Before we get into 5 ways you can recycle plastic bags, I want to encourage you first and foremost to use reusable grocery bags instead of plastic bags. However, there are those days when we forget our reusable ones, and I know not all of our friends and family use reusable grocery bags. With all of that said, here are five unique ways to reuse plastic bags!
Instead of wearing cheap, mass-produced, low-quality undergarments that have to be replaced regularly, I’ve found that sewing panties and boxer shorts, for people both big and small, really isn’t that hard. You can sew underwear from your own stash fabric–even scraps, for kids’ underwear!–or from awesome thrifted clothing, and the results are unique, way cheaper than store-bought, and often sturdier, since they can be made from higher-quality fabrics and sewn with care.
To make your own upcycled undergarments, check out these patterns and tutorials from around the web.
What are You Making Under There? Upcycled Underwear Tutorials from Around the Web Read More 👉
When I saw that my family was clearly not going to eat through that entire 10-pound bag of navel oranges before the last ones went bad, I thought briefly about marmalade and fruit leather, but then I thought, “Nah–craft supplies!”. Read on to see how to turn leftover oranges into shelf-stable craft supplies, and how to make a garland that shows off the lovely translucency of the preserved orange slices.
How-to: Dehydrated Orange Garland Read More 👉
Most people know I love crafting, so they always give me items that they think I could use (which I absolutely love!). My friend and her family saved a few wine bottles for me after one of their family gatherings and I was so excited to do a a project with them! Then, a few weeks ago, I found several books of sheet music at a thrift store for 50 cents each. Add these items together and you get a really fun and recycled decor piece– a sheet music bottle!
How To: Sheet Music Bottle Read More 👉
When I shared with you my round-up of clothespins embellishment projects, I left out my own personal favorite. These dyed and glittered clothespins are so saturated with color, so sparkly, and yep, so darn useful that I find myself making up a fresh batch surprisingly often. Read on to see how they’re done.
How-to: Dyed and Glittered Clothespins Read More 👉
Beeswax tealight candles are expensive, petroleum-based tealight candles are polluting and unhealthy, and yet my lovely little essential oil warmer won’t work with anything larger.
In the mornings, I MUST waft the scent of peppermint and rosemary essential oils through the air, lest I never escape the desire to just go back to bed, and so I’ve gotten into the habit of making my own rolled beeswax tealight candles. They’re quick and easy to make, inexpensive, and you can do them in any colors that you fancy. Read on to see how it’s done.
How-to: Rolled Beeswax Tealight Candles Read More 👉
This necktie headband took me all of 5 minutes to make. Bing bang boom! Here’s how you can make your own!
Tutorial: The 5 Minute Headband Read More 👉
My mom is an elementary school teacher and has developed an obsession with cool peace signs for her classroom. When discussing a how to project this week, she asked me to make her a peace sign out of recycled materials. You guys know I’m all about fun wall art like the Laundry Cup Wall Art, Newspaper Art, and Burlap Chevron Paintings– so I was totally pumped to take on this challenge! After searching around the house, I grabbed a cardboard box they had left over from moving and a bag of pop-tops that my grandma had collected. Here’s how to make your very own pop top peace sign!
How To: Pop Top Peace Sign Read More 👉
If you’re anything like me, the New Year makes me want to reorganize and clean! Often times I go through my clothes to see what fits, what needs to be “retired,” etc. If you can’t refashion your wardrobe like Becky shared yesterday, there are even more options! Hang on to your old t-shirts to try out these amazing projects! For example, perhaps there are some shirts that you would love to keep for sentimental reasons, or one that has a really fun pattern, but just doesn’t fit anymore– these are the perfect shirts to recycle! The only problem you will have is deciding which one of these projects you should try first!
New Year Cleaning: 5 Projects for Your Old T-Shirts Read More 👉
Plain wooden clothespins are as versatile as they are inexpensive, but unlike their plastic cousins, plain wooden clothespins are…well, plain!
If you’d like a little more variety in your clothespin stash, check out these simple crafty projects that will show you how to decorate, embellish, paint, color, and otherwise jazz up your clothespins.
Projects to Personalize, Decorate, Embellish, and Otherwise Jazz up Your Clothespins Read More 👉
Have any ratty bath towels or blankets or other thick fabric to upcycle? Have some stash cotton to rescue from your scraps basket? Read on to find out how to turn that stash into potholders!
How-to: Sew a Nine-Patch Potholder Entirely from Stash and Upcycled Materials Read More 👉
When I saw this Thanksgiving post from Dana at Make Them Wonder, I completely fell in love with her Thanksgiving tree. In the post, she explains that she created a tree for guests to hang what they are thankful for on cute little leaves that she cut out of paper. Her tree is so simple, yet beautiful– and would be an amazing conversation piece. I decided that I would use Dana’s idea and tweak it a little bit to become a New Year’s Eve goal tree! I also made it more eco-friendly by using old newspaper instead of new paper. In addition to the New Year’s Eve Banner I made yesterday, your New Year’s Eve party will be off to a great start!
