Episode 1 TOTALLY RUBBISH

I'm Nigel.

I'm Michelle.

'We're going to show you how to turn useless rubbish...'

What are you going to do with this lot?

'..Into amazing, useful stuff.'

So cool.

'All here on...'

Coming up, we meet an artist who does incredible

things with cardboard.

We visit someone who wants to save his boxes from being binned.

And we transform a school folder with some old jeans.

But first...

This is mock mess.

-Can you help me clear this up? I made a bit of a mess.

-Yeah, sure.

'Gotcha.'

That's smooth.

-Yeah, I know.

-You spotted it.

Can you give me a hand, mate?

I'm clearing this up I've made a bit of a mess. Cheers.

-'That's it, down for the wipe.'

-It's fake.

-Huh?

-It's fake.

-'Fake? I got you first, though.'

-I think we did good, there.

-We did.

I'm going to show you how to make it.

'Yeah, I'm going to show you how to prank your mates out of stuff

'you have lying around.'

This is mock mess and I'm going to show you exactly how to make it.

First up, we need a bowl of PVA glue.

You can find PVA in most stationery shops or supermarkets.

Make sure there's enough PVA in there to spill out

and make your mock mess.

We are going to make a strawberry milkshake flavoured mock mess

so we need to colour our PVA.

For this, use a tiny bit of paint. Now, be careful how much you use

because if you use a little bit too much, your milkshake is going

to look far too red.

Once you've got your PVA all mixed up to a nice colour, get a surface

to make your mock mess on.

Now, what I've used is a big piece of a cardboard box

and I've covered it in clingfilm.

Right, now for the moment of truth.

On goes our mock mess. We need to make one end of our mock mess a

little bit longer than the other

so that we can fit one end of it into a cup.

Now to add some authenticity. You can use a small paintbrush

and spread your PVA into more of a splat-like shape.

So, once you're happy with your splat shape, let it dry.

Now, you have to be patient

because it takes quite a while. You don't want to

go in there early. Let your splat settle.

Once it's dry, you should have something that looks a little bit

like this.

Right, now for the moment of truth. You need to peel your mock mess

off the cling film. Now, be careful with this.

There we go.

So, the cups that you get in the cinema or from the takeaway,

you need to save those cups, they're perfect for your mock mess.

And remember, we said you needed one end that was a little bit longer -

that end goes inside the cup like that.

To make it more realistic, you can add a straw, like that.

If you don't want to make a milkshake mock mess, what you

could do is make a milk mock mess using an old milk carton or

you could make a juice mock mess using an old juice bottle.

Mock mess done. Thing is, I better clean it all up.

Amazingly, the UK produces over eight million tonnes of cardboard

packaging every year. Now, that's the equivalent of around three large

cardboard boxes a week for every single person in the country.

And I know someone who doesn't want to waste any of his.

Meet Yuri. He has a lot of cardboard.

His grandparents send him loads of packages from Japan so the house is

often consumed by boxes. But what can he create that's cool out of card?

So, Yuri, what's the deal with all this cardboard?

Oh, I get lots of presents from my grandma and my granddad.

Have you ever thought of doing anything with them?

Yeah, I've thought of making stuff like mini-models,

but I haven't really started any.

So you've got your desk in your bedroom, what goes on on this desk?

Well, I do lots of drawing and I do homework most of the time on it.

So maybe we could use the cardboard to create

something for your desk, perhaps?

Yeah, I've got lots of pencils and pens lying around.

There's a possible idea there, and there's a guy that

I know that's amazing at creating things out of old bits of cardboard.

So have a watch of this and see what you think.

My name's Chris Gilmore,

I'm an artist and I make sculptures out of recycled cardboard.

I make very realistic things that you might find around a house.

Today, I'm going to be making a bicycle.

These are two electric guitars,

they're based on the guitars the Beatles used to use.

I live in Italy and this is a classic Italian typewriter from the 1960s.

