Recycled Napkin Rings

I made these serviette/napkin rings for a Christmas lunch at our house, but these can be used for any occasion.  I made them out of toilet paper rolls that I cut into 3 (more or less equal) pieces, spray painted them green, added some glue around the edges using a glue pen and then added gold glitter, spray painted some small twigs from our garden gold, tied them together with gold ribbon and hot glued them to the ring.
I love how they turned out. :)

 

Not forgetting to mention that these are very inexpensive serviette rings to make. :)

A Bunch Of Dirty Books

“A Bunch of Dirty Books”  Over the past few months I have been making art inside the house as the studio has been cold this winter. One day, when all my exhibitions are “sell-outs”, I will be able to install adequate heating in the studio. Until then,I just wear extra hats, scarves and jackets.
Lately, I have become quite addicted to bookmaking and drawing. I make all kinds of books, using recycled, vintage papers, wallpaper,magazines, fabric and canvas mixed with found objects and new materials.
My latest “A Bunch of Dirty Books’ are recycled from damaged vintage medical and natural scientist books. I dirtied the pages from an old dye recipe and will work within the pages and hope to eventually make an edition of around 500.

Crafty Recycling - Using Nature To Decorate

I've decorated another candle using our garden "waste"!  The first one I posted at GGCAA can be seen here.  This next one I've made as a wedding gift:

To keep with the natural theme of the twigs, I've used mostly neutral colours and decoration on the candle.

To see more details of how I made this, I'd be happy to have you over for a visit at Naturally Me Creations HERE.  :)

Recycled Xmas Card Tree Ornaments

Here are some fun Christmas tree ornaments to make, and they're so cute too! :)

This is a Martha Stewart craft that I decided to give a try, except I turned mine into tree ornaments!  If you'd like to see my full tutorial, you can see it on my blog at Naturally Me Creations.

And what's great about these is, of course, that they're recycled! I've used christmas cards that I've received from previous years. I only cut up those that didn't have any particular special messages in them (and if they did, I kept the half of the card with the writing in it) - so what a cute way to display all your little cards instead of having them lie in a box where nobody ever sees them! :)
I'm guessing these would be also be a great way to use up scrap card stock or scrapbook paper - mix and match the colour scraps to make interesting coloured ornaments!
I love these, I think they're so cute!  And they're part of my "project" for next year Christmas, in that I'm only going to have hand made ornaments decorating my tree! :D

Crafty Recycling - Turning Packaging into Christmas Decorations

There are more fun things to do with product packaging than to just give it away for recycling....like turning them into something else cute! :D
Like this packaging, for example:

I decided to turn this into cute little Christmas decorations, by punching it with my flower punch:

Spray painting them silver:

And adding some glitter!

Cute little decorations to do with whatever you wish! :)

To see how I used these little stars/snowflakes, click HERE!

Pop Tab Bracelet Crochet-Plarn Along

Pop Tab Bracelets have become today's newest fashion jewelry accessory -

But this isn't just any ordinary pop tab bracelet, this is an eco friendly pop tab bracelet because it is made with plarn.

'Plarn' .. it is a commonly used word heard quite a bit in the crafting community. You can find write-ups and tutorials about it on various blogs and websites as well as in YouTube.

What exactly is Plarn? It is a very creative way to recycle plastic bags you bring home from the grocery store, retail stores, and even fast food restaurants.


The word 'Plarn' is derived from 2 words combined:  [Pl (plastic) + Arn (yarn) = Plarn] .


I recently hosted my first Crochet-Plarn Along and had so much fun with it I decided - Hey!!  let's squeeze one more in before saying good-bye to 2010 ....



This Crochet-Plarn Along will be in honor of those that are seeking a 'last minute gift idea' or have a 'hard to buy for person' on their gift list.

The skill level: Easy

This pattern is so super simple that even the newest of new crocheter can do - all you need is:



Materials Needed:

• Crochet hook - size F
• Approximately 14 pop tabs consistent in size 
• 2 standard size plastic grocery bags or 1 of each color

and in less than 30 minutes you’ll have an adorable bracelet just like this.

(except if you're laughing too hard from watching something funny on TV or chatting away with friends ...all of which are completely acceptable and encouraged)


I will share the pattern in 2 sets beginning Tues, 12/7 and last posting on Sun, 12/12.


If you interested in participating, please leave me a comment or email me at plastiquerecreations@yahoo.com.

Find Plastique Recreations:

www.facebook.com/plastiqrecreat
www.twitter.com/plastiqrecreat
shop online at: http://www.crochooley.etsy.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/plastirecreations

Wrap&Go Checkbook/Wallet Organizer Crochet-Plarn Along / Part 2: The Party Continues

Part 2:

Making the fold over flap with inside I.D. Pocket and Pen Holder

We will be using the rev sc (aka Crab St) in Part 2.  If you are familiar with how to make the rev sc, feel free to jump down to 'Pattern Instructions'.  

Here's how to make a rev sc stitch (aka crab st):  It may feel a little odd because you’re make a sc just going in the opposite direction (i.e. left to right).  Insert hook, plarn over and pull through  (2 loops on hook), plarn over and draw through both loops.  Continue in each st. 

