Etsy’s Beans Things ~ Cute Upcycled Magnets!
Old Clothes – Instead of just tossing or donating your old clothes, try getting crafty with them instead. There are many ways to recycle old clothes including making baby and toddler clothes from your older adult clothes. You can create patchwork quilts, curtains and table cloths. Some people are taking their old jeans and making reusable grocery shopping bags out of them and I’ve even come across a lady who makes halter tops and yoga pants out of old t-shirts.
(Remember Jenelle at TrashN2Tees.com and her T-shirt Scarf Tutorial HERE!)
Junk Mail – Even those of us who are on the no-mail lists are still apt to get some junk mail. Keeping in mind that a lot of junk mail won’t be recycled by your local waste management because of colored dyes so try upcycling all that lose paper into something useful. You can create works of art, decoupage collages, wrapping paper, or weave wallets and coin purses out of brightly colored junk mail. Some people are also making refrigerators magnets and bags out of the materials.
Old plates – Instead of tossing your old plates, try breaking them to upcycle them. You can use broken plates and cups when you pot plants to help with the water drainage. You can also start making your own mosaic creations with the broken pieces. Decorate table tops, picture frames, sinks and even your old bottles, cans and jars for snazzy vases and containers.
Cardboard – Upcycling cardboard is a great way to get organized and crafty around the home. I’ve taken cereal boxes and turned them into silverware drawer dividers and organizers. You can also take cereal boxes and turn them into bookshelf dividers and magazine holders. Some people upcycle cardboard tubes by turning them into cable and cord caddies. Some people go even further with their upcycle cardboard projects and create furniture from the material.
Upcycled bottle caps and the paper used for these magnets has been upcycled too!
“My little one is old enough for juice pouches now and I couldn’t bare throwing them out…So I created these cool, hip and colorful carrying cases!”
Do you want to see what I got? I ordered three Halloween magnets and four Greenie magnets (shown here) and Jeanna sent me a cutey owl one too because she knew I liked it. So nice! This is what my fridge looks like! Sorry the picture is the not the greatest for seeing the actual magnets. But they make my fridge more fun and they make me smile as I walk by 
Make a purchase from Beans Things within the course of this giveaway ~ 5 entries
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Enter another Upcycled Giveaway
5 EXTRA Entries to any giveaway this week (or spread them out) by participating in TNT’s upcycled scarf tutorial (takes 20 minutes and all you need is an old t-shirt & scissors ~ and it’s soooo fun!) Click HERE
I was not compensated in any way for this post. This giveaway will end on Nov. 9, 2010 at 10:00pm ET. Winner will be drawn via random.org. Once a winner is drawn I will contact them and they will have 48 hours to reply before I draw a new winner. Giveaway is open to anyone in the US and you must be 18 years of age or older.
Eco-Friendly DwellSmart & TerraCycle Giveaway
From their website ~ Every year BILLIONS of drink pouches end up in dumpsters and landfills across America. TerraCycle, Capri Sun and Honest Kids are working together to put an end to this awful loss of resources. As an eco-friendly innovator, TerraCycle converts the drink pouch material into unique fashion bags, tote bags, pencil cases, and other items for kids and adults! TerraCycle is proud to team up with the largest producer of drink pouches in the country, Capri Sun, and a young organic entry into the market, Honest Kids, to help address this problem! Together with your help we CAN make a difference!
Once you have signed up for the Drink Pouch Brigade, you can start collecting drink pouches! When you are ready to ship them, log into your account and chose whether you would like to download prepaid shipping labels (the eco-friendly option) or have TerraCycle mail you 2 prepaid return labels.
The TerraCycle Drink Pouch Brigade™ program allows almost any school, non–profit organization or individual to save drink pouches from taking up space in landfills. TerraCycle will pay $0.02 per drink pouch to the charity, school or non-profit organization of your choice.
Visit their website http://www.terracycle.net/
I contacted them to help out during Upcycle Week and they informed me of a great company with both a storefront and an online shop that carries their products. What I found is an AWESOME store that carries TONS of fantastic stuff!! And it’s ALL eco-friendly!
But it doesn’t stop there. You can find anything from cleaning products (did you know there is such thing as a make your own kit?), to pet items (dog beds made from soda bottles), to baby clothes & cloth diapers (check out BabeeGreens.com ~ coming soon to this blog) and school supplies (recycled markers?). If I didn’t have three kids with me I probably could have spent all morning there looking around!
