Upcycled purse into a pen carrier (+ beer box trays)

[katherine]

http://imgur.com/LosjIhp.jpg

More pictures here (http://imgur.com/a/Jg8VB).

As noted in the comments, it's a purse my dad designed - probably in the late 80s/early 90s. I rescued it from my mom's pile of stuff-to-take-to-Goodwill and made some trays to hold pens out of a cardboard beer box, some hot glue and lots of washi tape.

I'm super excited and happy with how it turned out -- now I just need somewhere to take my pens!

[MY63]

Nice job be careful making cases is almost as addictive as collecting pens.

[katherine]

Hah, thanks for the warning! I'm already planning all sorts of "more polished" looking trays I could make... (Or try to make, realistically)

[Jon Szanto]

Girlfriend, it turned out really well! :)

[MY63]

I have made a tray or two in my time I would be happy to help if you have any questions. There are a couple of good suppliers of reasonably priced inserts if you are in the USA.

[amk]

That's neat. Having seen that purse I am now looking out for a similar one at the car boot sales!

[katherine]

I have made a tray or two in my time I would be happy to help if you have any questions. There are a couple of good suppliers of reasonably priced inserts if you are in the USA.

I am! Link me please! The inserts are the MOST janky part of this right now. Just some craft felt with approximately measured folds and a strip of hot glue on the inside holding the folds together. I got lazy and had run out of precision glueing patience by then.

[MY63]

I have never used these inserts but lots of people both here and on FPN have with great success there is another supplier called Michelle but her inserts are bigger I will add her details later.

https://www.gopens.com/Vintage_Pen_Parts/vintage_pens_12X16Trays.php

One of the problems I found with thinner materials was they were too floppy 😄 Turning an edge over helped especially around the sides of the box. Then when working with velvet I started backing it on to card which I still do there are some pictures of a box on my Instagram.
You might find PVA glue better for boxes.
Hope that helps looking forward to you next project

[katherine]

Thanks! The felt is fairly rigid (two layers of craft felt for each wall) but probably inefficiently thick.

[jar]

What is "upcycled"? How does that differ from recycle or put to new use?

[katherine]

Reusing in a way that's more valuable/useful. But, really not that different from recycling -- I think it tends to imply that the new use is different from the old use, and, at least my impression is that there's often a change or transformation in the object. Not just "hey here's a glass cup. now there are flowers in it, upcycled into a vase!" more of "added some staining or etching or something, now it's a vase!"

[Crazyorange]

If you go to a show, you can get the inserts. You'll love them. Great idea.

[scrivelry]

What is "upcycled"? How does that differ from recycle or put to new use?

In my understanding, "recycling" can be more technically used to refer to things being taken apart into their component materials and the materials being transformed and re-used as if new.

For example, the recycling of plastic bottles into new plastic bottles, or plastic fabric, or whatever.

In day casual use I don't think it matters.