Craft

Sarah is the author of craftinvaders.co.uk where she blogs about her original craft tutorials, recipes, foraging, and developing wellbeing through being creative, spending By Sarah Whiting time outdoors and connecting with nature

Choose your natural material

Upcycling

Planter filled with compost and planted with pretty houseplants

WONDERING WHAT TO DO WITH THE OLD CUPS STUCK IN THE BACK OF YOUR CUPBOARD? HERE’S AN EASY CRAFT IDEA TO REPURPOSE BROKEN MUGS INTO CUTE PLANTERS.

We are working hard to declutter the cupboards in our house. We have so many things stuffed in them that we never use. This collection of branded mugs are a prime example of old things that we do nothing with. They are entirely usable, but the kids are way past their hello kitty stage, so I decided to repurpose these old mugs into something I’d use. This little project is a great way to reuse a broken mug or a cup that’s lost its handle. These particular mugs were actually in pretty good condition, but I soon sorted that out with a hammer and chisel! I wanted planters with straight sides, so I started by removing the handles from the mugs.

Materials:

▪ ▪

Old cups/mugs

Chisel

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Hammer

Sticks from the garden, like willow or hazel. Alternatively, you can use cinnamon sticks.

Glue gun, or any type of all-purpose strong adhesive would work.

Marker pen (I used a Sharpie)

What to do

1.

To remove the handle from a ceramic mug, you need a hammer and a chisel. The chisel blade should be wider than the handle you are removing.

Protect your work surface with newspaper or similar to catch any pieces of ceramic. It is also worth wearing eye protection for this stage.

Place the chisel blade at ninety degrees above where the handle meets the mug. (As shown in the photo). Strike the chisel end with a hammer and with the right amount of force the handle will pop off.

I found each of my handles came off on the third strike, whether this was because I use a bit more force each time or whether the joint weakened I’m not sure. If the handle doesn’t break up cleanly use the chisel to tidy it up. Out of 5 mugs, I managed to remove four handles, breaking one mug completely. One handle came off leaving a hole in the body of the cup, which isn’t a problem for a planter. Now to make them into planters… 4.

Secure the sticks to the broken mugs using a glue gun, but any strong all purpose adhesive would work. Using a sharpie to mark a couple of vertical lines on the mug before you start will act as a guide and help keep the sticks straight.

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