Celebrate Earth Day – Craft & Recycle!

Earth Day is just around the corner (April 22nd). In honor of Earth Day, I thought I’d highlight some of the crafts you can make from used material. Craft something that’s earth friendly today!

PAPER CRAFT IDEAS

Tealight Decoration using recycled cardboard tubing.

Magazine Bowl – a bowl made of magazine pages. Amazing!

Make your own Paper – Use up your paper scraps and make new paper.

Handbag made from books – This is the coolest! Refashion an old book into a cool purse.

FABRIC & YARN IDEAS

Peasant top – Cute shirt made from a thrift store muumuu.

T-shirt into Tube Top – It even has cute pockets.

Refashioned T-shirt – Make an oversized shirt fit you.

Field Bag – Use your old clothing to make this cool field bag.

Denim Potholder – Cute way to reuse your old jeans.

Knit Tea Cozy – Use up your leftover yarn stash!

PLASTIC IDEAS

Crocheted Plastic Bag Tote – Cute bag made from plastic bags.

Messenger Bag – Another crocheted bag using plastic bags.

Fusing plastic bags – This tutorial teaches you how to fuse plastic bags together, which can then be used to make all kinds of cool stuff!

VCR Tape Evening Bag – Have a bunch of old VHS tapes you don’t need? Crochet the tape into this fabulous bag!

METAL IDEAS

Aluminum Can Jewelry – A beautiful way to reuse an aluminum can. And it’s wearable.

*Photo by aussiegall

Just thought that I would let everyone know that Craft Tutorials has moved to crafttutorials.net

Mini Dry-Erase Board

To go along with my theme of refashioning envelopes, I decided to make a mini dry-erase board from the window part of an envelope. It’s so easy and fun to make. I got the idea from Claudine Hellmuth’s project here.

Supplies:

• Envelope with window
• Decorative paper
• Magazine or book you can cut up
• Scissors
• Glue (I used Mod Podge)

Here’s all you do:

• Cut the window out of an envelope.
• Cut some pictures from a magazine.
• You need a thicker piece of paper for the backing, so cut that to size.

You should end up with something like this:

• Next, glue your pictures onto the backing
• Glue the backing and the window together
• Lastly, glue a decorative border around the front of the window.

Here’s my final result. It’s pretty amateurish, but a good first try:

Now I need to get some dry-erase markers and write some fun messages on it!

Another idea for paper globe ornaments

I received this photo from Elsa to show another idea of what to do with the paper globe ornaments. These looks so cute!

Just thought that I would let everyone know that Craft Tutorials has moved to crafttutorials.net

Paper globe ornaments

I love these paper ornaments. They look so complex, but they really aren’t.

To start, you need 20 paper circles of whatever patterns you choose. I made mine about 1.5″. If you have a circle template or jumbo punch, it makes it really easy.

Fold the edges of each circle up in three places, so that it looks like a triangle with three tabs.

To make the top of the globe, take five of your circles. Glue the tabs together so that the five form a ring. Repeat this for the bottom of your globe.

To make the center of your globe, glue 10 of your circles in a line. The “triangles” will alternate pointing up and down, so that you have a straight band. Then glue the end circles together to make a ring. Glue the top and bottom pieces onto your ring.

I made a little paper dangle for mine. Once your done, just punch a few holes, put on a wire or ribbon hanger, and voila! All finished.

Enjoy!
Lisa

Just thought that I would let everyone know that Craft Tutorials has moved to crafttutorials.net

Paper Mache Harry Potter Wands

It’s hard to believe that this is the last summer weekend before my son has to go back to school! It makes me want to jam pack it with as much quality time as I can, but it’s too darn hot to do much of anything. So of course, it’s the perfect time to find a really fun INDOOR activity! 🙂 And I know exactly what we can do…

Check out DadCanDo.com for the steps to make these wands…all you need is paper, glue, a glue gun, and paint!

I can’t wait to make one for myself… uh, I mean, my kids!!

Lisa