This has got lots of pieces, there's lots of tiny screws

that hold the drum kit together. And, so it can be transported,

the little drums fit inside the big one.

A lot of my work is about looking very closely at things,

so the idea of making a microscope really appealed.

I usually make a life-size drawing of the thing I'm going to make,

so I can see all the details, I can check the measurements.

I've got a nice big box here that I'm going to use

to make the wheels of the bike.

I've got the centre of the wheel here and the space for the rims here,

and it makes a great big compass for drawing big circles.

Now, I need at least four or five layers of this.

You need to be very careful doing this.

And this has given me a nice, rounded shape.

The tyre here, which will be covered with another piece of cardboard,

will become the rim. I'm using a type of tape called gum strip tape,

which has got the glue on this shiny side.

So for each of the spokes, I need to cut a piece of tape in half.

And there's about 90 spokes on the bike, so it takes quite a long time.

I'm going to wet the tape and this goes sticky straightaway.

Put the wire on straight.

Leave this to dry for a minute.

Now repeat about 80 times.

And I've got the forks and the brakes on this one.

One nice detail here is the tyre valve. This is made with

a little tube of quite light-coloured cardboard and then the dust cap

is made from corrugation from inside the cardboard,

you can see it's got a texture to it, give it a nice kind of grip.

To make the chain, cut a strip off.

I have a pair of scissors which has got a wave shape on the blade,

and I'm going to use these to cut a wavy line down the cardboard.

I'm going to do the same on the other side so that the waves line up.

I need to make a mark on this to look like a rivet

that connects the chain together.

This is just one bit of chain that will go across the top.

You can see the little pieces that I have just made on the outside.

The cog's basically a round shape,

but of course, it's got the teeth on the wheel that need to go in.

Just trim these off. That's going to give me the teeth on the cog.

I've started putting the chain around the outside.

There's different colours of cardboard so you can see the shapes.

I'll start making the tubes to make the frame for the bike now.

If you look at the cardboard, you can see it's got lines.

It's much easier to bend the cardboard

along these stripes this way rather than this way.

There's the three tubes on the front of the frame one, two and three.

The sculptures that I make are very accurate and precise

so I need to look very carefully at the shapes I'm going to make.

I use paper to make a template.

This is going to be the template for the bike seat.

This one I can cut out quite roughly

because I'm going to need to make it a bit smaller anyway.

Fit this second piece inside.

Underneath, I've got the rail to hold it on, the bolts,

I've got the little nameplate at the back.

It's amazing with the things that you can do with cardboard

and Chris' work has given me a great idea

of what to do with Yuri's old boxes.

Yuri, we were chatting about you having loads of pencils and pens

and not really having a proper place to put them.

So that gave me an idea to create something out of cardboard for you.

Now, Chris Gilmore, the artist, made an amazing bicycle out of cardboard,

so I thought we could make our very own scooter out of cardboard.

But check this out. You can actually

-hold your pencils and your pens inside.

-Wow.

-How cool is that?

-So cool.

-So are you up for making it?

-Yeah.

-Cool.

It's really simple because, basically, it's just a series

of different templates on thick pieces of cardboard.

We'll start with the curved seat. Just like Chris Gilmore,

draw the lines in the same direction as the cardboard lines.

To create the curves that you've got on the curved seat here,

grab a lid of an old jam jar or anything that you've got like that,

just place it down on the corner and then just draw round it.

Just means you get a nice curved line rather than a squiggly one.

So you've got your basic shape there. Next, draw some tabs in.

The tabs are going to make it easier to fix the pieces together.

I bet you didn't think that when your grandma has been sending you

all this cardboard over from Japan,

-that you'd be making a scooter out of it.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Right, Yuri, are you happy to start cutting that out?

-Yeah.

Whilst you're cutting that, I'm going to move on to the next

-section of the bike. So you're working on this bottom bit here.

-OK.

I'm going to work on the top part, which is where the hole is.

