Earthday Give-away!

Just one week left until Earth Day. I think it’s a good time for another Give-Away! So, here’s the nitty-gritty:

-All entries will need to be IN before midnight this coming Monday (before 12 pm on 4/21) , that’s next week, the day before Earth Day. The winner will be announced on Earth Day, April 22nd in the morning.

-To enter you’ll need to submit a comment to this entry or send me an e-mail at thisrecycledlife@gmail.com. Don’t worry I won’t sell or give away your e-mail for any reason. I’ll get in touch with the winner and ask for all of your info at that time so I can arrange shipping.

-The give-away – well it’s a surprise, but I’ll let you know that it’ll be some recycled upholstery jewelry. Have a look through the site for some examples. Sorry but, U.S. entries only, cause the shipping will be on me.

-Visit the Earthday website and check out what other events are happening in your neck of the woods.

Best of Luck!

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Book Review: 49 Sensational Skirts

I bought 49 Sensational Skirts last week after two weeks of ‘thinking’ about it. I do a lot of thinking on Amazon… it’s good they have that feature that let’s you review the purchase about 4 times before any sales are final. I don’t know how many times I’ve gone to step 3 and then decided that I just wasn’t ready.

I love it, I think the author is my kinda gal. She does some amazing things with thrift store clothing and has some great and fun ideas for making your own kind of skirt out of a ‘find’. Her ideas are really fun, some very sophisticated some that are very costume-y

The pictures are wonderful, I am so drawn to a book with great pics. Inspiration happens as you thumb through this one. She has great ideas with found items, fabric strips, some basic stitching. It’s wonderful. There is a simple pattern included in the back envelope as well.

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Tarnished Bracelets

I had a little fun at the thrift store the other day, I bought a few cheap little necklaces and broke them down for the raw materials.  I made up a couple of little tarnished charm bracelets with the pieces and a few other little bits and pieces.

Using the chains as a basis for the charm bracelet I added some of the upholstery charms, a couple of mother of pearl buttons, and some of the fun little metallic beads from a really bad graduated bead necklace.  I like the tarnished look, it would work well for an everyday piece of jewelry.

One of the best things about this project, the cost of the necklaces was a few bucks, not nearly what it would have cost to purchase materials from the craft store…

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Another Recycled Scrap Quilt

I finished up a couple more of my little scrap recycling quilts yesterday. These have been really fun – I’m enjoying them so much I want to do more.

I look through my scrap box and see what they remind me of. The little tree quilt was left over triangles from a bird ornament.  Next time you cut out something, save the scraps, you might find that a little scrappy quilt is in your future.

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Wild and Crazy Catalog Recycling – Christmas Wreath

So the other day I was walking with my daughter past some of our neighbor’s doors, and she is very focused on the displays of Christmas going on around us. She loves the doors with the beautiful wreaths on them and my neighbors do have some very pretty things up on the doors – very welcoming etc. Well the other day sans babies I went on a little trip to stock up on some necessities and found myself wandering the Christmas aisles looking for something bright and cheery to put on our own door. I saw some beautiful things, I saw some things that were very tempting and would have made me very popular with my daughter. They would also cost me way more than I am ready to spend…

So here is my funny little photo documentary of what I put on our door… one day my daughter will be old enough to do the ‘Oh mommmy…. (sigh of exasperation)’ but she isn’t yet – so she still thinks I’m way cool. I am cool – in a really weird and ‘special’ way. Enjoy – and if you happen to wander by my door give us a knock…

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Recycled Upholstery Fabric Flowers

I’m trying something new, you’ll have to tell me what you think. I found a bunch of upholstery fabric swatches and am converting them to flowers. I combined these poppies with some lace trim from a grab bag at the thrift store, and some black lining from one of the tweed jackets I cut up for the Recycled Christmas Ornaments. I used some wire – which I have to admit I didn’t get from a recycled source – I thought about using hangers, but really didn’t want anything that clunky…

Recycled Fabric Flowers, All Recycled Materials.

I’m thinking that this will be a full time project over the weekend, I’m getting ready to use some advertising space I bought on the 10th in Etsy, look for me on the showcase pages…

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New Projects

So, I went out Thrifting today and I found a few t-shirts to work with, a few wool sweaters and a great dress. I was really surprised by the cost of a t-shirt here in the DC area, I pay only half the price when I am home in Colorado and trying to make new t-shirt crafts. So – I was thinking the next time I need raw materials I should offer to buy my friends and neighbors old, worn t-shirts – maybe I could put a sign up in the building. So my question for you is should I offer to pay 99cents or just tell people I’d like their old clothing to recycle it? What do you think about 99 cents?

Most of the time I have plenty of raw material but here in DC we are in temporary housing etc and I only have half of my ‘toys’ (serger, colored threads etc). I have already been through all of my husbands, daughters and my own clothing looking for things that we need to declare garbage – and available for recycling crafts.

-wink- I’m trying to refrain from stealing and cutting down some of my husbands jerseys… but that’s another blog all together.

I love to come up with new recycling ideas for t-shirts, the weave is great and does some really fun texture if you cut it into the strips. I’ve started working on a few more recycled Christmas ornaments, this time the base is made from newspaper or old phone book paper wrapped with recycled t-shirt ribbons. I’m trying to embroider fun little sayings on them to finish them and tack down all the t-shirt ribbon.

Back to the thrifting – tonight I also found an old handmade dress of this great polyester brocade that I am going to love turning into an evening bag… we’ll let you know how that goes.

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Junk Mail – Recycling craft ideas

If you’re like me you get a dozen different catalogs and pieces of junk mail each week. These catalogs come from all kinds of sources and are so difficult to stop. I could go on at length about how disappointing the practice is but I’m guessing you know, and there are other bloggers out there filling that niche. So – how about an idea for a homemade craft to recycle the junk for yourself?

Recycling craft ideas – photo of recycled envelopes.

Click here Recycling idea, Junk Mail Envelopes for a free pattern and some simple instructions for the Recycled Craft – Junk Mail Envelopes.

I was planning to use this recycling idea for my Christmas cards this year, you can use the free pattern as it prints or scale it up or down to fit your Christmas cards, gift notes, etc.

Enjoy!

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Flock of Green Birds – Recycled material art

OK, the birds are actually blue, but a green idea. My hand made flock of birds are made entirely of recycled materials. I started creating these birds after finishing my first t-shirt rug. Scroll down for a picture of the recycled t-shirt rug, and how to cut down your old t-shirts for use.

I had some left over t-shirt ribbon at the end of creating a rug and thought that I could come up with a new recycling idea for the left over t-shirts. I used an old sweater for the filling and then began wrapping t-shirt ribbons around them. The other day I bought a 99 cent grab bag of fabric and cut this beautiful blue spandex blend into strips and began wrapping them around the recycled sweater. I love the blue, and have been trying out new wing designs and I really think this one works. In the end, I think that this little flock will go up for sale in my recycling store on Etsy.

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Recycled Jeans Rug

Here are some pics of a jean rug I made for the living room, I saw something like this in a magazine and couldn’t believe the thousand dollar price tag. And one more time here is my little super .

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