Groovebulb’s Upcycle Challenge

The Groovebulb with its box

I first heard about the Groovebulb Upcycle Challenge when Jen who writes My make do and mend year took on the challenge. I have since seen Mummy Misfit have a go and my mum Eviesgran also rose to the occasion.

Now it’s my turn. I decided to make a mobile for the baby with the packaging.

My Upcycled Mobile made from the Groovebulb box

Groovebulbs are an exciting energy saving bulb. Their website says:

“Groovebulbs use the latest LED technology, which means they are super efficient and much cheaper to run. They are bright instantly, dim beautifully and last for a very, very long time; 25 years in fact.”

The most strikingly different thing about the groovebulb is, as mentioned in the quote above, they light instantly. No delay as you have with other energy saving bulbs or the time they take to get to full brightness.

Pretty hearts in the breeze

Here’s how I made my mobile…

Materials required:

A box from a Groovebulb

4ply cotton yarn in various colours

2.5mm crochet hook

Pattern for crocheted hearts from The Green Dragonfly Blog

Brown paper

Sticky tape

A metal skewer or other implement to poke holes through the cardboard tubes.

Large needle which you can thread the yarn through.

How to:

I started by crocheting 8 hearts in various colours of the 4ply cotton that I already had in my stash.
Hearts crocheted by a pattern on the Green Dragonfly blog
The next step was to cover the large tube part of the box in brown paper after removing the disc of cardboard in the bottom so I had a tube rather than a box. I rolled the tub in the paper, stuck it with tape on the edge and then poked the ends inside the tube.
I covered the lid in the same way, tucking the raw edges over the top. The top of the lid wasn’t very neat but this isn’t seen from below when the mobile is hanging. I added a strip of brown paper around the edge of the lid to try to neaten it up a bit.
Carefully poke several holes into the length of the tube with your skewer or other implement. You need 5 to attach your heart to and then an extra 3 in a triangle to suspend the lid.
I used a metal skewer to make holes in the cardboard box
Using a needle, thread a length of coordinating yarn to the heart. “Sew” through the tube from the inside, across the top of a heart and back up the same hole. Tie both ends of the yarn together in a knot that is big enough not to slip through the hole. Repeat with 4 other hearts and make the lengths of yarn slightly different for each one.
Attach the strings with knots inside the tube
Take the covered lid and make 3 holes around the edge of the top of the lid and three hole in the middle of the top in a triangular arrangement. Attach hearts in the same way as described in number 5 and then 3 lengths of yarn into the triangular arrangement. This is just so the threads can be pulled individually to make the lid hang straight once it is suspended.
Use three strings to attach the lid to the main part of the box so this part can be hung straight
Thread the three pieces through the corresponding holes on the large tube part and adjust until the lid is level and then stick down inside the tube with tape.
Use sellotape to stick the strings in place
Thread a long piece of yarn along the length of the tube and tie the ends in a knot and hang wherever you like!
The completed mobile

Close up of the crocheted hearts

If you’d like to have a go at Upcycling the Groovebulb box with a fantastic and inventive idea then search them out on Twitter or get in touch via their website.