An idea for leftover bits of DGY ribbons

So I'm watching this video- and thinking "Hey, awesome use for leftover scraps of Darn Good Yarn chiffon or silk ribbons."

But a couple things- the yarn is recycled- use recycled plastic too. If you don't mind the shape, I'm wild for milk jug plastic. It's generally white or translucent and I use it for barrette backings, building disks, stencils, planters, scoops, I literally have a kitchen drawer full of milk jug plastic cut into sheets from gallon jugs to use for all sorts of things.

Otherwise- yogurt containers, whipped top containers, esp the ones with labels that can be peeled off easily- plus most plastics can be painted if you can't get printing off of them and don't want it showing through the ribbon.

Now, everyone has that friend who keeps every container that comes into their kitchen, the give you seed starts in plastic yogurt containers, they pack lunches in sour cream or margarine tubs and that person is awesome. Except for using margarine (vegans excepted) , but you probably have friends who don't do that. (I'm not that friend, don't even ask. But I do pack my husband's lunches in Lock & Locks because of a nasty accident a while back. If you absolutely don't want it to spill, Lock & Lock) Those friends? If you point out that it's good to want to save the environment and the best kind of recycling is re-purposing? They will sometimes save you things. Then you'll be the one with a big bucket of soda pop tabs waiting to be turned into armor as soon as you feel like working on something really boring for hours. Oh, wait- anyway, ask. You'll wind up with containers.

Secondly-
The only folds bias tape should have in a project are the nice ones down the length. The card wrap folds are easy to get rid of- use a hair straightening iron.

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So the above was written as a FB update and wound up getting a little longer than expected. I'll be honest- at 3:am, when my sleeping schedule is all inside out, and given the really amazing week I had last week (more on that later) - I tend to get a little enthused, run on, and have very little control over my stream of consciousness. It's good though, because that's also the time that I get the most inspired. 

Paper Bangle Bracelets- Tutorial

I'm really excited about these super easy upcycled paper bangles because there are so many possibilities for them, using a strip of paper for the outside I could put images or type a quote using one of my typewriters on it. They are made very easily using things would normally be thrown into the recycling bin and a new kind of paint which I won from the weekly drawing at Craft Test Dummies.

Luminarte's Silks Acrylic Glazes makes the perfect paint for these because they are sheer but well pigmented. You can use them wet on wet or wet on dry. I thought of doing stripes or something more ordered, but I really like the look of the layered random effect of the paints.

You will need:

• Thin cardboard
• strips of paper- I used newspaper for the one above.
• White PVA glue- I used Aleene's Tacky Glue 
• Silks Acrylic Glazes- I used Sky Blue, Watermelon Mist and Solar Gold
• Acrylic Spray Sealer
• Scissors
• Paint Brushes
• foam brush

This made much like paper mache, but using straight PVA glue instead of a paper mache mix. 

The base of the bracelet is a strip of cardboard from a cereal box or something similar. The easy way to size it is to cut a strip and wrap it around your hand at the widest part, then add an inch for the overlap.

For a quick reference though-

8 inches for a small bracelet (7 inches in circumference, 2.22 inches in diameter)

8.5 inches for a medium bracelet (7.5 inches in circumference, 2.38 inches in diameter)

9 inches for a large bracelet (8 inches in circumference, 2.54 inches in diameter)

Cut the cardboard the width you want the finished bracelet to be, and measure a 1/2 inch in from both ends. Cut slits on both ends to overlap them together on opposite edges.

Glue the overlapping pieces down. Cut lots of 1/4 inch wide strips of your paper. Put a thin layer of glue on the base, an inch at a time, and wrap on a slight diagonal, overlapping the edges. Apply more glue, and keep wrapping. Do at least 3 layers of paper, and set it aside to dry.

After it's dried, decide what you want the outer layer to be, and apply that. You can either cut a strip that's the same width and circumference around, or you can do what I did and cut more 1/4 inch strips to wrap around it. Apply with a thin layer of glue. Let dry.

