Top 10 Must Recycle (and Repurpose) Items for Crafters!

Top 10 Must Recycle (and Repurpose) Items for Crafters

Us crafters love to make somethin' out of nuthin' but even during these eco-conscious times, there's a fine line between waste not and pack rat. Here's my list of favorite household items to reuse and repurpose using a few staple craft supplies and a bit of creativity!

1. Shipping Boxes: Cut-up boxes are great for use inside of t-shirts when decorating with fabric paints or markers. They also make great canvases for kids' artwork!

2. Consumable Containers: Glue vintage wallpaper over food and body product containers to create decorative holders for your craft bits. Knitters, try drilling a hole in the lid, feed yarn through and close to keep a yarn ball from tangling!

3. Magazines: Cut out your favorite images for endless decoupage, inspiration board and greeting card projects.

4. Ribbons: Save those gift ribbons to tie around plushie creature's necks, glue onto decorative vases or bind dried flowers with.

5. Curtains: Recycled curtains are a great resource for plentiful yardage of neutral or patterned fabrics. Turn that fabric into journal covers, table runners or little girls' dresses.

6. Window Screen: Staple onto over-sized frames to make an earring display, cut-up and adhere to a collage to add texture, or paint over to add a pattern to fabric or paper.

7. Broken Dishes: File edges of a pretty piece of glass or ceramic and drill a hole for a unique pendant, glue pieces onto a plain frame for decoration, or use multiple broken dishes to create a mosaic design for a tea-table top.

8. Wrappers & Packages: Colorful food wrappers make great base materials! Fold and weave them into a wallet, stick onto contact paper and sew into a tote bag, or glue onto cardstock for unique gift cards.

9. Plastic Grocery Bags: Make "plarn" and knit or crochet a recycled tote, fold and sew into "quilted" place mats, or tie onto a wire circle to create an eco-smart wreath.

10. Old Wool Sweaters: Unravel sweaters and custom dye yarn; repurpose yarn into new, knitted or crocheted treats; or felt, cut and sew sweaters into throw pillows, pet beds and more!

Craft.Rock.Love,

Vickie

Vickie Howell is a mother, designer, author and crafty spokesperson.  For more info on projects and how-to goodness, go to: www.vickiehowell.com.