Ner-DIY: Upcycled VHS Camera

Last week Bethany (Macbarbie07) posted a great video where she makes home decor out of soda cans and water bottles. The project that stood out the most to me was the camera made out of Arizona cans. Watch the video here:

I wanted to make a camera too, but I don't really drink Arizona or soda very often and I wanted to make something that represented something that I like. Then I realized that I still had a huge box of old VHS tapes stored at my boyfriend's place. When I first started really getting into films in middle school, I bought and collected a lot of VHS tapes because I still had a VHS player, I grew up watching VHS, and they were crazy cheap. I've been looking for a way to turn my tapes into a craft project, but couldn't come up with something that hasn't already been done before, like turning them into notebooks. But then I thought, I could turn the sleeves into this camera! So with some very minor adjustments, I followed Bethany's instructions from the video and made my own cameras:

Dazed and Confused

Pulp Fiction

Fight Club

Pretty in Pink

This was a lot of fun and I loved the way they turned out. I was happy that I was able to find a way to incorporate part of the VHS tape itself for the lens. Although, I have to admit that it was hard for me to do. I felt so bad defiling it, a form of media that I really love. But I'm not using the VHS anymore, and they were just gathering dust in the garage, so I'm glad that I found a way to re-purpose them and revisit the movies that I love. Plus they make for really cute decor and great gifts as well if you make them out of your recipient's favorite movie! And that's exactly what I'm going to do. (: I made ten of them today and only stopped because I ran out of hot glue sticks.

If you have some old VHS tapes lying around, you might want to give this a try! Or what else do you think you can use this camera template for?