----------------------------------

Pattern Instructions

Fold over Flap -

Decide which side of pouch will be the back, with back side facing you still using the H hook, attach contrasting color with a sl st in corner st.


Row 1 & 2: Sc in same st and in each st across. (Fast Forward moment:  the 2nd row will be placement of the pen holder.)


Row 3: In blo, hdc in each st across. Turn.


Row 4 -7: Hdc in each st across. 

Photo 8

Row 8: (This row will be the width of your I.D. or other card that will be used.) Hdc in each st across only for the desired width of the card. Turn.

Photo 9

Row 9 – 15: Hdc in each st across. Fasten off, weave in ends.



Photo 10 - Outside Back View



Photo 11 - Inside View

ID Pocket:

(Note:  The Pocket is made separately then attached to the inside flap by making a rev sc through both layers when edging around the flap.)


Row 1: Ch the same # of sts to match Row 8 plus 2.  Hdc in 2nd ch from hook and in each ch across. Turn.


Row 2: Hdc in each st across. Turn.


Row 3: Hdc in next 2 sts. Turn.


Row 4: Repeat row 3. Turn. Remove st off hook (DO NOT FASTEN OFF, you'll be coming back to it.


With wrong side of pocket facing you, join sl st in 1st st on opposite side of Row 3, hdc in same st and in next st. Turn, Repeat row 3 &4.  Fasten off, weave in ends.




Photo 12

 Row 5: Place hook back on st, hdc in next 2 sts, ch 9 or the the # of skipped stitches on Row 3,  hdc in the last 2 sts.  Turn.


Row 6 – 8 (or desired height of I.D. card): Hdc in each st across. Fasten off, weave in ends.

Photo 13

Lay pocket on inside flap to determine what row to rev sc through both layers of the pocket and flap.  (Tip:  I found it works best to have the ID opening lined up with the 2nd row from the top of the flap, see photo 16.  This avoids any hang-over)  

With contrasting color and back of pouch facing you, join with a sl st in lower left corner. Rev sc up the side attaching I.D. pocket along the way, 

Photo 14

Photo 15

2 rev sc in corner, rev sc across top (in flap only), 2 rev sc in corner, back down opposite side (including I.D. pocket) of flap and around pocket opening to 1st rev sc made.  Fasten off, weave in ends.  The remainder of I.D. pocket will be attached with craft needle.

Photo 16

Pen Holder:

Determine how wide of a holder you desire for the pen and placement of the holder.  (Tip: I prefer 8 sts evenly centered on the flap.  There is no right or wrong, it's a personal preference.) With inside flap facing you, join with a sl st in the 1st st of the pen holder, sc in same st and in each desire # across.  Turn,

Photo 17

Sc in each st across for 4 total rows or # of rows needed for pen.  (Tip: Plarn has some stretch to it.   You want it to fit snug.)  

Photo 18

Attaching - sl st in each st across to attach holder to flap.  Finish off, weave in ends. 

Photo 19

Photo 20

You did it, you now have a Wallet/Checkbook Organizer. 

But were not done yet!!!  Just 1 more set of instructions left.  Please continue to provide the fantastic feedback.  

Feel free to post your comments, questions and/or progress pictures via this blog post or at any one of the following sites:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/plastiqrecreat (you will have to be a friend for real time 'chat')
Ravelry: (Crochooley) Group - From Trash to Treasures
Craftsters.org: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=364976.0
Crochetville: http://www.crochetville.org/forum/showthread.php?t=122076

Crafty Recycling - Gift Bag Makeover

I had an old gift bag that I didn't want to throw away, but I couldn't really re-gift it because it looked like this:

Well, the other day I found it in my gift bag stash, I needed a gift bag, this was the perfect size, so I decided to re-purpose it. :)
This is how it ended up:

I cut out and decoupaged a picture over the print on the bag - it's a page in a magazine that I tore out and it's been in my file for years! I also found a roll of red streamer in my ribbon stash, which I've also had for years, so I rounded the picture off with the streamer by gluing it to the bag:

And added a rhinestone where the streamer joined:

And that was it! A simple and cheap gift bag makeover, to make the bag re-usable again. :)

You can see the original post on my site here at Naturally Me Creations.

Card from a price tag

Hello green crafters,

This is a card I made a while back with a price tag made out of recycled paper. This boutique sells pure cotton and silk garments. It is one of my fave places for getting lovely cotton.

I have dressed up the tag to make it look glam.

The last post was lovely as well - a tag recycled into a keychain...

For the last 10 years I seem to be only thinking of cards and nothing else... so my creativity begins and ends with cards unlike so many of you out there who come up with such brilliant ideas.

Monica

Recycled price tags

All three of them are price tags. They were so lovely that I decided to reuse them. First, I thought of using them in gift tags, but wanted to try something different.


Then I found some keychains in my craft stuff. I attached the keychains to these price tags.



You can use them as keychains . You can also attached them to the chain of your purse or to the daughters school bag.



Hope you all liked these keychains. Your valuable suggestions are always welcomed.

Thank you!!