Amazing recycled ball gowns

I know, it's been forever since I've posted!!  Life sure is getting busy these days!  I came across this blog post today and just had to share these ball gowns made from recycled materials.  Check out the link to see more.

Also, here are a few other posts you may enjoy from my other blog:

• Homemade teacher gift ideas

• What we did for Halloween this year (including a homemade thrift store costume, & of course jack-o-lanterns)

• How to turn baby food jars into Halloween decor

• Egg carton pumpkins
• A very special garage sale find

Recycled Paper Garland: A Great Project for the Kids!

We have this sweet lady across the street who saves fliers and various pieces of scrap paper for my boys to color on.  The other day we were visiting in our cul-de-sac and she ran back in the house to bring me a stack of colorful fliers.  So, since it's raining and we're stuck inside, today I thought we'd utilize this colorful paper and make a project...paper garland!  This is a great project to recycle scrap paper including junk mail!

Supplies needed:

- Paper (colored and/or white)

- Scissors

- String or yarn

- Toothpick or skewer and some tape (or a blunt plastic tapestry needle that's safe for kids)

- Glue

- Crayons, Markers, etc

- Hole punch

- Optional extras: paper edger scissors, paper crimper, paper punch, glitter, stickers, etc...

Our stack of paper from our neighbor.  (It's all blank on one side)

So, basically we made various kinds of beads out of paper to string on our piece of yarn...

 This project is great for short little attention spans because there are many different things to do...color, cut, glue, punch, string, etc.  I started by having Sammy fill the white pages with colors. While he did that I got the string and "needle" ready...

 

I swear I use these bamboo skewers for craft projects more often than for cooking.  I cut one in half and used some masking tape to secure one end of yarn to it, and had a nice "needle" that was easy for kids to use.  On the other end I tied a bread bag tab just to keep the beads from sliding off.

Once I got that ready Sammy had a colorful piece of paper to turn into tube-shaped beads...

 

I cut it into a couple strips.

...then rolled them up the long way and glued it into a long tube.

 

 Hold the tube with the seam against the table for a few seconds for the glue to grab hold and dry a bit.

 

I did this with pieces of the colored paper too. Some of them I let the writing show to add a little graphical interest...others I rolled so the blank side showed.

Now have some fun looking through the tubes or pretending they are walrus tusks or giant straws...

 

 Next we get to play with SCISSORS!  Cut the tubes up into beads!

 ...meanwhile, Toby is having a blast tearing up my kitchen.  This is one of his favorite activities.  But, since he's still at the crayon eating stage, I let him trash the place explore while we do projects. 

 I'm not sure where you even get these things, because I found them at a garage sale, but Sammy had a blast rolling strips of paper through this paper crimping tool.  We then used the crimped paper in some of our other "beads."

Another type of bead we made was just a strip of paper folded back and fourth in a zig-zag...

 ...Then we used a hole punch to go through the whole thing. You can also easily make flat beads by cutting different shapes and punching holes in them.  We did circles, squares, triangles, and of course, fish.

Here are some of our beads. It might be helpful to you to put them in two piles...the 3-dimensional ones and the flat ones. (an opportunity for your child to learn how to sort things)  This will help with threading them, because it works best to alternate flat ones and 3-D ones.  (thus preventing smaller tubes from slipping inside the larger ones) Then you can tell your child to alternate between the two piles.

 A little tip, if you're making fish, you can easily make mouths with a hole punch only half way on the paper. ;-) Depending on your child's level of patience and attention span, they could even decorate/color each fish.  (Milk this sitting-down-being-busy thing for all you can!)

 Now you can really keep your kiddo's fingers busy with threading their beads on the string!  Sammy didn't last for all of that part so Mommy finished it up.  But I figure, hey, if I can get him to sit and work on something creative with me for even a few minutes every day, I'm doing my job!

 Don't be afraid to let your kid's creativity take over and side track from the project.  Their little heads are full of great ideas!! Sammy picked up one of his little "tube" beads and said "We can make it into a tiny little cup!"

 ...to which I replied, "That's a GREAT idea!  I'll make a handle!"  And, we made a tiny little cup.  Well, proportionally it looks more like a pitcher, but he got a kick out of it.

 

 Sipping some pretend water from our teeny tiny little cup!  Sammy had another great idea too.  When we strung a white tube between two flat squares he said, "Momma! It's a paper s'mores! Let's make paper s'mores!"  (And of course, we DID, complete with a paper fire pit to roast over, but I'll save that one for another post!)

So you see, a little side-tracking is great for the imagination! Now, back to the project at hand...

 Concentrating on stringing the beads. I think the long length of the bamboo skewer as opposed to just the end of the string made it easier to feed the string through the beads.

 We got quite a string going!