Then the fun part, painting! The glazes are gorgeously pigmented, and work on a lot of different mediums. I wish I could properly photograph how they look on black rubber! They are very sheer and add a nice sheen of color to the rubber. On paper, they look a lot more like they do in the jar, but in sheer layers. Just paint, have fun layering colors. I put on the pink first, then put the blue on the outside. Let that dry, and added more pink and gold in spots. The end result is a lot of subtle shades of purple and green on the blue.

Let the glaze dry, and spray with an acrylic sealer. The end result is a lightweight, inexpensive bangle bracelet.

Flower Pins

Last year at our Pride Festival, TG got this flowered lei, this year, for more rainbowed goodness for Pride Week, she decided to make the flowers go further as scatter pins.

We discussed the best way to go about it, since the flowers have unfinished edges, we had to decide if we liked them like that or wanted to seal them. She said she liked the frayed edges. We did experiment with some sealing options. Heating the edges carefully with a lighter worked, so did glue which looked good with glitter added. I do recommend if you're going to use glue and glitter to use a fine applicator and a crystal glitter. Colored glitters can be a bit too much. Nail polish will also work or of course Fray Check.

To make these pins, all you need is fake flower lei like the one shown above, thread, needle, scissors, buttons and pin backs. The pin backs we used were from a thrift store, and safety pins would work too. The buttons were from my button stash. So the only thing we bought new was the thread.

I made one, and was pretty careful about my stitching. I stacked the flowers and tied a knot in the thread and pulled put it through the top of the flowers, around the pin back, back up through the flowers, then added the button. Sewed it carefully in place then hid the knot between the button and flowers. TG decided that the thread ends wouldn't matter very much since it was for her jacket and knotted on the back of the flower.

There are still a lot of flowers left. I'm planning to use smaller buttons and sew them to some hair pins (the U shaped ones) for myself and TG is thinking of other things she can use them on. So far, we've talked about purses and miniature fairy dolls. 

Recycled thread wrapped donut pendants

We don't have a Target locally anymore, and my medicine doesn't come with these nifty personal identification rings. A friend of mine who knows how much I love to craft with reclaimed things sent me a bag of them. 

They seem to be made of silicone, so the rings have some give. The base ring for the pendant above is blue. It's thread wrapped and color blocked, two popular trends. 

You will need:

A medicine personal identification ring

Embroidery floss in the colors you want

tapestry needle with an eye big enough for 6 strands of floss

scissors

cord

Cut a strand of floss that's at least 2 feet long, and tie it loosely around the ring.

Start wrapped the floss around the ring. You want to lay the wraps right against each other so they cover the ring completely. When you've finished the area you want to wrap, thread the needle with the floss, and then slide the needle between the floss wraps and the ring. Pull the floss under to lock it into place. Trim thread close, then tie the next color loosely on.

For the smaller wrap areas, rather than trying to neatly end off a small area, I added floss into one of the longer sections, holding a 2 foot length of floss and wrapping over it, then letting the end dangle until I finished the main color blocking.

After the ring was covered, I put the needle on the strand of floss and wrapped over a small section, then passed the needle between the floss and ring to come out in the next area I wanted a small wrap section.

It looks neater if you always go backwards through the section just wrapped, so that floss went back and forth a few times. The silicone has enough give that it worked well and didn't show very much.

Add a cord. The one I used has a simple overhand knot over the donut and sliding knots for adjustable length.

Recycled Bicycle Inner Tube Earrings

It's summer! Which means if you call your local bicycle shop, you can probably get lots of one of my favorite craft materials for free. Bicycle tire inner tubes.

My favorite use is making bracelets. This tends to leave some pieces too small to use. These earrings use small scraps, and are very lightweight.

To prepare your inner tube, you cut it open and use dish soap and a sponge to clean the rubber. The inside has a powder coating you'll want to clean off. Let it dry.

The tubes can be cut using hand punches, scissors or a craft knife.

