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Favorites Friday: Recycled Crafts

Posted by Caley on March 13th, 2009 at 05:13am

We are always keen on craft projects that utilize recycled materials. Turning potential waste into something useful or at least pretty is magical. Crafting with recycled materials is a great way to teach kids about the importance of recycling and create a fun activity. In addition to the environmental benefits, using recycled materials allows us to moderate our spending on crafting materials. Regardless of these tough economic times, thriftiness is always an interest. Here are favorite crafts using recycled materials:

My Picks

You don’t need expensive materials to pick up weaving. All you need is a sturdy piece of cardboard taken from a shipping envelope to create woven mats, coasters and more!
Cardboard Loom from Craft Stylish
This tutorial walks you through how to create your own paper from recycled newspapers. You can add a bit of food coloring for colored paper or even leaves for an interesting texture. There is a lot of room for personal creativity in this project. You can also use old newspapers, phone books or junk mail for papier-mache projects like Sustainable Bowling.
Sustainable Bowling Papier Mache Bowls
We have our collection of Things to Do with Old Jeans, but we missed this project from Sunshine’s Creations. As her kids wore out and outgrew many pairs of jeans, she used the legs to create braided rugs and pockets to create a quilt. Fantastic!
Braided Jean Rug from Sunshine's Creations

Mindy’s Picks

There are tons of great ideas online for how to create lamps from recycled items but I have to say that my favorite is definitely the blender lamp.
Blender Lamp from Instructables
When I was a kid, I thought hanging street signs in your room was the coolest thing. Though I’m not still eager to put up a giant Stop sign, I do love what Boris Bally did with this dining room table.
Vintage Street Signs Decor by Boris Bally
Adventure Ecology is taking to the water next month in a boat completely made out of plastic bottles. The plan is to sail from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia. Talk about recycled crafts. The vessel isn’t complete, but you can learn more about the voyage from the teaser video.

Kelly’s Picks

Save money on yarn with unwanted sweaters or go to the thrift store and pick up a few vintage finds. This tutorial shows you how to recycle yarn from a sweater to use over again!
How to Recycled Sweaters into Yarn from Craft Leftovers
Re-do your room with this side table idea made from accordion-style file folders. Now that’s resourceful – furniture from office supplies!
File Folder Side Table from Apartment Therapy
Since the weather is starting to get nicer, and I totally left my mini-weber grill outside in the snow all winter, I think I will be turning it into a planter for herbs thanks to this tutorial!
BBQ Herb Garden from Junk Mail Gems