystems. Trees are amazing life-giving life forms – not only do they generate oxygen for us, they also aid in producing the water we need to survive! When there are fewer trees in an area, there will be less water in the soil, the water table and the atmosphere. In addition to this, a butterfly effect occurs in which the resulting dry soil is now not conducive to sustaining remaining trees and/or growing new ones.
Here's another depressing butterfly effect from the resulting dry soil: dry soil goes hand in hand with soil erosion. This soil erosion is then worsened by the lack of roots binding the soil together (due to the lack of those important things attached to the roots - trees!) All in all, this soil erosion and loss of soil cohesion means that landslides and flooding can happen more easily and have disastrous effects. Of course, no trees means no forest cover – giving landslides and floods even more of an opportunity to cause damage! It is no secret that natural disasters have become tragically frequent in our day and age. However it may be somewhat of a secret that our greed for wood and wood-derived products is another piece in these tragedies happening.
Wood is a precious resource – one that we have taken for granted for too long. Once you know about deforestation and the serious impact it has on our wildlife, climate, geography and of course ourselves, you cannot choose to ignore your part in the process.
Become aware of all of the wood-derived products you consume. Recycle. Try be sparing with your paper. Ask your wood retailer if their wood is certified and if they follow a zero deforestation program. And of course, never dispose of wood that has served its purpose for you – because that precious piece of waste likely has lots of use in it still! Contact Crafty Corner and open up to the fun and amazing possibilities that Upcycling provides!