Recycling Handle for my Rubber Made Case

Hello everyone.  Well I did something kind of neat the other night and wanted to share it with all of you.

Not sure how many of you know what a Wall Paper book is.  But let me explain.  When Wall Paper stores have designs for customers to choose from they come in a HUGE book.  Like 20 x 20 inches.  When they get new designs they expire the old ones.  Now if you live anywhere besides Tennesee (grin) you most likely can go to a Wall Paper store like Sherwin Williams and they will let you have a few of these.  You have to go often and keep asking and get them to put your name on a list. A lot of Teachers get them for Craft Projects.  Some places Like Tennessee Charge you for them.  When we were in Georgia Hubby went to get me a couple and came home with 16 of them.  That was about 10 years ago and I still have some left.  grin  I love them.

Here is a Wall Paper Book

I already started working on it when I decided to take pics and show you all what I was doing.  I had used pretty much all the paper up and just hate throwing things out.

So I decided to put the rest of it to good use.

Next I took a xacto knife and cut down the spine so you can get to the handle metal parts.

Below you can see the metal parts where I bent them OUT so I can pull off the handle.

Below is my lid Before I did anything to it.

Next I layed the handle on top of my lid and using a Black Permanent Marker I drew lines where the metal brad like pieces needed to go.

Next I got our Ice Pick and lit a candle to heat the tip of it.

I used the Pick to slowly melt through my lid in the places that I marked with the permanent marker.

It doesn't stay hot for long.  So you have to keep going back into the candle flame to get it hot again.  And once you have melted some with it the gooey melted plastic starts sticking to the pick and once reheated it turns black.  So you have to keep wiping it onto a piece of paper then heating and repeating until tip is sort of clean again.

Once I got my hole started I had to start making a slit for the width of the metal piece on the handle.

I kept doing this until my handle would fit into the 4 slits.

Once everything fit good I had to get some pliers to bend these down with.  I didn't get them flat as they were way to thick and took a lot to get them to bend down.  And you have to be careful so you don't crack your plastic lid.

They need to be bent as far down as you can get them.  But not all they way because it is not like they are going to slid back out.

Don't that look great.  Now you can't put to much weight inside the container because I'm not sure how much weight the lid can handle pulling in the middle.

I LOVE it now.  Before when I would take my Leather Charm Bracelets to show them off I had a hard time carrying my purse this container and maybe a drink or anything else.  Many a times I would slip and it would go side ways and all my jewelry would slide down to one it all jumbled up.  And of course it took TWO HANDS to carry it if I wanted it to stay level.

Now I only need one hand.

So next time you see a handle on something that is broke think what you might be able to recycle it to.  This has really saved me a lot of anger. lol