Reduce, Reuse & Recycle!

In honor of Earth Day which is officially celebrated this coming Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 I thought I'd thought I'd turn it into a week long event and bring you a variety of "Earth friendly" tips, techniques and ideas :)

Today I wanted to talk about recycling things...all sorts of items that can be possibly found in your trash right this very moment!

I know there are those of you out there that love "Being Green"...... honestly even if it is for a totally different reason, Pack-Rat's around the world are thrilled that they are no longer looked down upon or thought to be crazy for "recycling" found objects ~ LOL!! We're now fashionable for saving all of those bits and bobs that everyone (besides us) thought was rubbish.

Finally all of my hording tendencies have been justified in three little words - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!!!!

Ahhhh, it's so nice to have people finally listen!!

Now, what can you recycle? Just about EVERYTHING!!!!



I save loads and loads of goodies that might come in handy one day. Everything from bottle caps and tabs, worn out metal parts and pieces (scavenged from dh's work bench), old shell casings from dh & sons guns (these are great soldered onto various trinkets to make charms!!), buttons, labels, findings and cloth pieces from old clothing or jeans, chains from anything from old toys, mechanical parts or honestly anywhere I can find them, labels or tags from newly purchased items, boxes, packaging, and well, you get the idea...

Just about anywhere you look there is something that can be salvaged from the trash heap.

Today I wanted to share two quick ideas on what you can do with some of your found goodies...

Pop Tab Buckle or Ribbon Slide

I know you may have seen this idea before but I never grow tired of it. You never have to worry about finding an embellishment to match your fibers ~ just go to your stash of embossing powder and there is sure to be just the right color you need!

Supplies:

Pop Tab

Embossing Ink - Ranger Industries

Embossing Powder - Ranger Industries

Heat Gun

Instructions:

1. Pounce the tab on the embossing ink pad and make sure it is completely covered with ink.

2. Place the inked tab into desired color of embossing powder. Remove using tweezers and place on the non-stick craft mat.

3. Heat to melt the powder.... Let cool and it's ready to use!

To use, simply slide the tab onto a piece of ribbon or an assortment of fibers!

I also wanted to talk about a few other goodies you can save from the garbage man to add to your "must save" list.

One of my favorite rescued items I save is packing materials - be it cereal boxes, cardboard backing, acetate material, etc. It's all very usable with a bit trimmed here and there. I love to cut up cardboard boxes that food and other products come in. Depending on the size of the box I make a variety of foundations for ATC's, Moo cards, Gothic Arches, Fat Book (4x4) pages, cards and more! Some of the acetate bubble packages are also great to make shakers or memorabilia holders that you have to pay 2-10.00 for the "for sale" type variety of the same thing!! All for free!!!!!

I have another thing I love to save that comes in very handy is the front and back acetate pieces from clear stamp sets. Now that I store all of my clear stamps on Stamp n Stash stamp storage sheets I end up with two very sturdy, usable pieces of acetate ~ usually one clear and the other printed with the rubber stamp design (which comes in very handy - see below).

The last item I wanted to talk about today is foil from candy or other items. It comes in all shapes, colors and sizes and is just begging to be used on all sorts of projects! This piece is from a white chocolate bar I rec'd for Easter but think about gum wrappers, Hershey Kisses, the little wrapped chocolates, and more.

Totally Recycled ATC

Supplies:

Chipboard (cut from a cereal box)

Foil (from a candy bar)

Acetate sheet (from clear rubber stamp set)

Alcohol Inks - Ranger Industries

Instructions:

1. Apply desired colors of Alcohol Inks to the candy foil.

2. Trim images from clear stamp set acetate sheets.

3. Cut ATC foundation from cereal box.

4. Apply a layer of adhesive on the ATC foundation and adhere the foil.

5. Attach the acetate images to the ATC.

Always & Forever Recycled ATC

How's that for some fun stuff!

The ATC ended up taking about 2 minutes to make since I already had all of these goodies saved up for just the right project.

Way cool huh?

Now, it's your turn to see what you can come up with :)

Remember....any posts this week are eligible for the

100,000 hit give-a-way!!