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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Third Time’s the Charm

Have you ever noticed how much better your third try is at something than the first and second tries were?  I’ve found that the third version of my work is alway the point where things finally look ‘perfect’.  The first time I do something I am still thinking about what is going to work – establishing the technique.  The second time – I usually take it too far – too much color, too extreme in one fashion or another.  The third time is wondeful, the technique is working and I’ve finally had enough experience to make the right balance and color choices…

This morning I was finishing up some Thank-you Notes for my daughter, we’ve been a little lax lately and didn’t get thank-yous in the mail right after she got birthday presents, so this weekend is my last oppertunity to make sure that’s done before we’ll enjoy Christmas present and need to get a few more thank-yous in the mail.

The pink note with the technique problems is of course the first try and the deep marroon is the second (of course I went with that color)

This is the third try, where the fabric is just right and matches the Gocco printing.

I wish that picture was a little better, but you get the idea.  BTW this is made from swatches of upholstery at the local fabric store – I can’t say enough about making friends with the local fabric store.  I’ve gotten the greatest donations of remnants because some sweet clerk was willing to tip me off.

One last thing, after the third try I usually find that somethings continue to improve but it never seems to be the kind of leaps and bounds that are achieved between the first through third iterations.

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Recycling Christmas Cards – Ideas

I received my first couple of Christmas cards today and was reminded of some of the simple recycling that can be done at this time of year.  Growing up at my house we get the Christmas boxes out at Thanksgiving and decorate the house from head to toe… it’s a great way to get in the mood for the season.  I have a favorite Christmas book that comes out of the boxes at this time of year as well.  My mother saved her Christmas Cards for a few years and then she recycled them into an Alphabet book.  Each page is based on a theme for every letter.  A is for Angel, so she cut the front off of 3 or 4 cards with angels and arranged them on a large 12″x 12″ page, each card is cropped and place on a page along with a short little saying applicable to Angels,

A is for Angel
with halo so bright,
who sang for the Christ child
that first Christmas night

I decided I wanted one of my own and am still working to finish it.  I think it will be great to look through the book and think about when we got those cards and what was going on in our lives at the time.  I hope my daughters will enjoy my book as much as I’ve liked my mothers.

I found another really good idea for Christmas cards, Birthday cards, etc.  when looking through a cooking magazine the other day – a reader had written in and talked about cutting cards apart and keeping the portion where friends and family had written and using the opposite side as a recipe card so that every time she gets the card out to cook she is reminded of those messages from people she loves…

It’s worth mentioning that we seem to pay about 3 to 4 dollars apiece for the cards, and even if we are frugal enough to make our own perhaps it would be nice to find a way to keep those sentiments around longer in one fashion or another.

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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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Gingersnaps and Hand Made Christmas Ornaments

I’ve been working with a lot of felted wool lately. I keep a couple of boxes of old clothing especially for recycling projects and when I can get a great wool sweater at the thrift store for 99 cents I pick them up. After finishing off the bird ornaments I’ve been toying with the idea of a few wool ornaments for my Etsy site. A couple of weeks ago I ran a load of wash and deliberatly shrunk a few wool sweaters to use for recycling projects.

For these ornaments I’ve used recycled materials again, this time it’s old wool sweaters, stuffed with packing paper I saved from our last move.

After our last move I kept the paper because it made such good scratch paper for my daughter when we packed up from Bogota. I didn’t realize I’d find my own uses for it as well, I balled it up to create the foundations for the ornaments.

The embellishments are old Christmas trims picked up at garage sales- thanks for the donation Aunt Julie! I love the old foil paper medallion sewn to the bottom of the light blue ornament. The buttons are antique mother of pearl. I like the idea of recycled wool on a Christmas tree, very reminiscent of walking around in the snow or enjoying the first run down the slope.

It’s a great time to cook a few gingersnaps, just to make the house smell like the holidays. Have a great Thanksgiving!

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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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