How To: New Year’s Eve “Resolution Tree” Read More 👉
All of our Christmas decorations are put away, but this stack of Christmas cards stayed on our counter. I always feel guilty about throwing them away–especially the personal, handwritten ones. However, with New Years Eve in mind, I came up with a way to reuse those old Christmas cards! Many New Years Eve parties have banners and lots of fun decorations, but are far from eco-friendly! What is the solution? Use your old Christmas cards to make a fun and unique banner for New Years Eve!
How To: A “Happy New Year” Banner from Old Christmas Cards Read More 👉
So whether you’ll punch your pages and put them into a three-ring binder create your own multi-folio hand-bound book, I encourage you to consider crafting your own daily planner this year. If you’re still on the fence, here are some of the types of pages that I’ll be including in my own planner–if the thought of all these handy organizational tools that I’ll have at my fingertips makes you jealous, then you’re halfway to a DIY planner of your own.
Easy Organizational Pages to Include in Your Daily Planner Read More 👉
While you’ll have to wait until after the holiday season for my own favorite nine-patch potholder tutorial (there’s only so much craftiness I can do while spending Christmas ten hours away from my sewing machine), here are five more potholder tutorials that you’re going to love. Some are scrappy, some are sturdy, some are cute, and none of them even require so much as a pattern to sew–how much easier could you get?
Five No-Pattern Potholder Projects Read More 👉
This week I upcycled a ceiling medallion from the thrift store and turned it into a beautiful inspiration board for the New Year! I know not everyone has a ceiling medallion, but I hope this project encourages you all to go out and find your own item to upcycle into an inspiration board. This is the perfect project to get you motivated to complete all of your goals in 2012!
How To: Inspiration Board for the New Year! Read More 👉
Even though Christmas isn’t here yet, I’m already thinking about my goals for the New Year! If you’re anything like me, the New Year motivates me to get organized and generally deep clean my life (room, car, closet, etc). With organization on the brain, I want to share 5 incredible projects that will inspire you to get organized in 2012! Not only are these projects great for organizing, but they upcycle items you probably have around your home!
If you give a lot of homemade gifts, you’re probably well aware of the versatility of the Mason jar. Perfect for everything from spice mixes to cranberry granola, party mix to cake in a jar, Mason jars get passed around between me and my crafty friends and family like the holiday version of hot potato.
The only thing about Mason jars is that..well…they look all the same. Sure, they’re lovely enough, but so uniform! Fortunately, with a little fabric, some thread, and a bit of upcycled cardboard, you can package your Mason jar gifts for the holidays, personalizing them by gift or recipient or just making them look nicely festive.
How-to: Pretty Packaged Mason Jars for Gift Giving Read More 👉
Popcorn garlands are a kid-friendly, easy, and fun holiday craft that the whole family can make together. Edible, natural popcorn is a great environmental choice, especially since you can simply take it outside to compost or leave for the birds and squirrels to enjoy after the holiday, and if you’re looking for a food craft to do, then popcorn is also a great choice for everyone’s tummies, since you won’t have to worry about all that candy, meant for gingerbread houses or sugar cookies, that somehow ends up in your mouth!
Of course, since I’m from the South, a plain white popcorn garland isn’t nearly gaudy enough for me, so read on and I’ll show you not only how to easily make a great popcorn garland, but also how to easily paint it to match (or NOT match!) your holiday decor.
How-to: Painted Popcorn Garland Read More 👉
I always love getting cookies or homemade candy in a cute Christmas cookie tin! After all the goodies are gone, though, what should you do with the cookie tin? Save your cookie tins and give them a new purpose this season! Here are 5 awesome tutorials that will show you how to revamp your cookie tins.
Christmas decorations can be very wasteful, so why not recycle items you already have around your home? I mentioned in my How To: Transform Christmas “Candles” post that I am addicted to using toilet paper rolls in craft projects. Well, my love for them has not changed– especially after this project! I decided to take my love for toilet paper rolls and combine it with my love for Christmas decorations. It made a beautiful combination–toilet paper “Christmas Lights.”
How To: Toilet Paper Roll “Christmas Lights” Read More 👉
Beeswax ornaments are quite quick and simple to make. They’ll be loved by anyone who has a tree (or a sunny window!) to decorate, and you’ll love that they only require just a bit of beeswax and a narrow scrap of fabric for each ornament.
How-to: Beeswax and Fabric Scrap Ornaments Read More 👉
Because desk calendars are made of that most versatile of craft materials–paper!!!–you’ll find that you can make some pretty great projects with them using some of our favorite methods here at CAGW. Here are five tutorials to get you started.
