Happy Earth Day! Recycled Project Roundup

Happy Earth Day! For us it's also the birthday of our best friend Kristine who we lost far too young. She was a teacher, loved kids, and LOVED Earth Day. So in her honor, here are some projects from my Repurposed Ideas Pinterest board that are perfect for Earth Day and use things we all likely have laying around the house. 

Paper Crafts:

We all have magazines laying around so these projects from DIY Sweet Home is a way to use them to make some pretty things: 

More magazine ideas here from Picky Stitch: 

Got jeans? Who among us doesn't have some too big / too small / too holey jeans? 

How about this jean pocket phone charger holder from DIY & Home ? 

Who can't use an extra totebag? This one comes from a roundup of "21 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With Old Jeans" at Tip Hero.

Boxes and Tubes: 

Keep your pencils and your thoughts together while re-using cereal boxes. Turn them inside out , leave them plain, paint, add paper, doodle, or use the fronts with these ideas from One Good Thing By Jillee. 

Use toilet paper tubes and Washi tape to make a pretty phone holder. Details at Easy Peasy Creative. 

One too many Amazon boxes ? Make a pretty storage basket. Elizabeth Joan Designs will show you how. 

Got Milk (jugs)? 

LOVE these Votives from Bliss Bloom Blog !

Now that I'm living in the desert, I'm going to have to get creative about snow this Winter so making some from repurposed milk jugs is on my list! From Eve of Reduction. 

Water and Soda Bottles: 

101 Days of Organization has a great roundup on what to do with these that seem to multiply like Tribbles. 

Think of all those little things ( paper clips, binder clips, rubber bands, pushpins) you could store in a pretty little bowl made from a water bottle? From Dishfunctional Designs. 

Jars: 

Here's a two-fer idea. Repurpose empty jars ( or you can buy a matched set of mason jars) and embellishe with pine cone flowers, perhaps from a nature walk. From Uncommon Designs . 

I recognize these jars because they are from my husband's favorite jam. So will definitely have some of these to play with ! From Make Calm Lovely. 

I hope I've given you some inspiration! 

Happy Earth Day

This week's link party continues here thru Sunday!

Earth Day lettering and doodle ( no Mr. Chocolate, the earth is not intended to be an actual rendering!) . 

Had fun combining my doodle with Nursery images from The Hungry JPEG. 

Here's the plain version: 

I used Tombow Dual Tip brush pens to color the earth and the letters. If you buy these make sure you buy the blending pen! It's got a clear top and it is EVERYTHING! 

Happy Earth Day: The Tale of the Upcycled Scarf Ring Tree of Life Bangle Bracelet

I’m starting a new meme. “Craftsplaining”. Like when you get an idea in your head to use something for a completely unrelated purpose ( eg I have "craftsplained" my way through Home Depot, Lowes, Dollar Tree, Target…) I've had conversations like : ”oh how old is your baby” because I’m buying baby wipes. “20 but these aren’t for him. I use them to clean up after my Mod Podge projects”

Or when someone says “what made you think of that”. OK sometimes there’s not even a “craftsplanation” for that. Like this project. I received a scarf for Christmas and it came with his big acrylic ring that you could use to tie it different ways. HA! It’s a bangle bracelet DUH!

For this project you will need:

• Plastic or acrylic bangle type device
• Mod Podge
• Paper Scrap
• Metal leaf adhesive
• Metal leafing
• Charm(s)

Since this was an Earth Day project, everything I used came from my stash.

Trace around your bangle on your scrapbook paper scraps. I hadn’t decided yet which paper I was going to use so I cut two paper “bangles”. I also hummed the Olympics theme song.

Rough up your bangle. I just used an emery board. Apply Mod Podge (I used Matte finish, my go to) apply paper, smooth, apply coat on top of paper. Go make dinner or surf our favorite blogs.

Now, once your MP side is dry you’ll want to apply your metal leaf. If you’re not familiar with metal leafing, supplies are available at fine art stores or I know Michaels carries them. Metal leaf is not the same as FOIL. Foil has a dull side and a bright side. If you use foil ( which you could for this project) makes sure to keep the shiny side up. Also, the label is not green and Mona Lisa doesn’t usually look seasick on it. I spilled a green alcohol re-inker on my bottle.

Unlike foil, when you apply metal leafing entire portions of it stick to the adhesive. Lay your foil over your sticky surface ( adhesive takes about 20-30 min to set up before you apply your leafing) and then I just use a stiff stencil brush to pounce on the leafing. Go all over your surface.

As you go around your surface, the portions with nothing to stick to will tear away. If you are a neat freak can’t stand any uncontrolled mess, this is NOT for you. The leafing is very light weight and pieces will fly away. HINT: I lay down a piece of wax paper to help control things and then I can just toss it. You should also save your scrap pieces for other projects.

Once I had my leafing on, I attached a “Tree of Life” pendant from Blue Moon Beads to my bangle using a large jump ring. I thought this was perfect for Earth Day.  I like big clunky jewelry but of course you could use something smaller. You’ll just need a big enough jump ring to hold your bangle. I also used up some little charms from my stash. Yay stashbusting!

I would love to hear some of the "craftsplanations" you've had to give. Share in the comments!

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Earth Day Printable 2012 (Print on Recycled Paper!)

Earth Day has always been extra special for us because it was the birthday of one of our best friends. Sadly we lost her to cancer a few years ago.

She loved Earth Day…not just because it was her birthday but especially because she was a pre-school educator. I used to save all of my paper scraps for her to use with her kids and they loved getting new batches of paper to play with. She always had a fun Earth Day project lined up to do with them.

I made this printable in her honor and to celebrate Earth Day. Of course if you print it, print it on recycled paper.

Happy Bearthday Kristine.

Earth Day Printables

Or they could be for any time of year really. One of our best friends loved that her birthday was the same as Earth Day. She worked with pre-school kids and enjoyed all of the projects they did to learn about recycling, planting etc. She thought it was the best way to celebrate her birthday.  Sadly, we lost her  about 18 months ago.

Last year we mailed wildflower seeds to family and friends to plant in her memory on what we called her  Bearth Day. This year, I’d like to share this printable with all my blog friends. This is for Kris!

And I know...printing something out while talking about recycling seems a little off right? But you could print on the other side of a piece of paper, or print on paper that's made from 100% recycled materials and then of course recyle it eventually!

Update...Jill from Envirocraftiness  says:
Other green ways to use the printable - set it as your desktop picture/profile or facebook picture, put as a button on a blog, or email it around to others! :) 

Click to enlarge to full res, then right click to Save As ( Windows Users).

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