 Sammy showing off his awesome paper garland!  If you don't have the patience to make a long string, you could also do these as little vertical dangling decorations too, much like the hearts we made on Valentine's day.

 So much fun!  I hung it on the underside of our fireplace mantle, where it currently waits for Daddy to come home to see!

 There are an infinite amount of things you can do with paper. This is one project that ANYONE can do.  Feel free to go nuts on your paper decorating too...glitter them up if you want!  Heck, you can even throw in some cheerio's or dry pasta in there.  Anything with a hole in it goes. Got little girls? Make it into a necklace!

This project can so easily be adapted to go along with any holiday theme!  With Memorial day coming up, try making this with red, white and blue paper and cut some star shapes.  You'll have some one-of-a-kind decorations for your Memorial day bbq and a great conversation piece!  Put some supplies out on a little table if you have kids coming over and they can make their own to take home!

Enjoy those rainy days....Happy paper recycling! :-)

Magazine Page Valentine Pockets

Hello everyone! I know, it's been forever since I've blogged...we recently moved our home, our family, our dogs, and coincidentally, my business.  So, things have been a little crazy, but we are getting settled again and it's time to blog some more!

I realize this is totally belated, being that Valentine's day is over, but I wanted to share this fun tutorial from Unplug Your Kids.  It just seems so fitting for the Junk Mail Gems blog because it uses recycled magazine pages!  Just a little something to tuck away until next year...although who says you can only send love notes on Valentine's day?  Make one today!  :-)

DIY Recycled Ornaments from "Michele Made Me"

Check out these pretty plastic bottle ornaments from Michele Made Me, along with instructions to make them yourself!

She also has another tutorial to make these adorable little greenhouse ornaments from recycled plastic.  Love them!  Plus, who doesn't want to gaze into a tropical little greenhouse when there are inches of snow on the ground? Her ornament tutorials appear to be an ongoing series...can't wait to see what she comes up with next!  Thanks, Michele!!

Patriotic Plastic Cup Earrings...Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Heading out to a July 4th bbq soon and have nothing festive to wear?  Well, if you have a pair of earring hooks and some plastic cups around, fear not because 17 year old Katie and her sister Taylor have put together a tutorial so you can make these cute earrings made from plastic cups!

Nice work, ladies! (via Craft Gossip)

Hope you all have a fabulous fourth!

Recycled Valentine Fun!

Valentine's day is less than a month away and there are many, many ideas out there on the web for making your own fun Valentine gifts and cards out of recycled materials! Here are just a few that I found...

The Long Thread has a nice tutorial to make this cute stuffed heart, which is a great way to use up some scrap material or recycle some unwanted fabric items and buttons! You can even make it extra special by using a piece of fabric from an item or article of clothing that has sentimental value but is no longer useable or wearable.



Cut Out And Keep, one of the many fun craft links shared on my site, is full of fun ideas and how-to's for Valentine's day. Check out a bunch here, like this cool conversation hearts charm bracelet!


National Geographic shows you how to make neat 3D recycled cards here...


Squidoo has a nice collection of Valentine crafts, which include many paper crafts that you can incorporate recycled items (like junk mail) into. Scroll down to their video tutorial on making tissue paper flowers...this makes a fun activity for kids and adults, and a great way to repurpose some of the used red and white tissue paper you hopefully saved from all of those Christmas gifts you just opened!

Scroll further down Squidoo's page for another video on making a woven paper heart basket. I used to make these when I was little...they make a fun envelope for a valentine, or bag for a small gift!

There's also a recipe to make your own Valentine's bath salts, which can be given in a nice package by decorating a recycled glass jar.

Crafting a Green World has a nice video showing you how to make a simple pop-up Valentine card using recycled materials as well.

Everyone knows the way to a man's heart is through his stomach...I remember when I was dating my husband 15 years ago, I had fun decorating a coffee can and filling it up with home made Valentine M&M cookies. I sprayed the can pink and decorated it with candy hearts, stickers, and glitter paints. I'm sure he was more excited about the contents than the container, but we still have that can today!

Expecting to get some traditional store bought items from your not-so-crafty Valentine? See if you can come up with ways to recycle the packaging you get! "jlcfyi" blog posted this great way to repurpose a candy heart box into a picture frame!


Got some of your own recycled Valentine craft ideas? Feel free to post comments and share the love!

Recycled Christmas Placemats!

Over the past couple years I've shown you how to recycle your old holiday cards, junk mail, and gift wrap into many festive new objects, including ornaments, gift tags, countdown paper chains, mini gift bags, and scrapbooks (via last month's e-newsletter). What else could there be to use all this old "trash" for?