You will need:

• 2 6mm jump rings
• 2 3 mm jump rings
• a couple of inches of a bicycle inner tube
• earring findings
• pliers
• 1/16 inch hole punch

For these earrings you'll need 2 sets of 2 strips. The shorter ones should be at least a half inch shorter than the long ones. Mine were about 3.5 inches long and 2.5 inches long.

My jump rings were made using 18 gauge round wire. For the bigger ones, I used a size 10 knitting needle as a mandrel, for the smaller ones, I use my round nose pliers.

Use a 1/16th hole punch to punch holes centered on each end of each strip.

Open the 6 mm jump ring, and thread on the long strip and the short strip, then the other side of the short strip and the other side of the long strip. Close the ring. Open the 3 mm ring and put it through the large jump ring and the earring finding. Close. Repeat the same steps to make the matching earring.

These are so fast and easy to make. They would make a fun gift for cyclists in your life, and hopefully inspire lots more ideas!

Book Review- Reinvention

Reinvention : Sewing with Recycled Materials by Maya Donenfeld is a collection of sewing projects that use thrifted and otherwise scavenged materials and turning them into something new.

If you love sewing, and recycled projects, this is a wonderful book. The author writes engagingly about her experiences and life, and gives tips for finding the materials for the projects. The techniques include patchwork, stamping and printing. The sewing is all fairly simple, no fancy or fussy seam techniques or anything like that.

The chapters are separated by fabric type. Each chapter explains the fabric, a bit about the history, how to take care of it, and where the best places are to find it. She also explains the environmental impact of re-using that particular fabric. The chapters have a few projects each and there is good variety between home decorating projects, clothing, and accessories.

Linen- my favorite projects in this chapter are the Story Scarf ,which is a fashion scarf made in patchwork, and the big handy, Reversible Summer Sling purse. My daughter is wild for the Story Scarf, and the Envelope Portfolio which can be customized easily using fabric paint and stencils.

Burlap- I get burlap bags every few months from one of the local coffee roasters. We use them for all sorts of things, and this chapter inspires more uses. The Onion and Garlic Sacks are my favorite. My daughter likes the Inspiration Board project.

Jersey (tee shirt cotton knit)- My daughter likes the Pillow Pals. My favorite project is a toss up between the simple hand sewn Blossom Band with it's two type of flowers, and the Little Forager Skirt. The reason I love the skirt so much is that even now, it's ideal for my daughter. She's always been a forager, with a sharp eye for anything from washers on a street to use in projects to pretty rocks when we are out on hikes in the summer.

Wool - blankets, suits and coats deconstructed to take advantage of the wonderful properties of wool. Great projects in this section. It's my favorite chapter in the book. The Poufs can be filled with scraps from other sewing projects, the insulated lunch bag is something you could use every day, and the Toadstool Cottage is a whimsical alternative to dollhouses.

Denim- My favorite project is the Double Duty Oven Mitt , simple seams, and it's a great housewarming gift. I also love the roomy Indi-Go Bag for shopping. My daughter's favorite is the hammock project.

Mailers, which uses Tyvek envelopes, is my daughter's favorite chapter. She's been a fan of re-using these for years, and is always really happy when I get mail in them. The insides are canvases ready to be colored, and they can be sewn, glued and taped. I like the Notebook project best as a way to make small memory books. Her favorite is the Banner project.

Vintage uses all sorts of vintage textiles, bed sheets, aprons, kitchen towels and table cloths are all used in this chapter. my favorite project is the Traveling Hamper, my daughter loves the Summer Bolster.

Spiral bound with a hard outer cover and gorgeously photographed, this is a lovely and inspirational collection of things to make using recycled fabrics.

Published by Wiley Books, you can get the book from your local bookstore, or by clicking the Amazon.com affiliate link below.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, my reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Happy Earth Day!

One of the best things about being crafty is the ideas for re-using things instead of throwing them away.

Some of my favorite things are:
Old torn jeans for potholders, purses and other tough sewn projects

Plastic milk jugs as structural inserts in embroidered beadwork and other kinds of embroidery

Plastic bags= PLARN!

Old deli containers work well as mini-greenhouses to start seedlings, a lot of them are #6 plastic which is shrinkable as well. Check the recycling number.

