Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everyone! It is an absolutely gorgeous day here in Portland, I hope you are having great weather as well wherever you may be. In honor of the Earth Day holiday, I thought I'd share links to some of my past projects that re-use magazine pages, as well as some of my favorite crafty tips for being more "green" and getting the most out of your crafty stash.

First, here are some projects that you can do with old magazines (or any paper you have lying around, phone books, junk mail, old notes and lists would all work as well!).

Office style gift card envelopes

Paper Twine - Great for tying up gifts!

Recycled Paper Beads Just use paper and mod podge to make tons of unique beads for jewelry and more!

DIY magazine envelopes Perfect for all of your correspondence, can be made to any size :)

Besides these ideas, you could also use scrap paper for making paper mache projects, collages, art journal pages and more!

Not really an abundance of paper in your life? Well, fear not, I still have some great earth friendly ideas for other crafty items!

If you do a lot of sewing, you likely have a lot of fabric scraps. If they are large enough, you may want to look at this craft project roundup of things to do with those scraps! If you find you have lots of small scraps, don't worry, there are still things you can do with them without throwing them away! I like to save up a bag with my tiniest fabric scraps and then mix them in with batting when I stuff fabric toys; it can save you money on extra batting, give your toys a nice texture and is soft and washable. Small scraps can also be used in mixed media art pieces.

If you are looking for an earth friendly craft activity to do with friends, think about hosting a craft supply swap. Have everyone get together some of their old supplies (I know I have tons of extra beads, paints, yarns etc. sitting around that I used for only one project) give them new life by trading with your friends for something new to your stash that they weren't using anymore! If you have leftovers, try to find a local school or after school program that needs craft supplies to take the rest :)

Do you have any other earth friendly ways to use up craft supplies? Post a comment with your ideas or "green" projects I'd love to see them!

Dry Erase Message Board

I was doing some Spring/Summer cleaning this morning and happened upon a picture frame that really wasn't be utilized as best it could (shoved in a box somewhere). My solution: turn it into something useful.

This is a 3" x 5" frame, so it fits perfectly on a desktop without taking too much room. For this reason I thought it would make a great dry erase marker board. To make one of your very own, all you need is some colorful paper or fabric, an old frame of any size (that has a glass insert covering the picture area) and a dry erase marker or Sharpie Peel-Off China Markers (you could use permanent markers if you don't mind having to wipe your messages off with alcohol and some elbow grease).

Cut your paper or fabric to the desired size and place it into your frame instead of a photo. If you like, you can embellish your frame with some paint. I felt like making mine purple and yellow, but it would have also been fun to do the whole thing hot pink. I used some enamel paints I had that can be used on metal and ceramic, but you could find some spray paint for metal as well (which would probably have been easier). The great thing about these is that you can easily switch out the paper inside to change with your decor or mood. If you have lots of fancy gift wrap sitting around, this is a great way to use some as well.

You could also get a mirror that fits your frame if you don't like the paper insert idea (or if your frame doesn't have a glass insert), and use that as your message writing surface.


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Recycled Paper Beads

Here is what I have been working on this morning, some paper beads made from magazine pages. I think Earth Day/ Earth Week might be happening this week for me, as I am totally into the recycled paper projects right now. These beads are great because, you can make them in any color, they are cheap (especially if you are using magazines/newspapers rather than a craft paper)and they can be made in any size to fit any project. You could even use scraps of gift wrap, as thin pliable paper really lends itself well to being wrapped in a cylinder.

I just cut strips of paper from my magazine (you don't realize how many fun beads you can get out of a magazine until you look, either). I find the ads to be especially useful, great backgrounds, lots of textures and gradients, and I generally don't care about any of the ads in my magazines anyway, so I can make this project without actually ruining any of the articles inside!

I wrapped my paper strips around the bottom of a crochet hook, though you could use any cylindrical object you like, and any size depending how big you want the holes in your beads to be. I used a little bit of paper Mod Podge, glossy finish, to glue my beads together. Just roll your paper up on your tool of choice (chopsticks work great--just pick up an extra set the next time you go out for cheap takeout!) and then coat the entire outside of your bead with the Mod Podge to seal it. You can use a matte finish if you prefer as well, I happened to have glossy finish on hand, and I like my beads to have a little extra shine. The whole project took about 30 minutes and now I have my own supply of one of a kind paper beads to use as I see fit!

Paper Twine

So, I stumbled on this tutorial the other day and felt inspired. I don't happen to have a spindle, or any yarn making experience but I thought I might want to try making some decorative twine out of an old magazine I had sitting around. What you see here is the result.

I made a little card to wrap my twine around out of a cereal box. You really do need something to wrap around as you go, or the paper has trouble holding together. I think this would be great to wrap around a gift instead of ribbon, and is a nice way to re-use an item many of us read through once and then get rid of (though truth be told, I'm horrible about keeping magazines around forever).

I'm going to try to come up with a few other things to do with old magazines and newspapers, maybe even some paper mache projects are going to happen. I've seen some pretty great paper mache going on in the craft world lately.

Do you have any great projects using newspapers and magazines? I'm currently trying to make some beads, details to come.

More projects from vinyl: Ideas from the readers!

I had to share this awesome project with you guys. One of my readers, Tania, asked for some tips on sewing with vinyl when I made this in February. Not to be outdone, she had some Frito chips bags and candy wrappers she wanted to reuse and turn into zipper pouches of her own!

Here is her blog post, poke around a bit, she also has one made with some candy wrappers. What awesome little pouches!!

Lightbulb Terrarium

This super cute terrarium is made out of an old refrigerator light bulb that burned out a couple weeks ago. I got some moss, sand and a cute little hippo figurine to stick inside, though now I think the little guy could use a tiny air plant or something to cheer him up, I'm sure moss tastes terrible too.

Also, don't forget to vote on the blog poll at the right of the page for the kinds of crafts you would like to see more of! February is coming to an end soon, and with it the project a day, and I would like to know what you want to see more of in the months to come!