So I'm just going to draw this long rectangle, and, like we said,

we need a big hole in the middle of it to put all of your stationery.

What's the best bit of stationery that you've got sent over?

I really like the pens that they send over that you can rub out.

-That sounds cool.

-I think I'm done.

Brilliant, and I've cut the hole out of this.

We can start fixing these two pieces together. Fold along these lines,

and a great thing that you can use is a ruler. So if you place

your ruler along the line like that, lift that section of cardboard up,

it just makes easier to bend. And the same with the tabs,

but what we need to do with the tabs first,

-is snip triangles along these lines, OK?

-OK.

One there, another snip here.

Pop your ruler along the line and lift your tab up.

Start folding these together, and if you hold that in position,

I'm going to grab this and bend it so it curves, just like this one.

Another top tip from Chris Gilmore

is to make sure when you're bending corrugated cardboard,

you bend along the grooves rather than across them.

It just means it bends really, really nicely.

And then we can stick these two together.

We're using double-sided tape but you can also use a strong glue.

OK, so now we've got the seat and an area that we can put

our pens in. We need to build up the front panel - this section here -

which is a large kind of rectangle curved at the top.

So whilst you're cutting that out, I'm going to move on to the wheels.

Corrugated cardboard is brilliant for these wheels because you can see

-they've got the realistic tyre treads in them.

-Yeah.

To make the front wheel, we'll need eight circles.

Now, the back wheel is half a circle

so we'll only need four circles for that, which we'll cut in half.

I think I'm done.

You're done? Brilliant. So that is going to be our front panel

and we'll fold that over and put it into position a bit later on.

First, we're going to cut out all of the circles for the wheels

and glue them together. Let's put those to one side for now

because we can stick them on to the main body of the scooter

once we've got this front panel sorted.

-You can see here that it bends down and goes up again.

-Oh, yeah.

So, for that, we need to create a couple of folds.

So again, we just need some double-sided sticky tape

-to fix it together.

-OK.

And now we need to fix the wheels on, but before we do that, we want

a groovy little wheel arch, just like this one. Just draw

a rectangle with two little quarter segments cut out of it.

You cut out the wheel arch and I'll focus on the handlebars.

Find yourself a nice long bit of card and just cut a long,

straight line. And then for the brakes, it's just tiny, little

bits of cardboard, which you can stick at either end. There we go.

All finished.

Brilliant. So we can start sticking the wheel arch.

And we're using glue to stick this onto our front panel.

Let's glue the wheel under the arch

and then exactly the same with the back wheel.

You've got your handlebars, which can just stick behind there,

and you can get another circular piece of card for the headlight

if you want to stick that on. And remember, another little tip

from Chris Gilmore is to use different shades of card,

which helps to give your structure a bit more contrast.

With all of the cardboard boxes that you've got, Yuri, you could

-make a whole showroom of these bikes, couldn't you?

-Yeah.

So there we have it, your finished scooter pencil holder.

-That's yours, Yuri.

-Wow, thank you.

-You can pop all of your pens and

pencils in it. And if you don't fancy making a scooter, how about

trying your very own campervan? Check this one out, you've got your

pens, your paintbrushes, everything in the top roof, there.

It's even got its own special little boot

where you can put your paperclips in.

And you could always try a convertible car.

We've got our highlighters, our rubbers in the middle bit there.

It's even got a bonnet, you can put your paperclips in there,

you can even put elastic bands in the boot.

That is very, very cool. So why not give it a go?

To make a cardboard scooter desk tidy, here's what you have to do.

Stage one - draw out the shapes you need

onto your sheets of cardboard and then cut them out.

Stage two - assemble the main body of your scooter.

Stage three - attach the front of the scooter to the main body.

Stage four - glue the circles together to make the wheels.

Whole circles for the front wheel, half circles for the back.

Stage five - add the wheel arch and glue the wheels on.