My son reuses plastic sushi trays as paint palettes and for small parts.

Cardboard packaging is used for lots of things in my house. It works for small templates for sewing projects, as structure for a purse, or as the armature for a sculpture. Combines with paper mache very well.

Newspapers can be woven to make situpons and baskets. Also one of the best things for paper mache. Gardening uses include seed tape or little seedling pots.

Shampoo bottles can be repurposed to make small watering cans, the tops can be cut off to hold brushes and other craft supplies, or they can be turned into little cases.

Wire coathangers can be used for book ends, blanket pins and all sorts of other things. DON'T use them for toasting marshmallows.

Right now I'm loving aluminum spangles made using punches from soda cans. A lot of hand punches work great with aluminum soda cans.

Popped bicycle innertubes work well cut open and in shorter lengths to help open jars. They also make a wonderful material for things like these rubber bracelets.

Upcycling Soda Can Flowers

These tiny flowers are so easy to make. My arrangement is in a tiny bottle.

You will need:
A flower punch- I recommend EK Success Paper Shapers Retro Flower Medium Punch
1/16th inch hole punch
Empty and rinsed soda cans
Wire- The wire that I used is also upcycled. It's part of a big bunch of telephone wire that I bought at a garage sale for 50¢- it's a tangled mess of lots of colors. If you don't have telephone wire handy, regular crafting wire, about 18-20 gauge will work.
Round nose pliers

Please exercise caution. This project is not appropriate for children because of the sharp edges of the cans.

Start by cutting open your can. The best way that I've found to do that is to use the tip of household scissors (not good scissors) to poke a hole just under the sloped top of the can. Cut off the top, repeat on the bottom, then cut down the length of the tube carefully. Flatten out the sheet.

Punch flowers from the can. You can get a lot of flowers from one can! Then use the hole punch to punch a small circle from the center of them. Just as they are now they would make fun sequins for decorating things like lamps.

Use the round nose pliers to curve or fold the flowers for a bit of dimension.

Cut 4 inch sections of the wire, and make a small leaf in the wire by making a loop and twisting it. Add a small loop with the round nose pliers a 1/4 inch from the top of the wire. Thread on the flower, and use the round nose pliers to make a spiral with the top of the wire to hold it in place.

Repeat until you have as many flowers as you'd like for your miniature arrangement. Trim them at different lengths to arrange them. For the wire around the neck of the bottle, I wrapped it a few times, twisted, then spiraled the ends around a knitting needle. I'll probably add more spirals to the arrangement to fill it out a bit.

Shampoo Bottle Case- upcycling project

I made this little case from an empty shampoo bottle to hold my shampoo bar for the gym. It's super simple to make!
You will need:

An empty, rinsed out shampoo bottle

• craft knife
• 1/2 inch wide elastic
• needle
• thread
• pin -safety or straight pin

Take the cap off your bottle, and cut off the top part, from just under where the shoulders of the bottle start sloping in.

Now cut down the sides, after you've cut off the top, you can switch to strong scissors if it's easier. I think a craft knife is neater. Cut half way down the bottle on both sides, then across to remove the front section.

Flip it to the other side, and cut the flap. You'll want to bring it in past where the sides curve. The top of the flap can be cut however you want. I curved mine.

Cut out slots for the elastic- just over a half inch wide, and spaced at least a 1/4 inch apart.

Thread the elastic through the slots so it goes under the area between the slots and the rest is on the outside of the bottle.

Now close the flap over, and pull the elastic as tight as it needs to be to hold the case closed. Overlap the elastic and pin it, then trim it so there is a half inch overlap. Cut the elastic, and stitch the overlapped elastic closed. 

It's done! Just that easy.

Mine is for the gym, but I'm sure there are lots of other uses for these cases.

Book Review - 101 Tees

101 Tees ; Recycle + Refashion + Revamp by Cathie Filian is a collection of ways to personalize and style tee shirts into fashion statements that reflect who you are.

