Coffee Cup Tissue Holder

Step 1: Intro

this project is not necessarily about a coffee cup and some tissues. it's about the idea of re-usability, and the proficient wave of creativity that can help sustain frivolous usage of material. its also the offshoot of a separate project in which I was asked to design something/anything to be fixed to a bicycle, and influenced by the director Jacques Tati's work, Traffic.
if you've seen the movie..

Step 2: Materials You Will Need

disposable coffee cup with lid - handful of tissues

Step 3: Tools You Will Need

exacto knife, bright colored marker, felt pen, chalk, colored pencil - you might also want some fine sand paper to soften the edges of the plastic

Step 4: Seperate the Lid From the Cup

blank, plain, generic disposable coffee cup and lid - this is an ideal starting point, a blank canvas

cups with logos or stickers or screen printed graphics on foam work too - you can paint the cup so in the end it doesn't matter what you start with

the advantage to starting with a blank cup is flexibility - you can leave it as is if your into that or
customize it however you'd like

Step 5: Prepare the Lid for Cutting

using writing utensil, map out a rectangle on the top of the lid - it is probably best to mark your cut somewhere near the lid's center

I have marked my cut at 1.5" x .5"

Step 6: With a Exacto Knife, Carefully Cut Your Tracing

make sure your exacto blade is sharp - if not you will tear the plastic instead of cutting through it

after you've cut out your tracing you may want to soften up the edges with some fine sand paper

after sanding and finishing the lid place that to the side - grab your box of tissues

Step 7: Tissue Box Demolition

a small box of tissues will do - you won't be able to get all of the tissue into the cup - you will probably have room for a 1/4 of a box at a time depending on the size of your cup

Step 8: Pull Apart the Side Panels of the Tissue Box

the box comes apart very easily - take your time when you tear up the folds - if you leave the box intact you can use it to hold your excess tissues

Step 9: Notice How the Tissues Are Oriented

the tissues are all connected very loosely - they are folded in on themselves once and - then stacked on top of each other - in the box the tissue on the outside of the folded in half stack is pulled first BUT in your coffee cup the tissue that makes up the inside of the fold will go first

Step 10: Grab Some Tissues From the Box

grab some tissues from the box and you will see that it gets messy fast - fool around with them and become familiar with how and why the box works the way it does

this may not seem necessary, but every coffee cup could be different, and every lid too - the box is designed to pull the tissues out in a distinct way - the coffee cup poses some interesting changes that need to be made - this was how i made it work, yours might be different

Step 11: Place a Stack of Tissues Across the Top of the Cup

20 oz cup = 15 tissues

Step 12: Push the Tissues Down Into the Cup From the Center

you will want to hold on to the tissue on top as you push the stack into the cup

Step 13: Pull Out the Tissue on Top

if the tissue on top does not come out easily then you have too many tissues - it may be that your cup only holds 5 tissues - if that's cool with you...

Step 14: Grab Your Lid

grab your lid and slip the top tissue through the hole you cut - pull it through enough to connect the lid to the cup - this is where you will see if you've been successful, if not: check the cu you made - are there any sharp edges? could your hole be cut bigger? are there too many tissues in your cup?

Step 15: Enjoy. Refill When Needed.