Stage six - add finishing details like a headlight, handlebars

and trim using thinner card.

Still to come,

we make a garden grow with thrown out plastic bottles.

And we show you how to make a holder for your phone from an old tie.

But first, Totally Famous.

Introducing Vincent Van Gogh, totally famous for brightening

the world with his Sunflowers and, not so brightly,

getting his ear chopped off. Things weren't always sunny for Van Gogh,

he often found himself short of cash. Know the feeling?

So he had to find clever ways of making his art on the cheap.

The answer - tea towels, which Van Gogh often used

when he didn't have any canvas. Resourceful, Vincent. Liking it.

But money wasn't the only thing that Vincent Van Gogh found

himself without. Notice anything?

Some say he cut his ear off himself. Ouch!

Others say it was an angry artist mate of his called Paul Gauguin,

who lopped off the lobe with his sword.

Either way, it must have hurt, as does the next bit of news.

Amazingly, despite painting so many great and colourful works of art,

Van Gogh only sold this one painting, called The Red Vineyard,

in his entire lifetime.

And today, his works sell for millions of pounds each.

So please, give it up for the totally famous,

though not until long after his death, Vincent Van Gogh.

Today, we are going to make a tie phone-holder using an old tie,

a piece of sticky fastener, some double-sided tape

and some old buttons.

First you get the tie, unpick the stitching from the back of tie

and then you put your phone inside the tie.

-They can't see it.

-But the phone will fall out.

-Well, don't put the phone in, then.

-OK.

Pull the rest of the tie towards the wider end.

You cut the bit that you just put over.

Your dad's looking for his tie and you say you cut it up to

make a cellphone case, you're going to be in trouble.

Then you get the double-sided tape.

Stick the pieces of the tie together.

Make sure it's quite neat, though.

-How's it going, Michelle?

-Fine.

Once you've done that, you get the Velcro pieces

and stick it on the underside of the flap.

And then you put it over and you see where it fits.

Where it fits, you get your other piece, and you put it about there.

-And make sure it sticks like that.

-And there's your phone case.

If you want, you can decorate it with an old button.

-There you go.

-Nice work.

-Thank you.

What can you make from a bin bag full of rubbish?

-I have another bag of goodies.

-Let's see what's in there.

What's going on here, then?

I'm going to show you how to make something that is cool for school.

You'll need an old folder, a tatty, unwanted pair of jeans,

some ribbon, some leftover felt, a pair of scissors,

some double-sided tape and some buttons.

We're going to make one of these.

-That is awesome! So the jeans cover the folder.

-You like it?

That's ace! You will be the coolest kid in class with one of them.

-Definitely.

-Yeah, you would.

-Shall we make it?

-Yeah, let's make it.

Get an old pair of tatty jeans like these, got holes in the knees

-and whatever.

-Yeah.

-Lay them out like this with the front on.

Then take the folder that you're going to use. You want to line

the folder up with the top of your jeans

-and then you see where the bottom of the folder is?

-Yeah.

Cut off the legs about three or four centimetres below that.

There is something quite nice about cutting up an old pair of jeans.

-There you go.

-OK.

-We want to take the zip off the front

and some of this thick stitching here on the front of the jeans.

So we are going to cut from the bottom here

all the way to the top, along that line,

-and we are going to do the same on the other side.

-Yeah.

-OK.

Don't throw anything away. You may need the zip for a future project.

Next, we need to attach this to our folder.

I've put some double-sided tape all the way round my folder

so there's some there, some on the spine, some on the back.

It's totally covered in double-sided tape, yeah?

Now line up the spine of the folder with the middle of the jeans here.

And line up the top with the top of your jeans here.

Stick that down. Fold in the sides and...

-RAPS:

-Stick it down and wrap it around.

-You're making songs up?

-Yeah.

-Then neaten up the edges.

What you should have, once you've done that, is something like this.

Hey, that's completely transformed it, hasn't it?

