Recycled plastic beads

Hello!

Today I’d like to show you one of my latest ideas & creations. There are already quite some recycled jewelry tutorials on this blog, but here comes yet another 🙂 I personally love this necklace: it’s bright and colorful and it’s basically FREE: all you need are plastic bottles (we use way too many in our day-to-day life) and some time to make them.

This necklace, together with recycled plastic earrings, were given to my friend Vale, who now proudly wears them to office 🙂

Here’s what you need:

plastic bottles in many colors

scissors, candle, lighter

jewelry pliers, round nose.

Tutorial after the jump!

 

Buttoned notebooks

ITALIAN VERSION HERE

Hello everybody!

Today I’m going to show you how to make yourself some little notebooks, using just what you have at home. Well, I first saw something very similar on Pinterest, and I had to try asap 🙂

While thinking about how to personalize my booklets, I encountered a tutorial exchange with Lots of Buttons, an enormous online store that sells hundreds of beautiful buttons. I used some of the biggest and most colorful ones to decorate (and close) my notebooks.

My recycled notebooks are kinda girly, and they are machine sewn: obviously you could make then anyhow you like them, and even children can make some, provided some help from adults!

I made several differnt notebooks: one has a watercolor on the cover: it was made by a small child from where I work (luckily I hardly throw away their paintings or drawings). Another notebook is painted with chalkboard paint ( I loooove it). All of them have a hardcover made of salvaged cardboard: cereal, pasta, yoghurt, rice boxes. Plus colorful and funny buttons, some from Lots of Buttons (thank you again guys!)

How to: pierce a tin can to make a lantern

VERSIONE ITALIANA CLICCA QUI

Hello everybody!

What can you do with all of those cans of coffee, tomato, green beans and so on (that you use everyday)? I had a lot of very small cans, single portions of Bolognese sauce, very useful for students… and I wanted to make something out of them!

I didn’t throw them away and one day I realized that the had the perfect width to hold a tealight.

So I had the idea for these small lanterns.

You may obviously use also bigger can, but you will have to use bigger candles though, otherwise you won’t have the same effect.

Garden bees

ITALIAN VERSION CLIK HERE

Hello everybody!

This crafty idea is taken from a tv show called “Paint your life”, broadcasted by Real Time channel. I don’t follow the show because I find their projects kind of repetitive, plus I don’t have a new piece of furniture every week to repaint or repurpose! 🙂

Anyway, while I was with my friends in the mountains, lazily sitting on the couch in front of the tv, I saw the presenter making these little bees: they are very easy to make, and I didn’t have to buy anything, so… why not?

This is yet another project that allows us to creatively re-use the packaging that we have at home evey day: cans, plastic lids and bottles.