Unlike other teeshirt revamping books, this one isn't about how to deconstruct or slice up a shirt. The emphasis is instead on ways to decorate and embellish a tee shirt. The results are colorful, unique and fun. Just as importantly, the results are modest and wearable by young ladies.

The techniques include applique, embroidery, printing, painting, stenciling, using iron ons and beads. While there are no illustrations, they are well explained. There are patterns and stencils in the back.

The examples are trendy looking with a DIY vibe. One of my favorites is the hand stamped Giggles shirt. The same technique could be used to set up a shirt with a favorite quote. Other favorites are the two toned dyed shirts. One of the most energizing and lovely ideas through out the book is untypical design placements and elements. Instead of centering motifs and embellishments, they are placed at angles on shoulders, off to the side, or in other places. It's a great design element that's very appealing.

Scattered flowers go up the side of one shirt. Ruffles are used to create both fashion looks in sharp pleats and very girly looks in soft form. The bleach discharged robot shirt is one my son wants to make, but instead of the negative stencil robot, he plans to use gears and bolts. A butterfly design combines painted and appliqued shapes in different sizes. Some shirts show as an example how you can take a shirt already printed with a pattern or design and embellish it in different ways. Screen printing on top of a patterned tee shirt for example, or embroidering details on a shirt with a motif.

A lot of the tee shirts in the book aren't plain tee shirts. They have shaping and details that you might not find in your closet. However, the ideas are workable on a variety of shirts, and it's a great book for ideas to create your style from thrift store shirts. Since most of the techniques don't require expensive or specialty equipment, it's an inspiring collection of ideas for teens. My teen daughter really likes the book, it's one both of us will use and keep in mind when we are at thrift stores. We both have our own style. Mine tends more to the feminine, her's is more funky. The ideas in this book appeal to both of our styles.

You can get this book directly from the publisher, Lark Crafts
My reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Eyeball hair sticks!

These are quick and easy to make, and I think they make a delightfully creepy Halloween season accessory.

You will need:

• Ping pong style eyeball favors- I got mine from a local party and costume supply store, a dozen for under 2.00
• decent quality disposable chopsticks- either scavenged from a meal, or in my case, I found a big bag of them at a thrift store, 61.5 pairs for 5.50! (one was packaged all by itself)
• Modelling clay
• drill and a larger drill bit- I used my Fiskar's Craft Drill which is hand powered
• E-6000 or similar glue

Not shown:

• saw
• 400 grit sandpaper
• Craft knife

Make a rolled snake with the modelling clay then make a ring, set the eyeball firmly on the ring. This creates a good base to hold the round shape for drilling.

Drill hole in the eyeball. You only want it going through one side of the eyeball, and I really like my craft drill for drilling small plastic things because it's quiet, doesn't go fast enough to melt the plastic, and it's harder to accidentally go too far through it.

Saw off the connecting top of the chop sticks, and sharpen the tip a bit with the craft knife. Disposable chopsticks are reasonably smooth to begin with. Smooth it further with the 400 grit sandpaper so they won't snag hair.

Using the craft knife, enlarge the hole as necessary in the eyeball so the top of the chop stick will fit into it, shaving off bits of plastic. A little big is fine.

Put a dollop of glue on the top of the chop stick, and push it in the eye all the way until it hits the top of the eye. Repeat with the other chop stick. Set aside and let the glue cure.

If you want, you could add a dripping blood effect along the chop stick using red nail polish. 

Model is the Turnip Girl, but I made a pair for each of us yesterday. My husband finds them pretty creepy!

Recycled Crafts for Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! From past entries and from my old blog, here are some recycled craft projects.

Recycled bicycle inner tube bracelets

Tuna Can baskets

Bottle Cap Necklaces At Beadwork at BellaOnline

Soda cans and bottle cap ornaments

Cereal Box Glittered Ornaments with templates

Make your own labels for bowls made from records

Beaded Record Bracelets At Beadwork at BellaOnline

No Drill Domino Pendants at Beadwork at BellaOnline

Chalkboard Cigar Boxes

Matchbook notebooks made with lightweight cardboard packaging and paper printed on one side

More mini notebooks, with used and washed foil covering them. Both notebook projects are at my old blog.