What I love is that their actual store carries many items that are made from local artists. Jewelry, candles, coffee mugs, wine glasses ~ all made from recycled and upcycled materials. I wish you could see it all!
How would you like to WIN a TerraCyle product that is given to you by Dwellsmart?
How about I put up TWO items to giveaway?
Circuit Board Coasters ~ “These will not compute, but they will protect your furniture and help keep waste out of landfills” Ha!
Clif Bar Messenger Bag ~ made from upcycled Clif Bar Wrappers
DwellSmart gave me two TerraCycle product for this giveaway but I was not compensated in any way for the post. This giveaway will end on Nov. 9, 2010 at 10:00pm ET. Winner will be drawn via random.org. Once a winner is drawn I will contact them and they will have 48 hours to reply before I draw a new winner. Giveaway is open to anyone in the US and you must be 18 years of age or older.
Becca with Cloth Diaper Mommy Giveaway
First I want to share with you a couple of facts about our everyday clothing ~
If each person in the bought one recycled garment each year, it would save an average of 371 million gallons of water and 480 tons of chemical dyestuffs! Wow!
Americans throw away 68 pounds of clothes on average each year and we only buy 10 pounds of recycled clothes annually.
I actually found Becca when she was being featured on another blog. It was right at the time I was putting together this Upcycled Week and my mouth fell open. I was so excited! I stalked her (yes I did you can ask her) because I knew all of you would love this idea as much as me!
“I generally get T shirts from friends and family. They all know they can give me their unwanteds. I’ll buy them at yardsales too if I can get them for $.25 or cheaper. Also, I have a tendency to hold on to items of clothing for sentimental value, so knowing I can turn a T shirt, skirt, or pair of sweatpants that I no longer wear into something for my daughter is also incentive to get rid of stuff! Now we have sentimental diapers that we actually USE from day to day rather than old T shirts that take up space in my closet because they have special meaning! And I just made my daughter a little dress from one of her Daddy’s old dress shirts too. It’s just great to upcycle things you already have rather than spending money to buy new stuff!”
But how does she make them?
Here is a step by step tutorial found on her blog. Be sure to leave her comment love if you use it!
http://beccasclothdiaperblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/make-your-own-t-shirt-fitted-diaper.html
Or if you can’t sew like me you can send in your t-shirt and Becca will make a customized one just for you!
Next time around I will be sending Becca my own T but this time I chose one out of her Etsy store Cloth Diaper Mommy. It is so cute! P’Diddy and I were very excited to get our fluffy mail that day to try on our new dipe. The first thought I had as I touched it was how soft it was, exactly like an old T. I knew it would be very comfy against baby’s skin.
I asked Becca if she was a Crunchy Mama…
I’m a crunchy mama when it is economical for me to do so but I don’t think I’d be defined specifically as such. Our town doesn’t offer recycling, so I don’t recycle cans and newspapers. However, I try to keep down on our trash by switching out our napkins and papertowels for cloth and I obviously cloth diaper. I save money by making my own baby foods but I’m not vegetarian or anything as meat and protein are essential to my daughter’s diet and my husband is a huge meat eater. We baby wear and occasionally co sleep, but not all the time. And we believe in kind but firm discipline. It is important for us that our daughter recognizes authority and learns to respect it so that she’ll be honoring to God in her life and so that she can function as a well-rounded member of society. Our biggest and most important goal in regards to raising our daughter is that she grow up to know and love Jesus Christ as her Savior and her friend. Everything else is secondary to her eternal salvation and that essential relationship.
You can choose girl, boy, or neutral. How fun is that?
EXTRA Entries
~ Follow Becca’s BLOG – you can see all her sewing fun!
~ Comment on Etsy Treasury of upcycled items!
~ Purchase from Cloth Diaper Mommy in course of this giveaway – 5 entries!
5 EXTRA Entries to any giveaway this week (or spread them out) by participating in TNT’s upcycled scarf tutorial (takes 20 minutes and all you need is an old t-shirt & scissors ~ and it’s soooo fun!) Click HERE
Cloth Diaper Mommy sent me wipes to review for this giveaway but I was not compensated in any way for the post. This giveaway will end on Nov. 9, 2010 at 10:00pm ET. Winner will be drawn via random.org. Once a winner is drawn I will contact them and they will have 48 hours to reply before I draw a new winner. Giveaway is open to anyone in the US and Canada and you must be 18 years of age or older.
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