Today's fantastic recycled Christmas placemat project comes from none other than my extremely creative sister Heidi, of iBusybodies.com! This is a great project to use up those old holiday cards, gift wrap, holiday-themed junk mail & catalogs, and even those PHOTO cards!

Here's what Heidi did...

Cut squares out of all the recycled items you want to use.

She used this square punch, and used the corner rounder (below left) on the corners when finished. I don't have a square punch, so I made some using my cutting board, cutting 1.5" squares.

Here's the fun part that will really personalize your placemats...use photo cards you get in the mail too! Make sure to center the squares around your friends and family's faces. You may want to hand cut or use a cutting board for this so you can see what you're doing.

Then, simply stick down the squares on your larger paper until you fill it up. Heidi used a double-stick tape applicator made for scrapbooking on the back of each square. When I made mine, I laid out a long strip of double-stick tape on my paper backing and stuck the squares to it.



Trim off edges where necessary, and round the corners if you choose. Then, so they can stand up to spills and drips, have them laminated at Kinko's or your print shop of choice.



And you're done! These placemats will be even more fun to look at in years to come as the photos of friends and family get older! Top them with a recycled holiday light napkin ring and you're sure to start a conversation with your guests! Thanks for the great idea, Heidi!! And, kudos to my mom, Rollie Brandt, who took all the great photos!

Have Yourself A Green Little Christmas!

It's hard to believe we are approaching Thanksgiving this week already, especially when I see that my last blog posting was on Halloween! Shame, shame on me. But, I have been busy putting out our holiday e-newsletter, fulfilling Junk Mail Gems orders for those of you who are early holiday shoppers like me...and, doing my own holiday shopping! (I've also been making a lot of fun gifts this year, but I can't tell you about those yet in case any of the receivers are reading!) Here are some ways to green-up your holiday!

Green Gifts:
Junk Mail Gems, of course, has a ton of cool gift ideas:

Hand rolled paper beads for the crafty beader,
One-of-a-kind junk mail jewelry for those eco-conscious women in your life,
Recycled speaker cable jewelry for the stereo guru,
Hand woven junk mail wallets great for men, women, teens & adults,
Woven junk mail bookmarks for the bookworm,
and many cool magnets for anyone who has a fridge or cubicle!

Be sure to check out my links page for a bunch of my favorite places to find unique and green gifts online!


Got friends who already have it all? Why not give to a charity in their name through places like Charity Gifts? You can even give a goat! I have a few of those people on my list who have everything, but I bet they don't have an adopted polar bear.

And don't forget that you can always make a gift! There are many great ideas out there on the web for making gifts and hand made gifts are always extra special. I know my family looks forward to my husband's home made wine every year, and I've always enjoyed making ornaments and personalized items for my friends and family. Check out my DIY project links on the right hand column of this blog for more ideas!

Gift Wrap:

National Geographic says, "...if every family reused just 2 feet [0.6 meter] of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet." Some things that can easily be re-used are bows, gift bags, tissue paper, ribbon, and boxes! A lot of the gift wrap itself can be used again too if it is not shredded when opened. Gift tags can be made out of last year's holiday cards as well. There are many great ways to recycle and make your own creative gift wrap here!

Decorations:

I could not imagine Christmas in my home without a real tree. Maybe it's because I grew up with a real tree every year, or maybe it's just because my hyper-active sense of smell just loves fresh pine. Christmas trees are grown in farms, specifically for that purpose, so you are not chopping down forests. While they need to be purchased annually, a locally bought tree is much greener than their artificial counterparts, which consume a lot of energy and petrolium-based materials to make! And, who says you need to toss it to the curb when you're done? You can find a local tree recycling facility using Earth 911, or recycle it yourself by turning it into mulch or firewood. Still not comfortable chopping down a tree? Why not plant one in your front yard and have an outdoor tree year after year?!

How about lights? Whether you put up one string of lights or go all Grizwold on your property, you can cut down on the energy you use by plugging your holiday lights into a timer.

And don't forget about our tutorial for turning old holiday cards into ornaments!

Holiday Cards:

Botanical Paperworks has some really beautiful seed cards. If you are not familiar with these, they are cards made out of hand made paper, with real seeds embedded in the paper...meaning that you can actually plant the card and have it grow! They also have plant-able gift tags and party favor cards that look like they could double as little paper ornaments.

Other alternatives if you want to completely eliminate the whole physical card thing would be to send an e-card. If you don't want to use one of those free e-card sites with ready-made cards, you can always make your own electronic newsletter or email with photos and news. Or, how about actually picking up the phone and wishing everyone a merry Christmas "in person?" It may be time consuming if you have a huge list, but would surely be memorable to those people you don't see very often!

These are just a few ways that you can green your holidays...feel free to share your own suggestions with your comments, and have a happy Thanksgiving!