Remember listening to the classics on your ancient disc player? Those were the days right? Today your CDs are probably lying in some corner of your house, gathering dust. It’s a shame to let such valuable material go to waste, when you’ve got so many CD craft ideas at your disposal.

You’ve probably used CDs to store every bit of important information you’ve ever needed. But with devices like hard drives and microSD cards to do that for you, CDs are a thing of the past. But instead of tossing them out like common junk, you can turn them into artistic objects to add to your home decor. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Colourful Coasters

The circular shape of a CD makes it the ideal base to create coasters. All you have to do is find a picture or design that you like and stick it on to one of the surfaces. You can even trace out a piece of printed fabric in the shape of the CD and glue it on the top. Once it’s set, cut out a circle of felt paper 3 inches thick, and make it roughly the size of the CD. Flip the disk over and stick the felt paper on the bottom, to give your new coaster a soft, cushiony feeling.

Groovy Frames

You’ll need a pair of scissors and some glue for this one. Simply cut up your CD into little pieces of varying sizes. Don’t try for a uniform size, otherwise your design isn’t going to look too groovy. Apply glue on each piece and stick it on to your photo frame or on the frame of your mirror.

Make sure that you don’t leave any part of the surface exposed, so that your design really stands out.

Dance Enhancer

You can crank up the vibes at a party by using CDs to make a shiny disco ball. First, shred your CD into little bits using a pair of scissors. When you’re ready with the small pieces, find a plastic ball and stick them to it.

Buy a ball, keeping in mind the size that you want your disco globe to be. If you want to make a keychain out of this item, then a ping-pong ball should suffice. It might be a little difficult to get the bits to stick on; the trick is to bend them gently while placing them so that they curve and take the shape of the ball.

Airtight Tiffin Box

To create this item, you’ll be using the case that you used to store your beloved CDs. Have you seen the protrusion in the centre of the case to keep your CDs in place? Cut that out. Now smoothen out the base of your case and voila! You have a new airtight tiffin box. Just put your favourite snacks into it and twist the lid to seal it shut.

Stylised Guitar Pick

If you’re a musician, you can create a bunch of these for all those times that you lose your guitar pick. Trace out your pick with a permanent marker on the data side of the disc. When you have the basic shape, cut it out with scissors. Try not to crack your pick while doing this (it may take a few tries).

After you’ve got the basic shape, use sandpaper to remove the roughness, so that your guitar strings don’t get worn out. Further polish the sides by rubbing it on an old sock. You’ll see that after polishing it for a while, the edges become smooth.

Your pick is now ready. Stylise it so that you feel like a rockstar at your next gig. You can even use red nail polish to draw flames on the pick.

Keep Experimenting

These are just a few of the things that you can do using old CDs. You can’t really sell your CDs to anyone anymore, so just play around with them and you’ll find new things to create. Who knows, you might be able to make this piece of obsolete technology popular again.

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