The story of Hoera

Hoera! Today I created my 'About Hoera' page on Etsy: this is a sneak peek into the world of Hoera's webshop. So if you're curious to know how I started this shop, why it's called Hoera and what is happening in my home 'studio' (not much bigger then my kitchen table), feel free to take a look. Hope you like it!

Grandma's upcycled melon seed necklace

One of the things I learned from my grandma: creating a melon seed necklace. It might be one of my first experiences with re/upcycling. In fact, it is a very easy thing to do, with a very nice result, which I like to share with you: 

1. Buy a Galia melon
2. Cut it in pieces 
3. Remove the seeds
4. Wash them in water
5. Dry the melon seeds on a paper towel
6. Use thread and a needle to tack them up to a beautiful natural necklace.
7. Enjoy! (and don't forget to eat your melon)

Note: add some other natural colored beats, if one melon doesn't give you enough seeds for a long necklace! 

Yellowed embroidery pattern

I was looking up some thread in one of my 'treasury' boxes (I keep my crafting materials in a couple of  boxes in an empty bedroom), and came across an old embroidery pattern that I ones used in my teenage years, that was completely yellowed. This pattern consisted of all kinds of tiny patterns of leaves, letters, numbers and fruitbaskets.

In the past weeks I created some tiny cross-stitch art-works myself (of a heart and a boat), but I didn't have the courage yet to start stitching letters and numbers myself. This pattern was exactly what I had been looking for on the internet, and now I found it in my own home: a long forgotten treasure. I created some initial tags the day after, embroidering letters on tetrapak tags, which (I can image) are perfect for a wedding or a baby shower.

How to make an upcycled gift box?

Recently I found out how to easily create a gift box, using tetra pack. Tetra is a material that everyone has at home: it is the packaging of your juice or milk or many other nourishments. And you will probably throw away many of these packs weekly, without thinking of what a beautiful material this is. Tetra often has a wonderful silver gleam on the inside and an always surprising print on the outside.

You probably know the little purse made out of tetra tutorial, that is circulating on the internet. This is an awesome way to upcycle a tetra pack, but you can do so much more with tetra. For example: create a shiny little gift box. Below I describe how to cut and fold a basic box and a lid out of tetra. How to decorate it, that is up to your own imagination. Follow the steps to make your own!

1. Before you cut open your tetra pack, make sure that you clean it: pour some water in it, shake it (repeat ones or twice), then cut open the pack and rinse it again with water.

2. Dry it carefully with a towel.

3. Choose which side of the tetra should be on the outside of your gift box. In this example I choose to have the grassy print with the cows on the outside.

4. On the other side (the side that you want on the inside of your box) you draw with a pen the lines along which to cut or fold. For the dimensions, see the drawing above.

5. Use a cutting knife or scissors to cut out the two shapes, both box and lid.

6. Use a stump pencil (or any other object) to draw lines along the dashed lines to prepare for folding.

7. Put double sided tape on the indicated area's.

8. Fold the little faces inwards, and cover them with the faces that hold the double sided tape.

Et voilà! Your gift box is ready.

(Variations: Put the silver coloured side of the material on the outside and decorate it with ribbons, embellishments, thread, anything that comes to your mind. Or make a tiny little box by adjusting the dimensions, with just a little calculation extra.) For more examples of boxes and tags made of tetra, visit my Etsy shop.

Upcycled paper and cardboard examples

Since a couple of weeks I started to collect examples of upcycled paper and cardboard. Many people are actually appreciate the beauty of cardboard and paper!

I collect these examples on Pinterest, which is a nice platform for collecting your own interests and combining them with the findings of other people. Check-out my Pinboard!

Cardboard upcycling Tutorial

Every two weeks the city services pick up boxes full of old paper and cardboard in our street. Each household collects a box or two, full of old papers, packaging boxes, magazines, old postcards and tickets. 


I became more aware of the old paper in my home, when I went to print an invitation card at a copyshop in our neighborhood. I had to pay almost 5 euro's for one sheet of 200 gram's A4 with a full-colour print on only one side! That is really a costly business. I thought that printing my own designs would make me poor, and I started to think how I could overcome this... Next time I dumped a cereal box in the bin, I noticed what a brilliant colours were printed on this box, and how thick this cardboard actually was. I could use this cardboard to create some special postcards. Eureka!

1. The first step was to collect a couple of discarded boxes, some old christmas cards, two perfume boxes with nice colours and even some with golden prints. 
2. I cut out the nicest pieces of cardboard in squares of 3 x 3 cm. 
3. When I had a big pile of squares, I started to combine the squares in mosaics of 3 x 3 matrixes, using colours that were quite similar. 
4. I  created 12 postcards by applying each mosaic to a blue folded postcard of 10,5 x 14,8 cm. I used adhesive foam (for 3D cards) to lift up the squares a bit from the card. 
5. This is really fun to do, especially making the mosaics just right and  sending the postcards to my friends and family, who like to get those at their birthday! 


Perhaps a good idea for your easter weekend? These cards are also available in my Etsy shop, as a ready made set, or as a DIY kit. 

Welcome at my blog!

This is my very first (and a very short) blog post, to welcome you at my blog and to make myself comfortable around here. I intent to write regularly about my crafting activities and anything that is related to my Etsy shop 'Hoera!'.

You can already take a look there: www.etsy.com/shop/Hoera

Enjoy!