We all have lots of old floppy disks and cds around thanks to AOL and CD Burners. Do you have any good uses for them?
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This is something that I have done with those old CD's we all seem to get in the mail. I painted the advertisement side black. On the computer I made a "birthday label" on card stock, which is better than a label, cut it out and glued it over the center hole area on the shinny side of the CD and hot glued twelve pieces of hard candy around the disk. To the back side, I used one of those FREE heavy duty magnets that some pharmacy's give out, to the back. This will hold to a 'fridge quite well. I used this as a gag gift. I sealed it in a bag and added a a computer generated note card with the saying: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY"
Just use your imagination.
"Syd - who's always thinking!
I also decorated my home office Xmas tree with CD's. I guess you could use the floppies as well. I prefer the CD's.
Make a wind chime. Glue two CD's together, shiny sides out. Drill small holes for stringing the wind chimes, etc. Hang in a covered area of a porch where you get breezes. You can copy off some commercial wind chimes for ideas.
Syd Barr - never at a loss for an idea!
I have a great use for old CD's. Last Christmas, my grandaughter and I made gifts for her teacher and parents, by cutting pic's from old Christmas cards and gluing them onto the shiny side of the CD. Then, we glued bits of fake Christmas trees or weaths, to make little trees. (This makes it look 3D) When the glue was dry, we used craft paint and painted snow on the ground (if you used outdoor scene) and also painted small dots of snow all over the pic.
I put small stakes in the ground and put a CD on each one along my walkway shiny side up. They pick up the light from the porch light and make energy free illumination along the dark walk.
- Marianne
Use the shiny ones in your straawberry paatch. Hang them on a stake to scare the birds away.
3 ideas:
1. With spray adhesive or any good craft glue, attach a circular cut out of a snapshot in the center of the shiney side of a CD disk. This makes a nice shiny rim. Glue four small magnets around the rim of the back of the disk, at 12, 3, 6 and 9 O'clock and attach it to the fridge.
I use the cds when I crochet to make CD hotpads. There are many different patterns to chose from. They also make wonderful gifts.
- Margaret Fraleigh
During the Christmas season,hang your CD's from wire on a tree to decorate. They make great outdoor decorations. When the lights hit them the shine.
My husband is not only a computer user, but also a webmaster and a programmng student. As you can imagine, he gets piles of those throw-away cd's from a-oh-well, and other companies that advertise that way. So, I went looking for ideas on how to use them.
I thought they would be pretty and effective tied in long cords and hung around berrry bushes, etc where you don't want the birds stealing your garden goodies. They twirl in the wind and flash gloriously, as good a treat to the eye as a diamond tiara or a crystal chandelier. You do want to pull the cords rather taut to get the most dynamics, so you'll need some kind of stakes or poles.
Just as they are, they make tolerable coasters. You can improve them a bit by gluing a circle of felt to the lable side.
I'm also considering how I can make Christmas ornaments with them. I have a few ideas, but I won't list any, so that you can let your own imaginations run away with you. Instead, I'll just suggest that they could show off thread-crochet, or just about anything could be glued on.
I read that some people warm them on cookie sheets, and make bowls (with holes) when they are just soft enough to droop over a form. This might also make an interesting flower dish with a drainage hole. I have not tried this.
I saw a picture of a home-made gazing ball, done by breaking them in pieces, and pasting the pieces onto a bowling ball or something, with that adhesive/grout used to make mosaics. If you do that, you might like to cover other shapes, too, and incorporate other materials like broken plates, marbles, seashells, etc. Can you picture those reflective fragments under water as a bird bath? Or on stepping stones, on tables or storage cubes, on large flowerpots, on mirror/window frames etc? (Mirrors are wonderful in the garden. Display one, and you have an instant "secret garden".)
Rose B, mother of three, in NC
glue label sides together with spray adhesive
string them together with fishing line, from ceiling to floor, then
use as hippie-beads; those curtain-type things, around a bed or to
divide a room for a teenager.
I take old CD's and cut them into tiny pieces. Sometimes they break so you may want to warm them a little then cut. Then I take a styrofoam ball and use use straight pins and put a length of ribbon around the ball to secure the ball for hanging. Then I glue all the tiny pieces on the ball and make my own DISCO globe!! I hang them from the ceiling fans for light pulls and they shine pretty when the lightis on.
The disks that I will never I use as coasters. I have one by night stand and one by computer to place a coffee cup or soda on. It prevents lots of discolored circles on wood furniture. Also makes a good mirror too!
By Annette
Editor's Note: You can also decorate the CDs with contact paper or paint to match your decor.
Since I've been stringing old CDs from the trees in my backyard, I haven't had any DEER in the yard to eat my plants! I live on 2 acres of land which back up to the woods. I started the CDs from the trees IN the woods, all the way up to my gardens. So far, so good!