And a couple links to vintage projects that I posted in here from old books and magazines.

Wire Hanger Crafts from the Past

and 

 A few ideas for plastic.

Tuna Can Baskets

These are so very easy to make. If you're doing them with small children, you'll need to drill or punch the holes in the cans and bend the wire. Lots of ornamentation possible. Get out the button box, plastic beads and stickers! These are plain. 

To make them you'll need empty tuna cans that have been washed well. Hopefully you're already using a safety can opener for all your cans. I love mine so much. The kind that breaks the seal instead of cutting the can so there are no sharp edges?

This will also work with wood brie boxes to make more shallow boxes.

To punch the holes in mine, I used a two hole metal punch, but I also tested with my hand operated craft drill and that went through just fine. A motorized rotary tool will work as well, but as much as possible, I prefer using human powered things. 

You will need:

Tuna can

punch, drill or nails to put holes in the can

paper, fabric, ornaments, braid, anything you want to decorate your can with

scissors

1/8 inch hole punch for paper

glue of some sort- heavier fabrics like the pink paisley do best with hot glue, which my daughter also used as a design detail. A bit of glitter makes it shiny, with the paper version I used PVA glue which adhered fairly well. More on the flowered version in just a bit.

12 inch piece of wire- the kind I used is aluminum 17 gauge wire. (see note at bottom)

wire cutters

pliers

cylinder form of some sort, I used a salt container.

If you're using fabric, you'll wrap it around the can and cut it to fit. 

To put the seam in the back and the wire handle in the middle between the front and the back, you'll fold your fabric to find the right spots. Fold it in half, then fold each side down to meet the fold in the middle. Those second folds are where you want the holes for handles. Mark them, and pierce holes. If you're using a two hole metal punch like I did, make sure the holes aren't too far down for the throat of the punch.

If you're using paper, just print my template. It's 300 dpi and 10.5 inches long, so you need to print it at exactly 300 dpi with 1/4 inch margins. Punch the holes and use it as a guide for your scrapbook or hand stamped papers.

Glue the fabric or paper around the can, then use the holes you punched as guides for where to pierce the can using the drill or metal punch. If you're using a nail to punch the holes, you'll want to punch them before you glue the paper or fabric into place. To do that, wrap the fabric or paper around the can and use a permanent marker to mark where the holes are. Punch the holes then very carefully line up the holes on the paper or the fabric and glue it into place.

To make the handle, curve the middle of the wire around your cylinder form, and turn up the ends of the wire at 90 degree angles about 2 inches from the ends. If you want to add beads, now is the time. Don't bead the whole wire though, you'll need about an inch of bare wire on either side.

Now put the handle into the can, and put the ends of the wire through the holes to the outside. Use the pliers to wrap the wire ends around the wire.

Add whatever decorations you'd like, and I used tulle circles leftover from another project to line the baskets when they were done.

Click the images for the full sized versions. I printed out my example on card stock because it's not as sheer as paper. The first image is the template.

Printable! I could fit 4 on one page easily, so I did. And a black and white version for Liberty, or for anyone who likes the scrolly swirly design but wants to color it themselves.

Notes: The flowered version was the easiest. I used Japanese self adhesive cloth for that one that Abigail from Abigail's Crafts How To sent me a few months ago. I've been hoarding it. The fabric punches easily with hand punches and there are some people on Etsy who sell it. Really awesome stuff. The back is marked with a grid in centimeters which makes it easy to cut very straight, then you peel up the back to apply it.

The wire comes on a 250 foot spool. If that's too much for you, you can usually find smaller spools of different kinds of wire at the hardware store, ask the clerk. However, you may find you use it as much as I do. The stuff is perfect for quick wire crowns or to make bubble wands with. It's also made quick sword holders for costumes, and gets used as armatures in dolls. Plus my husband has a habit of asking me every so often if I have wire he can use for something and aluminum costs a lot less than copper.