Weekend Project: CD Coasters and More

The techies all have jokes aplenty about burning CDs into coasters, but those CDs and DVDs lying around the house are just one more material for creative hands. Here are some ideas—both classic and cutting edge—for using old discs to make new things. You had nothing else to do this weekend, right?

1. Holiday Decorations: A treeful of discs actually looks pretty cool. Just tie a piece of fishing line through the discs and hang. They also make great bases for figurines. For more involved CD holiday projects, check out the 101 ideas on Hints and Things. Use this pattern to make a photo ornament from old CDs.
2. The Holiday Wreath: Seven CDs and a glue gun are all you need.
3. Festive Cards: Seems like a lot of work for a CD that doesn't play, but here's a template for a pretty card.
4. Hover Craft: A reader from the Family Corner suggests a CD, a soft-drink pull, and a balloon to make this flying contraption.
5. Make a Mosaic: They're shiny and colorful, so just break them up into pieces and get out your glue gun.
6. Reflectors and Markers: Using a CD stuck to the end of a post (you can pre-drill a hole in the CD and use screws or nails to affix) is a popular idea for making reflectors to use on your driveway or walkway or for creating garden markers.
7. The Bestiary: Kids might enjoy turning CDs into everything from turtle magnets to monkeys to ladybugs.
8. CD Clocks: These use a recycled CD as the faceplate.
9. At Makezine, one clever inventor created a cipher device, a sort of decoder ring made from two CD-ROMs and a jewel case.
10. A coaster garden in California made entirely of CDs. If you don't want to duplicate this work of art, then just donate your CDs. It contains nearly 30,000 discs so far.
11. Disco Ball: Cut your CDs into one centimeter squares and paste onto a Styrofoam ball. Shine light and dance.