Celebrations: Spring Butterfly Feeder Jar

Spring is around the corner and I'm already enjoying the warmer weather and blue sky. I've been busy in my garden and in preparation hope to attract butterflies this year with a sweet little butterfly feeder.

UPCYCLING: Earth Day Recycled Craft Ideas

Earth Day is tomorrow friends and one of my favorite ways to craft is by recycling items to use on a project. T-shirts, jars, paper and cans make great upcycled projects. Here are a few of my favorites.

LITTLE CRAFT: Recycled Container Scare Cat

Here’s a fun little craft for little crafters just in time for your spring vegetable garden. Make a scare cat out of recycled plastic containers to keep the critters away from your vegetables. Or that’s the idea anyway.

WELL-ORGANIZED: Upcycled Jars to Spice Jars

I’m still getting organized. I suspect it’s going to take me all year and by that time it will be time to start all over again. You know, declutter, organize, rinse, repeat. While I was storing bins in the garage, I discovered I had saved several pasta sauce jars that all matched. Hooray for matchy-matchy!

UPCYCLING: Wax Paper Box to Washi Dispenser

The New Year organizing continues! Doesn’t it feel good to make progress in the clutter battle? Last week I shared a round up of recycled storage ideas and absolutely fell in love with a recycled cookie box idea by Aunt Peaches. So as soon as I had an empty wax paper box I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

UPCYCLING: Sweater Sleeve to Heating Pad

Now that the weather is dipping, it’s time to bust out those old sweaters. Not to wear… to cut up. Whoever first came up with the upcycle sweater idea was a genius. I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of sweater crafts. You can use the sleeves to cover cans and jars, make stockings and more.

ETCETERAS: Springtime Sea Glass from Recycled Bottles

I’ve been saving up my little salsa jars because I love the shape and the little chevron pattern at the top of the bottles.

Upcycling: Recycled & Repurposed Unique Planters for Spring

It’s time everyone. Time to get the garden going. If you’re not quite to the point to head outside and start digging up the plant beds, you can start small with these fun and unique container ideas. The best part is they are all recycled or repurposed items. Oh yeah… it’s good to be green.

INKLING: Recycled Grocery Bag Book {Fiskars Art Tools}

Growing up, art class was always my favorite subject in school. If it was art class day, my whole day would be brighter and I couldn’t wait to what we were going to paint, draw or create that day. I love supporting art programs for kids and was so excited to hear about Fiskars Shape Their Future Project.

Inkling: paper clip & junk mail bracelet

Making a paperclip chain or bracelet has been around for probably as long as paperclips. I saw a fun paperclip bracelet here that took the paperclip chain to a new level by wrapping paper around each clip to form paper beads.

Extra Credit: living green with white cloud

This post brought to you by White Cloud. All opinions are 100% mine.

Recycled Paper Towel Seedling Rolls

Some of my favorite project and crafts supplies are recyclable items. Over the past few years, I’ve shared many “upcycling” and “recycling” projects.

Inkling: brown bag wreath {faux bay leaves}

I love those bay leaf wreaths that you can buy. I’m sure that they smell wonderful and it’s a nice idea to be able to pluck a bay leaf from your wreath when you’re cooking. But they can be pricey. Even buying fresh bay leaves and making your own wreath can add up. Here’s a way to get the look for less.

Etceteras: ewaste bin

I try to use rechargeable batteries as much as possible. But I still end up with a baggy of old batteries every now and then. The baggies get shoved into drawers or cupboards and eventually (hopefully) are dropped off at an EWaste (electronic waste) center.

In an effort to get the rest of the house onboard and to not throw batteries or other small EWaste in the regular trash, I made a little EWaste bin for everyone to use.

I had this round box on hand and it was already covered in the brown kraft paper. I simply designed a label, printed it out and glued it on. I added a ribbon for accent. If you don’t have a pretty box on hand, use an oatmeal box or any shape box will do.

I’ll be giving instructions to the family to deposit their EWaste in this bin. I better not see any regular trash, gum wrappers or what-not in this bin…. I’ll keep you posted on our progress.



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Inkling: recycled paper

Do you shred documents and junk mail? If so, that little bin under the shredder fills up pretty quickly. You can put the shreds in with the recycled trash, compost it or make new paper. I decided to make some new paper from paper mache pulp and use it to make tags.

To make paper from paper shreds you’ll need:

• Paper shreds or torn up paper
• Water
• Flour
• Sugar
• A large pot
• A rolling pin
• A strainer
• Parchment or wax paper

• Place your paper shreds in a pot of boiling water and let boil for an hour or so.
• Stir the paper every now and then and add more water if needed. Time saving option: soak your paper overnight in a bucket of water to eliminate the boiling step.
• Once the paper starts to get mushy; drain it in a large strainer. I used a wire strainer so the bits of paper wouldn’t fall through larger holes of a sieve.
• While the paper is cooling, make paper mache paste. Here’s the recipe:

Combine ½ cup flour and 2 cups cold water in a bowl.

Boil 2 cups of water in a sauce pan and add the flour and cold water mixture.

Bring to a boil again.

Remove from heat and add 3 tablespoons of sugar.

Let cool. The paste will thicken as it cools

• Squeeze your paper to remove as much water as possible. Slowly add the paper mache paste. You probably won’t need all the paste. Just enough to coat the paper.
• At this point, I added little cut up bits of colored tissue paper to jazz up my paper. Don’t boil the tissue paper with the shreds or it will just become part of the mush.
• Roll out your pulp between two pieces of parchment paper using a rolling pin.
• Try to get your paper fairly thin.
• Place on a cookie sheet or tray and let dry.

Once your paper is dry, cut them into desired shapes.

 

  

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