I got crafty last week in preparation for Earth Day and created an upcycled camera strap cover from one of my husbands old shirts. To see the entire project with directions head on over to the FaveCrafts blog where I am a guest blogger today; Upcycled Camera Strap Cover Tutorial. To see some of my other eco-crafting projects visit the Eco-Crafting section of my blog. ... [ Read More ]
An Earth Day Award…to My Mom!
I received an email about halfway through the day yesterday from my mom asking me to give her a call at work. Of course I picked up the phone and called to see what was up. She was super excited and all bubbly about another email she sent me (which I didn't see yet). I quickly opened my email to find this link: Congratulations to Triangle Elementary School, the National Winner (in the TerraCycle Drink Pouch Derby)! My mom is the cafeteria manager at Triangle Elementary School and a few years back implemented a recycling/upcycling program for drink pouches. Part of their school nutrition program is a free breakfast program for their students which includes a drink pouch with every breakfast. With over 500 students in the school you can imagine the kind of waste this creates. Instead of trashing the pouches, she decided to start a TerraCycle collection program and earn points (to redeem for cash) for the cafeteria. It's not a small undertaking cleaning out several hundred ... [ Read More ]
Peanut Butter Piggy Bank #freefromtrash
My kids LOVE peanut butter and we go through a lot of it in this house! That leaves us with lots of empty plastic peanut butter jars. They aren't really fond of the fresh stuff and I haven't found a brand in glass that I like. My 3 yr old has a few dollars that daddy gave her last week after their shopping trip and it's just been sitting on her dresser. She plays with it but doesn't really understand that you should keep it safe. Directions to make: I simply cut a slit in the lid (be careful because plastic lids can crack), remove the label, and place a label or sticker on the front. We used our brand new Mabel's Labels from our Back to School Combo kit (more on that later) to personalize the piggy bank with her name. You could fill plastic jars like this with lots of goodies. Can you imagine how organized my sons Lego collection could be with several of these? This post is part of the Upcycled Crafting Challenge (#freefromtrash) that I’m hosting this month. ... [ Read More ]
Compact Disc (CD) Upcycled Crafting #freefromtrash
I'm going to get really creative on you today! First, go to your desk and grab one of those old compact discs that you use to store your photos on. Now, turn it over and place it on your coffee table. Finally, gently set your drink glass down on top of it! Bravo - you have yourself a brand new, fashion-forward, coaster! This post is part of the Upcycled Crafting Challenge (#freefromtrash) that I’m hosting this month. It’s part of a one month challenge to create from trash. This challenge will hopefully open your eyes to the number of items that we still end up trashing every day that could be used by ourselves or our kids to create fun and useful items. Note: I've come down with an inner ear infection which left me pretty dizzy most of the week. I'm sorry I couldn't come up with a craftier project for you today. I'm saving my energy for a really fun project I've been waiting to finish for over a month. Come back later and see what it is. ... [ Read More ]
Picture Frame from a Plastic Lid #freefromtrash
This is the perfect accessory for your refrigerator or to give as a gift. You could even make one (or ten) of these as ornaments on your Christmas tree (not sure why I'm talking about Christmas in July). Directions: Cut picture to fit the inside of your lid and apply glue lightly to the back of the picture. Glue a magnet to the back of the lid and allow to dry. In less than 5 minutes you have an adorable photo frame magnet! Could it get any easier than this? What do you do with the lids from your plastic containers? Did you know that most recycling centers won't accept lids in their plastic recycling stream?
