Wrapping presents

So here I am still wrapping presents at last minute, some homemade with recyclables and some bought... but to save some paper (and the environment!) I've wrapped the presents with newspaper and some wrapping paper and used laces made the decoration! 

Tip: If you have heavy gifts it's better to use old magazines as newspaper is usually not very strong.

Jewelry Keeper (Flower)

When you have one of those endless days and you finally get ready to bed, you strip from all the jewelry and get in you pajamas... you'll tidy up tomorrow...

Don't just let your rings and earrings laying around risking loosing them, with this lovely  jewelry keeper flower it's always tidy and you just have to lay it down!

I made this one as a Christmas gift for a friend that loves to use earrings and rings and has a very busy life! She loved it! ;)

I will leave you with my result and you can see the instructions here (they are in French, but step by step pictures will help you!)

Snow globes

I came across this snow globes project online and I just couldn't resist trying it! Unfortunately there were some tricks not mentioned... But I will tell you all about it!

This is what you need:

I chose a few glass jars from my recycling bin collection ;)

I selected the figures for each jar according to the size.

I used my hot glue gun to fix the figures to the lids, but then I realized they were loosing color, so I had to treat them with acrylic varnish that I had - makes them resistant to water! If I knew I would have start by doing that and then glue the figures to the lids! :D

I used the foil paper from a powder milk packaging (coffee ones also work fine) to make the snow cutting it in thin stripes and then little pieces. I have tried with decoration snow but it's definitely too heavy and you don't even see it fall - too quick!

Then I added just enough water in the jars that would allow the pieces to go in without spilling the water (and specially the snow!) and a few drops of bleach so the water doesn't go green!

Final touch - ribbons!!!

I especially like the right side one! ;)

Christmas centerpiece

I always liked Christmas whether if it was just the four of us in France  (my parents, my sister and I) or the whole Portuguese part of the family together while living in Portugal where no one can actually hear each other because it's so loud... For me it's always that special time of the year that we all sit together and have good food and nice presents for each other.

Also the houses are so nicely decorated each year and on Christmas eve there is always a nice centerpiece on the table. This one is very simple and I really enjoyed doing it because it was one more of those projects that seemed so obvious before I began so I didn't really plan much in advance, I just chose and collected the materials as I went along...

So I finally went for a candle in a tuna can which I wrapped in decor tissue hot glued the can in a carton base and some pine cones around the can. I used some sprigs of pine tree to decorate around the candle and some red wild berries on the pine cones. (In the end I didn't use the ribbon.)

Although I've sprayed all with diluted glue (that's why the old spray bottle) I'm not sure how much this will last... I'll let you know...

Christmas crown

Last time we went to the forest with our little one I let her walk on the leafs and showed her all the leafs, chestnuts and pine cones and I picked up a few to make Christmas decorations.

First one is this Christmas crown. I used a big bowl to draw the outer circle on the card and a compasses for the inner one. Then I cut the crown out of the card using scissors and a exacto knife. I glued the cone pines to the circle with hot glue and then decorated with the ribbons. I also used a ribbon to hang it on the door.

Very natural and simple decoration for Christmas, just my style! ;)

Christmas balls!

You know me... (well... maybe you don't, but you'll know that...) I'm not able to throw anything in the wrong bin so I was storing the old lamp bulbs to take them all together to the store until this idea hit me - what if I made them pretty? So pretty that I can use them as a decoration? Maybe in the Christmas tree?

One of the times I went to this very cheap store that has a craft section I found this decorative pearls and just knew right away I would use them for this project ;)

I used decorative pearls on the bulb, nail polish to paint the base and I forgot to include two things in the picture: nylon cord to hang the bulbs and ribbons for decoration.

Card Christmas Tree

What is Christmas without a Christmas tree, right?

With a cat and a one year old baby that walks all round the house I wonder how much time would my Christmas tree survive this year... I'm still considering, but in the meantime I thought I would do a card one inspire by a magazine (Portuguese magazine called "Especial Nova Gente - Solucoes" no. 16) and some random posts on Facebook... 

Sorry but I'm so enthusiastic that I first made the tree and then took the pictures of what I used, so the card in the photo is actually just what's left after cutting the tree... :D

I used:

- Card box that I brought from the supermarket to do the tree itself

- Green paint and paint brush to paint the tree

- Random small colored boxes to do the decorations (little stars, christmas trees, snow mens, snow flakes, crowns)

- Colored spiky paper where I wrote some words related with Christmas (you can also write your best moments of the year or your expectations for next year)

- Glue pads to glue the decorations (could have used glue if I was sure about the location of each decoration to begin with, but this way I could go by trial - error...)

- (obviously) I needed drawing material to draw everything on the cards and scissors to cut it all 

I like the result! What about you? Inspired yet?

Newpaper basket

Not that this has anything to do with Christmas but I challenged myself to do a basket with all the newspapers and advertisements that were delivered to us in our mailbox although we have the "nee/nee" sticker...

All you need is paper but it has to be wide enough for the size of the box you want to build, the pieces with which you start with have to  be big enough to cover the base and 2 sides. I used open newspaper sheets and the result was a big box!

The glue is not really needed but I applied some to keep the newspaper sheets folded (stick glue) and the strong glue for some loose ends when finishing.

I used masking tape at the top to make it prettier. Did it work? :P

Now that I made the first one I think I could do so much better, but this one was not bad at all, hum? :D

Christmas Candles

We already see all over stores-Christmas is coming!!! This year I will do my own decorations and I hope I can inspire you to do some also instead of buying them...

