Upcycling

 'Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.'

we try to do what we can to live a green life. we use reusable grocery bags, and we recycle.

We even had our son on Earth day!!!

And I love to upcycle.

Some of the products I've used are...

CANS:

Ive made earrings from cans

I'm currently in progress making 'chainmail' from soda pop tabs

I even turned Pringles cans into a rainstick

Plastic Bottles

I found and idea for a jewelry display from a plastic bottle from this site...

http://mlinla.blogspot.com/2010/06/show-off.html

I recreated my own from a 2liter diet coke bottle( i love my diet coke)

I use it to display my upcycled can earrings

EGG Shells!!

I made candles from egg shells

T-SHIRTS

turned an old unworn tee shirt into art for my daughters room

Zippers

I turned old zippers into roses

Ive even upcycled an Aluminum foil holder!!

i used this empty aluminum fol box to organize my vast array of ribbons!

I started out by taping one end of the ribbon to the tube

Wrap the ribbon around the tube

Insert the tube back into the box

Voila! nice and neat ( and compact) ribbon organizer

now you can unroll you ribbon when you need it.

Decorate the box as you desire ( I'm planning on covering with scrapbook paper)

I'm even adding Velcro tabs to keep the lid closed

 i just realized..with all of the crafting supplies i own, and the many different glues (e6000, tacky, super glue, hot glue) i don't own a single tube of Elmer's glue of a glue stick. the simplest of items and i done have it..lmao how can i call myself a crafter!!

The are more upcycling projects on the way...

Upcycle Me

A few months ago I created upcycled earrings from aluminum cans.

Mountain Dew

World of Warcraft

For the Horde!!!

Alliance

Go Guiness

Arizona Green Tea

Arizona Tea

JOOSE

These are for sale if any one is interested.....

Rayn Styx

I'm a student of 'Early childhood education'. Last year while taking my creative curriculum class, my hubby made me a rain stick to present as a part of one of my projects. we made alot of recycled 'toys' and activities but this was the best one.

The rain stick was created with recycled materials.

Materials:

2 empty Pringles cans

Nails

Beans ( I've used popcorn kernels, pinto beans, Lima beans and chick peas) Use whatever you have in the house!

duct tape

Poke nails through the cans

no particular pattern

just be sure there are not large spaces between nails.

(i even filled in the larger spaces in mine once it was put together)

Feed baby

After i finished one side i placed about 1/2 cup of mixed beans in one side used a lid and tested the sound.

Make sure there isn't a sleeping baby in the room. trust me it will startle them! lmao!

when it sounded right, i then used my hot glue gun to glue it together. (open ends together)

i then finished putting nails in both sides.

use as many nails as needed to get the sound right. i used a whole container. ( you can also use varied sizes of nails).

after the nails are in, beans are inside the cans, and the cans are put together cover the whole thing with duct tape. i bought a roll from the dollar store and used the whole thing. it covered it twice for me.

decorate as desired. you can paint it, decoupage it, or, as i did with my first one, cover it with string! next...have fun.