Now all you have to do is use some old ribbon and double-sided tape

or glue to cover up the frayed edges of the denim on the inside cover.

Then, to personalise it even more, I clipped a glitter ball

keyring to a belt loop, glued a felt Union Jack to the pocket,

and stuck on a few buttons.

And then the best part, you can use the pocket to put your pens in,

-your pencils, anything you need for school.

-That's so cool. So useful.

-It's cool.

-I know.

-This idea can work with more than just blue jeans.

Have fun with your own colours and decorations to really make it yours.

-Nice presents, as well.

-Yeah, you want one?

-Yeah, I do actually, yeah.

-I bet you want one, too.

Nom-nom-nom-nom.

BELCHING

Looking good, Vin.

Thanks, Min. It's all in the jeans!

Can you believe, Vin, that in the UK, we throw away enough clothes

-every year to fill Wembley Stadium?

-Yeah, yeah, never mind all that.

Look, what are a ghost's favourite jeans?

I give up.

Boo jeans! Ha! Get it? Boo jeans! Ha-ha-ha!

HE GROANS

Here's a pile of empty plastic bottles and cartons.

Here's Michelle having a drink out of a water bottle.

And here's me doing my bit.

Oh, and here are Gizmarc and Becky tidying up this old unused space.

But what are they doing that for?

We're just cleaning this messed up garden in our school.

We would like to make it look pretty again but we're not sure what to do.

So what do we all have in common?

Us, bottles. Kids, bottles. Kids, us. Kids, us, bottles.

This brilliant bottle garden, that's what. And here's how we did it.

To make some bottle flowers, cut the bottom off a plastic bottle

and then cut little petals into them. Cut down to the neck of the bottle.

Any shape you want to cut, you can cut,

anything you think is going to make your flower look a bit special.

Oh, that's a nice one, there's some good petals, there.

-I think my favourite bit is putting the paint on.

-Yeah.

It just brings it to life.

-What colour are you going for?

-Orange!

-Are we happy with this one?

-Yeah, it's great.

-Yeah.

Paint the bottle brown, get rid of the lid.

-It will look like a palm tree.

-This girl is on it!

Are you excited to see what it's going to look like at the end?

-The garden will be great.

-I'll tell you one thing, it's going to be very

-colourful.

-Yeah, definitely.

-It will stand out, won't it?

-I've finished.

-That looks amazing.

-Finished mine, too.

Really, really good. Funky flowers.

I'm going to show you how to make a cactus.

Get yourself an old plastic bottle like this and you cut the top off.

Now, the rice is to make sure that it's got some weight in it.

Get another bottle that's roughly the same sort of size,

place it inside the other bottle, like this.

Cut a little hole. Be really careful with your scissors,

and just slot that inside.

You can put more bottles in different sides

and then, once you've got your big cactus shape, paint it.

An old bicycle wheel and then just some plastic bottles stuck all

the way around it. I bet when the wind blows, as well, it will just

turn and it'll catch the light and will look really, really nice.

We've used an old tennis ball, and then we got some lids,

and then we stuck it on and now we're just screwing it on.

How do you think it's all going to look

-when it gets put into the garden?

-It's going to look new

because before it was just an old, rubbish place.

-Is it a better thing to do with your old plastic bottles?

-Definitely.

It's starting to take shape.

(Everyone's concentrating.)

-I think this is cooler than a real cactus, don't you think?

-Yeah.

-It's not as messy as it was before.

-I think it's amazing!

I'm very proud of everyone. They made it look really beautiful.

-And all made from a load of old plastic bottles.

-Love it.

-That's about all from us.

-We'll see you next time on Totally Rubbish.

-ALL:

-Bye!

So why don't you have a go at making your very own mock mess?

Or a cardboard scooter desk tidy.

-A tie phone-holder.

-Or a fashion folder.

And start collecting your empty tin cans...

..Old toys...

..And magazines for next time on Totally Rubbish.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd