- Diy Recycle It: Button Jewelry
It seems that every time I am cleaning I find a stray button. Sometimes I can find what garment the button goes with and other times I am completely stumped. Since I hate to throw anything away, I have a jar specifically for stray buttons.
Some of the buttons in my collection are boring. However, some are quite interesting. Whether vintage or new, buttons can be used for a variety of projects including jewelry. All you need are your buttons, leather cording and/or sterling silver wire and clasps. You might want to add beads as well.
If you don’t have the time to make your own button jewelry, check out Bumpy Beeler.
Artist Sarah Matias makes nifty necklaces, earrings and rings from vintage buttons.
Some of her creations can be seen below.
- DIY Recycle It: Towels
Washcloth Puppets can be purchased at Fat Brain Toys
If you have young children, you more thank likely have old towels in various shapes and sizes around your home. If you have the hand puppet kind – even better. These towels can be transformed into great animal toys.
Any towel can be transformed, however the animal washcloths that fit on your hand are perfect for stuffing. After stuffing, all you need to do is sew the bottom closed.
You can also use regular old towels and sew them into squares or circles and fill with stuffing. You can find plastic squeakers at craft supply stores or save the ones from your old worn pet toys.
Another idea is to use an old twenty ounce empty and capped soda bottle. Sew stuffing and towel around it or stuff into an old sock with stuffing and sew closed. Pets love the sound of the crinkling plastic.
- DIY "Recycle It": Paper
Paper is everywhere. From the mound of mail that comes in, to the newspapers and magazines that we read, to our kids projects and worksheets. It seems that half of our weekly recycling is some form of paper. You certainly can and should recycle it, but how about trying to re-purpose it as well. Below are some tips for recycling and re-purposing paper as well as the long awaited art project I’ve been working on.Home made paper: If you are a crafter pick up a book on paper making. It’s not that difficult once you get the hang of it and the end result is some really beautiful paper you can reuse.
New Art: My kids are young and often come home with large sheets of paper with splashes of paint. The most interesting ones get hung and framed, the others get cut into strips for basket weaving or other pieces for collage making. You can create a useful basket for paper clips etc. or a new piece of art.
Gift Tags and Cards: Old cards can be re-purposed into gift tags and, as listed above, other pieces of paper can be cut and pasted into creative new hand made cards.
Weed Blocker: Newspaper works great in the garden on paths to suppress weeds. I use that and cardboard on the paths of my vegetable garden so that I don’t have to weed.
Compost: Some paper and cardboard can go right into the compost pile!
Papier Mache: Another art form. Strips of paper and wall paper paste or glue can turn any paper into a work of art. One can makes vases, jewelry, bowls, large scale sculptures, the options are endless. This brings us to the piece I’ve been working on the last month or so. Click here to read more.