Reader Question Answered: Upcycling a Daily Calendar Read More 👉
After last week’s post, How To: Laundry Cup Wall Art, I started thinking about other uses for rolled magazine pages. Then, I was inspired by Julie’s Five Sustainable Wrapping Solutions post to create some recyclable gift solutions of my own! Put the two together, and I made my own gift tags that can double as ornaments!
How To: Make A Recycled Gift Tag & Ornament Read More 👉
Here’s how you can make your very own reusable snack bag. This tutorial will make a 7″ X 6.5″ bag, which is a good size for little snacks or even a small sandwich. If you need something bigger or smaller, you can play around with the dimensions to whip up whatever size you like!
How-to: Sew a Reusable Snack Bag Read More 👉
A kid can build with her unfinished wooden blocks all day long, but if what she really wants to build is a rainbow, well…
Fortunately, unfinished wooden toys (or unfinished wood of ANY type), is quite simple to stain, and it takes color so beautifully that you may never want to paint wood again. Here’s how to do it.
How-to: Stain Unfinished Wooden Toys with Vibrant Colors Read More 👉
An amazing reader asked if we had any ideas for the cups/lids that come with laundry detergent. This question got my crafting wheels turning! With laundry cups/lids, magazines and magazine ads left over from the Black Friday madness, I made some cool wall art! This project is the perfect way to save those pointless and wasteful magazines and turn them into something worth looking at!
How To: Laundry Cup Wall Art Read More 👉
You don’t have to wrap your presents with the comics section or a brown paper bag to be eco-friendly (although you can!). Sure, those are classics and they always look good, but you can give your wrapped gifts variety while still keeping them green. Check out these five sustainable wrapping solutions for presents that are as low-waste as they are thoughtful.
Five Sustainable Wrapping Solutions for Eco-Friendly Gifts Read More 👉
Ah, crayons…such versatile, waxy, brightly pigmented goodness! My little girls have a couple of nice boxes of unbroken, new-ish crayons reserved for schoolwork and special art projects, and a giant bin of broken, half-wrapped, stubby, old crayons, gathered here and there and everywhere, that we use for everything else.
Old crayons may seem like a nuisance to have underfoot, but they are incredible art supplies, and you can make some surprisingly sophisticated creations with them. Here are five projects, from canvas art to kid crafts, to get you started
Five Upcycled Crayon Crafts Read More 👉
Etching cream is one of the simplest ways to get started with DIY glass etching, and you can even make custom stencils to fancy things up!
DIY Glass Etching: Thrift, Tape Go! Read More 👉
Over the past few weeks I’ve seen several really cute mini Christmas trees. You know, the little ones that are just for decoration, cost an arm and a leg, and are far from eco-friendly? Yeah, those. Enter: a bottle I saved from the trash.
How To Make a Mini Christmas Tree Read More 👉
You know those adorable concrete mosaic kits that they sell in all the big-box craft stores, the ones with all the stuff that you need to make one concrete mosaic, handprint optional, to put in your garden path in the spring? The ones that look really fun to make, and you’re pretty sure that the grandparents would just adore one made by your kids?
Yeah, you can make dozens and dozens of your own concrete mosaics for the same price as one of those mosaic kits, and even more cheaply, if you use found and natural objects for the mosaic tiles, and recycle plastic packaging for the concrete molds.
How-to: DIY Mosaics–No Kits, Just Concrete! Read More 👉
Check out how to sew cloth napkins that fit nicely into my children’s packed lunches. And, as a bonus, I sew my napkins with a double thickness, so that they have extra absorbency for mopping up spills…not that your kids are messy, of course.
How To Sew Cloth Napkins for a Waste-Free Lunchbox Read More 👉
I have a habit of hoarding things like shoe boxes, newspapers, scrap paper, etc., because I know they can be recycled into a project. An incredible blog called Spunky Junk shared this project on how to use shoe box lids as wall art. Shoe box lids are less expensive than canvas and it’s a great way to recycle! So, I took my shoe box lid, newspaper, and scrap paper and combined it into my own personal wall art!
How-to: Newspaper Art Read More 👉
I always thought these faux Christmas “candles” were somewhat creepy—especially the ones with red bulbs. Even so, they are definitely a symbol of Christmas! I wanted to make a cover for the candles to make them pretty, but still keep them festive. Something you all should know about me is that I am slightly addicted to using toilet paper rolls in my craft projects. Naturally, I used them in this project as well!
How-to: Transform Classic Christmas “Candles” Read More 👉
From clove apples to apple votive candles, there are some really cool things that you can do with your surplus apples, and the beauty of these projects is that when you tire of them, the apples that you used can generally go right into your compost. So check out these five projects for inspiration to use with your own surplus apples.
Five Apple Crafts to Make with Your Surplus Apple Harvest Read More 👉
