#TBCCrafters Thrilling Thursday Craft - Ice Cream Bucket Upcycle

Check it Out!  Between my husbands addiction and 3 kids, I buy a lot of ice cream and I usually buy it by the bucket at Walmart.  I always keep the buckets of course, because they can be used for a ton of things!

From school and craft supplies to games and toys, these handy buckets can be upcycled into a ton of very other useful containers, like a Beach Bucket!  Not your typical Beach Bucket, this is a special made container for those important and sometimes fragile items you need to take to the beach or lake or on a picnic or wherever! 

Because we have to have our keys and phone and of course sunscreen and all those other necessities, having a dry safe place for them can be a challenge.  You can throw them in the bottom of your beach bag, but that inevitably leads to having to search for them and it seems like sand always ends up in there with the towels!

Making a handy Beach Bucket gives you just that, a dry clean place! 

You could bury the bottom in the sand and throw your towels over it and no one would know it was there! 

And this upcylce couldn't be easier!

Did you know that by using rubbing alcohol, you can remove the ink from plastic and glass containers?  There are always expiration dates stamped on them and with a little effort you can scrub the words away for a clean slate.

Creating a template from the lid allows you to make multiple ones if you want without having to trace out the pattern each time.  For my beach bucket I mod podged fabric to the top, so that it would wipe clean and be durable and I wanted a darker color to keep the sun out so I went with fabric.  Then I just added some beach rocks and glass to decorate.  We can add shells and other goodies we find each time we visit the beach!  Then I just used a paint marker to write on the front and back and my beach bucket is complete!

Like I said I have a ton of these buckets...

Store all of your important first aid supplies in one handy portable place with a First Aid Bucket.  You could also make:

• Mani Bucket with all of your nail polish and supplies
• Travel Buckets for the kids with keep busy supplies, like crayons, paper, cards, etc...
• To Go Pet Buckets with all the supplies your furbaby needs on the go
• Emergency kit for the trunk with some emergency supplies, like flashlight and water bottles
• Picnic Buckets for lunches or snacks
• Put a slot in the top and you have a coin bank that can hold a ton of pennies

And one of my favorite ways to use them is as gift boxes!

Add some ribbons and bows and you got a great reusable gift container!  Here is one I made for hubby last year... he loved it!