Christmas Cards

ornament or tree topper from a Christmas card - instructions

In an age of email wedding invitations and texted break up messages I really really appreciate receiving a real Christmas card with a hand written signature. It's one of the things I love about Christmas. When my girls were little they would take turns designing the family Christmas card, which I would color copy at Kinko's. I still cherish those cards! But you can't hang on to that stuff forever (although I do still have them, but wouldn't expect everyone else to keep them!). So, what to do with these symbols and sentiments? 

In the past I've reused them to make little TO/FROM cards for gifts. (Why buy when you already have such lovely patterns?) For a few years everyone sent us their cards received and the next Christmas we took them to a nursing home and decorated the doors of each of the residents. And this year, I learned to make the ornament in the picture above, from Pinterest of course! I used them to decorate the tree, but also in lieu of bows on gifts. 

I checked out some ideas on the interwebs and liked these the most:

• cut them up and turn them into place cards for the holiday table
• make into a recipe card to go with the plate of treats you're giving (you know they will ask you for the recipe anyway!)
• cut the front off and turn the folding card into a postcard (cheaper to mail!) 
• decorate the top of a mason jar full of treats

I got these ideas from 5 ways to upcycle holiday cards and 10 crafty ways to upcycle old greeting cards. I hope you had a very Merry Christmas, and I challenge you to save, reuse, or at least recycle all your cards this year! 

Box and Tray Upcycle

I bought a pair of cowboy boots and was impressed at how very sturdy the box and lid were. I made this little tray from the lid. I simply decoupaged with newsprint to even everything out, then I added torn up tissue as the top layer, in shades of purple. The dots are made with my 1" hole punch, I used some tissue paper for that too - giving it a contrasting pattern. This is a perfect little tray to corral all my incense and hookah stuff. It's finished with a little semi gloss varnish so it's water proof enough that it could hold drinks or tea cups if needed.  I used the same treatment to made a little storage box out of an empty soy milk box. I cut it down to size and used up one of the cut off pieces to make a little lid - it's attached with wire. I use it to store extra keys. Next time you get a sturdy little box in your life, think about reusing it for storage or other purposes. These make great Christmas or other gifts!!!

SIDENOTE: Did you know that tissue paper cannot be recycled? It's the paper version of styrofoam - sort of the end of the line. I like to reuse and upcycle tissue as much as possible. 

Insta-Trashbin

I always seem to need extra trash bins - whether I'm cooking, in the car, in my camper, or working on a project. I've found gallon milk jugs to be perfect instant trash bins. The handle makes them easy to transport to the trash/recycling/compost bin when full. The plastic makes it water proof and easy to clean if things get messy or stinky in there. They are easily replaced if they wear out. They are small enough that you can have one in the closet, on the dryer, another by your desk and one under the sink. Just the perfect insta-trashbin!

Cereal Gift Box

Gift wrapping seems like such a waste of paper and boxes, all to just get ripped up. But it definitely adds to the fun of getting a gift...So, even though I don't eat sugary cereal - when I saw this little gem in someone's trash I knew I had to have it! I added a little crotcheted plarn set of handles and reused some tissue paper and it was ready to go! If the box weren't so cute, I could have recovered it with some other recycled papers such as weekend funny papers, collage of scraps, etc. For a smaller gift, upcycle a toilet paper roll, sounds tacky but I promise it comes out cute. Check it out here. 

Christmas is coming - will you commit to reducing single use paper during this time!?

Plarn Basket

basic instructions here

I would have totally taken basket weaving in college it they offered it! When I saw this basket making pin on Pinterest I decided to try it out. I had already cut out some 1" strips of bread bags for plarn that hadn't worked out for crochet plarn. So, I put them to use to make this kooky little hinged basket. At some point I'd like to make a bigger piece such as a tray, laundry basket or small trash bin. I really like how it turned out and it was a lot of fun to make and a great way to upcycle plastic bags into a functional little container.  

Shredded Plastic

I cut up plastic bags to make plarn (plastic yarn - fyi see more on this old blog post). There's only so much plarn I can use though. And, there are smaller bags that are not conducive to plarn, such as bags used to hold crackers inside the box, or raisin bags that are too sticky and a different texture than used for plarn. What to do? Well, I've started cutting the bags up and keeping them to use as stuffing for some outdoor pillows I'm making. I'm accumulating the shreds in an empty milk container so it's convenient to cut them up as they empty in the kitchen (I think of it as plastic composting). I know the shredded plastic won't be as soft as polyfil, but it's waterproof and that's what I need. I'm thinking it will take me a year or more to have enough for one pillow (they are big - I'm upcycling two empty 50 lb bag of pinto beans). We'll see!

Toilet Paper Roll Gift Box

toilet roll tube covered in paper

I like to give handmade gifts, jewelry especially. This wrapping is perfect for any small gift and really easy to put together. First, I wrap the tube in a narrow piece of paper - this is a page from an old children's book. Then, I wrap the gift in tissue so it doesn't fall out as easily. Last, I tie it up with a ribbon, that's it! 

Drawer-ganizers

Berry tubs make good organizers for kitchen and other supplies

such as closures, egg cups, cookie making supplies, napkin rings

Food containers are one of my largest sources of single use waste. Milk, berries, mushrooms, honey - these are some of my staples that generate containers that I then need to reuse or recycle. I had an 'aha' moment when I realized that on the one hand I was looking to buy plastic storage containers and on the other hand was recycling plastic storage containers. That's when I started putting these "throwaway" containers to better use. Instead of recycling them, I'm upcycling them. It takes a little effort (cleaning them, removing stickers) and they are not as sturdy as plastic organizers you buy, but they work fine. Organized using free upcycled containers, problem solved!

Plarn - Plastic Yarn

plarn rug in the making

My Grandma Rose raised 5 kids as a single mom during the Depression. They didn't have much and nothing went to waste. I admire the ethic that was borne of this hardship. My cousin Jackson and I discovered a shared love of our dear Grandma and of crochet. That comes together in the form of plastic yarn, or plarn. His work is tidy and patterned while mine is free formed and a lot less perfect. I'm pretty sure Grandma is smiling down on both. 

Plarn is easy enough to make as shown in this video. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Plarn is quite forgiving, even if the strips are not all the same thickness it works fine.
• If you don't mind a mottled look you can mix various colors and even thicknesses of bags.
• Stick to a simple stitch, because the plarn is thicker it's harder to keep up with fancy stiches.
• Once you tell people you need bags they are more than happy to save them for you, you can even get them directly from Target or your grocery store if you want a uniform look.
• Plarn lends itself to projects that require water proofing such as a soap dish, scrubbie, dog mat for the car, coaster, beach bag, picnic blanket, outdoor rug, and Grandma Rose's ever classic bathmat and kitchen sink rug!

If you are the least bit crafty I challenge you to take up crochet with plarn - get some projects going and then teach someone else how. If we all do our little bit, it makes a difference. 

Plastic Mesh - Reuse

My first posts come off as kind of boring now that I look at them, so I thought I'd share this quick little project to reuse and upcycle plastic mesh from various produce purchases. These were from citrus and potato sacks, plus some strips of plastic bag (the white) and mesh from a packaged turkey (the green). There are several ways you could put these little bits of engineered plastic to good use, such as a gift/bow decoration, or other crafty project, but I decided to make a scrubbie for my kitchen. I lay about 10 of them flat, put a zip tie in the middle and tightened it up as much as I could. Then it was a matter or fluffing and shaping with scissors - kind of like pom poms, remember those? I've used this little scrubbie for over a year now and it works great. I'm still saving mesh and have enough for the replacement when that's needed. What do you think?