Recycled Milk/OJ Carton Coin Purse

I love crafts involving recycled materials.  I stumbled across a cool blog called Connect the Dots , in search of  eco-friendly crafts and found their tutorial on how to make recycled milk/oj/soy carton coin purses. My son is always looking for something to carry his "monies" in, so I thought this would be a nice starter wallet.

It's pretty easy to make, though the first few steps had me challenged spatially, it was good for my brain.  I was going to really have to dig to find my exacto knife, so I just used scissors.  Some of the edges are more jagged than I'd like, but it's still cool.  Since making the first change purse, I've started using an exacto knife, and what a difference it makes!

I used a Trader Joe's OJ container and I really like the way the back of the coin purse looks.  Part of the fun is exploring various carton options, but make sure it has a cap.  I was pretty excited to use my 365 Milk Cartons with the cool cow image, but alas, no cap.  Bummer.  I made one for a friend, and she enjoys the attention her coin holder gets.  Pretty sweet!  Just make sure you wash and dry your carton well.

Recycled Robot!

My son was attending a Rocket/Robot party and the handmade party invitations were inspirational enough to get us started.  I knew I wanted to recycle the invitation somehow on the robot (it was just too awesome to throw away) and that the empty Trader Joe's coffee cans I've been collecting under the sink could finally be put to good use.

I got some wire and some contents from the junk drawer (correction: the junk that had overflowed out of the junk drawer and now had it's own plastic container) and went to work.  My son loved getting out all of the hardware, nuts, bolts and random AV pieces my husband had been collecting over the years.  While he was working on his "work, complete with screwdrivers,  I threaded the arms and legs.  I poked a hole in the top of the can and brought the arms and legs together and twisted the connecting wires so they were secure.

I got a tuna can from the recycling bin and washed it (this was pretty hardcore to remove the smell.  so, I soaked it overnight and cleansed it with copious amounts of soap and vinegar),  nailed a hole in the top to thread the appendage wires and added some eyes, ears, nose, mouth, antenna, glued and modge podged the party invitation on the coffee can body and voila!  Recycled Robot!  Problem:  My kid didn't want to give it to his friend when we were done.  I went recycle bin diving once more and made him one, too.

This project may have been more fun for me.  The cool thing is that we'd always wanted to make a robot but just never got around to it.  This party, the love of rockets and robots, and an awesome handmade invitation was the impetus!  I want to make more, they make cool kid's room decor.

Paper Bead and Recycled Plastic Shrinky Dinks!

I found a craft here on how to make recycled paper beads .  It was fun!  I just used some old magazine pages, cut them into elongated triangles, doused them with glue, wrapped them around the thin handle of a skinny paint brush, pushed them off the end and boom.  Paper bead.  Now what was I going to do with them? Necklaces, bracelets, keychains? Perhaps.

I also stumbled across this website to make your own shrinky dinks out of recycled #6 plastic.  Usually the clamshell containers found at grocery store salad bars and take-out container are #6.  You simply cut out the plastic as shown here, then color with Sharpies and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes, until the plastic begins to shrink and curl and then flatten again.

Knowing that in a few weeks, I had a Mother's Blessing to host, I incorporated the two crafts and adorned candles.  First I wrapped the candles in raffia so the bead/ shrinky dink embellishment would have something to cling to since it kept slipping off the glass candle holder.

I also made a necklace.  Recycling is fun, yo!

Magazine Marble Magnets

For fun, I have been making marble magnets.   It's been fun to use some if the lovely images and objects from some of my favorite magazines, and turning them into magnets is an inexpensive way to continue enjoying the images.

MAGNETS