Recycling Yourself's  first Christmas crafts are thematic candles but be sure to use this ones with electrical candles since the top is polystyrene so you could have fire hazard if you use a real candle!

I realized it's not really easy to figure out all materials used from a picture so from now I will put the material used under the picture ;)

Santa Claus:

Wool, red fabric and sewing line and needle were used to make Santa Claus' hat.

The hair on the side is cotton, the beard is protective paper 

The eyes were bought and I drew the mouth and nose.

The belt is from used paper that I painted black.

... and of course the body is the glass jar painted red!

Snow man:

Coffee capsule and black painted paper for snow man's hat.

The eyes and nose were bought.

The scarf was made from a old shirt and the buttons are from the same shirt. 

... and of course the body is the glass jar and it's covered by protective paper!

So these go to the dinning table during Christmas! Aren't they cute?

All Saints Day

First of November is a day to remember the persons we loved that sadly had to leave us, this year we had to say goodbye to too many and although I'm not religious I wanted to do something special this year to remember all of our loved ones that are gone.

Ok, this was the first time I did this so bear with me... I didn't knew all I was going to need before I started but I'll guide you through it!

I started by choosing a glass bottle from my lot and melting an old candle we didn't knew were to place since we moved. I placed the candle in the jar and then in a pot with water and put on the stove.

You have to be careful to not loose the wick, I hold it with a cord because when the candle melted and filled the space it got smaller, so small I had to add another piece of wax I had:

I melted the grey piece in another container and joined it after melted or else the colors would have mixed up together. But even after that the jar was too empty and I still had  candle-wick left so I decide to actually melt a whole candle and add it till the end of the wick:

There was some wax left and I had a small jelly jar all cleaned up and ready so I made another small candle:

Well, it's nothing much but it's personal. We will light this candles on Halloween night in remembrance of our deceased loved ones! May you rest in peace!

Plastic bottle vase... or office supply support :P

Sometimes I don't know how to explain... I just look at an empty bottle and see what could I do with it, and this was one of those cases. I just which I had more of these to organize more things in my "office" but this is a hand soap mega packaging (2l), I don't use that many per month... :D

Decision on how to use it was easier that expected since I already had a vase for the orchid...

Wallets with tetra pack packaging

Here's a bright idea, making wallets from tetra pack! Tetra pack is a composed packaging so it's hard to recycle, but easy to reuse!

See how to get them done here (sorry for the video in Portuguese but I think the images can lead you through it) or leave me a message, I think one of these days I will organize a workshop on how to do these ones.

I've made two different ones:

... and while searching for the source (that I had forgotten to save...) I found a third one that I want to try!

Keep posted!

First Recycling Worshop - Halloween

So we had a lot of fun recycling yesterday and I was surprised we had time to do all three projects!

I was very happy with the results and more important, seeing the children happy to have made something from scratch and asking if they could take the projects home!!!

I leave here some photos, I took care that faces wouldn't appear to protect the child's and parent's privacy!

Thank you all for participating and I hope you will join us again in our next workshop!

(All set to start!) 

(Starting to have fun!)

(More participants!)

(While some kids play at the back we're getting busy!)

 (Careful, witch on the way!)

(Final results!)

Thank you once more to all participants and to Post-Office for having us!!!

The very first Recycling Yourself Workshop will have Halloween as theme!

We are very proud to announce the very first Recycling Yourself workshop!

Come and have fun with your kids by crafting your own Halloween decorations using simple recycling materials. And maybe you'll spook your neighbors!

So come on and join us for 2 hours of fun!

Inscriptions:

email: recyclingyourself@gmail.com until the 17th October (max. 15 children)

Fee: 3 Euros per child

By using our creativity and simple craft skills, we will reinforce a more green conscience and use day to day recyclable objects to have fun. If you can bring: paper rolls, carton boxes (e.g. cereal) and yogurt cups (be sure to clean them well before).

Who Likes Ghost?

So I made some ghosts with plastic yogurt cups and glass jars to put a candle in (ELECTRIC ONLY in the yogurt cups - fire hazard!).

I have this pen that writes in plastic, stone, glass, fabric, you name it ;)

Which one is your favorite?

Card roll mummy

This is really simple, I don't need to tell you that I painted the eye zone black, glued the eyes and placed the tissue around the roll fixing it with glue, do I? :P

Scared already? :P

Paper Pumpkin

Is there really Halloween without pumpkins?

This one is really simple to do and it's very quick, this is all you need:

All you have to do is cut 8 or more circles (if you want it more filled), fold the circles in 2 and glue half pieces together in a circle, so it looks like this in the end:

Paper lantern

I love lampions and when I saw this lantern made of paper I just had to do one:

You just have to fold, cut and glue... how hard can it be? Not at all but you do have to choose the right paper (too soft won't stand up by itself and too stiff won't fold) and if you don't do it right it will not stand alone ;)

But look out, this is paper so electric candles only!

Card rolls witch

I think kids just love Halloween and it's not just because of the candies, they also tend to like spooky things!

So I thought what could be better then doing some recyclable decorations for Halloween with children? I was searching some crafts for the occasion and just tried my best to use recyclable materials. For this little witch I used card rolls and then decorated with colored paper:

Hope you enjoy it!

We are ready for Halloween!!!

In the next few days we will be releasing the posts of each Halloween craft!

Keep posted!

Maggy

Bats

So while searching for Halloween crafts I found this bats and I immediately thought of doing them with yogurt cups:

How cute are they?