Barbara from Toms River, NJ
You can cut a piece of cardstock to fit and attach with glue. Paint and then add a pic/clip art ect. Makes great ornaments. I had written in earlier about how to make these and sent in a picture.
if anyone wants to see the pictures I made I will send via email
ucmelaffn @ aol . com (take out spaces)
hang them over your strawberrys. it scares the birds away. ARDIS
My Mother-in-Law makes fish-mobiles from them. If you put the mirror side out and glue foam cut outs for fins and such on the inside before glueing them together...its the cutest thing. You can also put eyes on them purchased at the craft store. Then use fishing line for hanging them in all different lengths. The children just love them.
My son and his friends (boy scouts) keep one in their packs as a signal mirror. The ones you buy at sporting goods/camping supply stores can be costly - these are free, and work well. For inexperienced people (like me) the larger hole in the middle makes them easier to use as a signaling device!
Well, here's some feedback from a "crazy" artist...
1. I've painted 25 of them with all sorts of metallic paint (of course, colors that matched my client's room). On some of them, I drizzled glitter glue, on some I stamped wild designs and then heat embossed the designs, on some others I put random stripes of 2-sided tape and them applied foils to the sticky areas. So here I sit with 25 wild decorated disks with holes in them... What to do? Get out 25 upholsterly tacks, take some polymer clay to make attractive tack "covers" and get to work. Bake the clay with the tack inside. When cool, draw a rendering of where you'd like the disks to go in the room. Then match up a disk with a clay-covered tack and (FIRST MAKE A PILOT HOLE - YOU DON'T WAN'T TO HAMMER POLYMER CLAY) pin them to the wall. They might just look retro; or possibly like planets, or beach balls, or one client wanted all round fruits represented... Whatever. I also had fun with a 7 and 8 year old who shared a bedroom and wanted the disks to each be different sports balls. (When done we'd made pro golf balls, baseballs, soccer balls, volley balls, basketballs, bocci balls, pool balls - like the 8 ball -, tennis balls, ping-pong, polo balls, croquet balls, shooter marbles, miniature golf balls, kickball, whiffle ball, red/black checker playing pieces)
2. For "sunpainting" on cloth or T-shirts, wet the fabric, put on the special paint (I use Set-A-Color), then lay the CDs on top - take a little trip outside and let the sun do the work. You'll have a wonderful pattern of "circles and circles". They can overlap or not.
3. Last, if you use a product called "Radiant Pearls" you know that this amazing paint will simply not dry on plastic. So, you can put little puddles of "pearls" on CDs and then store them in the plastic cases - just to keep the lint off them.
4. Okay, one more. Break the CD into litle pieces. Melt them by holding an edge with metal tongs, hit them with a heat gun and watch then distort, etc. When you like the shapes, put them in cold water to "hold" the shape. When you have a few you like, take glue meant for plastic, glue a few pieces together until you have the shape of a glamorous pin. Let the glue harden. Then drizzle the piece with glitter glue, different paints (made for plastic) and a myriad of other products. When dry, give the whole piece a nice coat with polyurothane and attach a pin on the back with E-6000 glue or 2-second glue. You'll have cool, one-of-a-kind jewelry.
Bye....
I collect them, I will pay you for them, please contact me at theaveragejack@hotmail.com
My tip it similar to some already posted. A friend put CDs in the bushes going up her semi-long driveway. They help when people are turning cars around at night.
attach them to trees, plants, vegetables or anything growing in your garden. they scare away birds and if you put them about 4 inches away from the ground they will keep rabits etc away! :)
I worked for a lady who did a lot of odd & wonderful mosaic work with found objects. A personal favorite of mine was a kitchen chair (yard sale find) she'd painted shiny black, then mosaiced with broken cd's, shiny side up of course, roughly dime sized shards. She said she microwaved them for a couple seconds first, which gave them a slight crackled finish, then laid them between dish towels & hit with a hammer till most were the right size. Then arrange, gluing as you go with a good glue like E6000 or Household GOOP.
I'm sure you could use this "discoball" effect on all kinds of items.
Our school's Family Fun committee collected as many of these as possible to use as decorations for their Valentine's family dance. All the label sides that had pictures or patterns were spray painted in a variety of colors and the shiny sides were left as is. They hung them from the doorways and ceiling in the gym and when the DJ turned on the disco ball, it created a really neat light effect. They boxed them up and saved them for reusing year after year and for other activities. I know they collected so many that they had extra and they used them for the kids to paint for holiday decorations at other Family Fun activities as well.
Do ya have an old, but still working clock? Take it apart, and re-assemble onto a cd through the hole in the middle....makes a really cute clock for a child's room, or anywhere really....
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