I love the fact that there’s an entire category on MAKE magazine’s site that’s dedicated to repurposing Altoids tins. Most of the entries are over-my-head electronics-related, but there are a couple of entries I could actually relate to, including Girl … Read More ...
Repurposed Rolodex
Love to organize? Would you love to become organized? Christy Petterson at getcrafty.com transformed a hand-me-down Rolodex into a craft organizer. She’s especially fond of dyeing fabric and making jewelry, and she finds that she can keep track of tiny … Read More ...
Ruby Re-Usable
Ruby Re-Usable, a.k.a. artist Diane Kurzyna, is the diva of the Olympia Dumpster Divers in Olympia, Wash. She dedicates her life to art and craft made from recycled materials, which she also blogs about. Her website includes a portfolio of … Read More ...
Quoth the Raven
Artist Mark Orr of Scavenger Art repurposes an interesting family of items — billiard balls, shutters, stair balusters, wooden shoe forms and more — into striking one-of-a-kind artworks. Take this “Raven on 8 Ball,” for instance, made of carved and … Read More ...
Tiny Cassette Tape Purses
Check out these microscopic Barbie purses crocheted from cassette tape at MyRecycledBags.com. (And don’t miss the recently posted matching Barbie halter dress and hat.) The creator, Cindy, generally crochets standard sized handbags, totes and other useful objects not … Read More ...
Silver Dollar Ring
MAKE magazine (the older sibling of CRAFT magazine) offers a video podcast on creating a one-of-a-kind hardy hand-crafted ring from an old silver dollar.
Even I (who has zero background in jewelry making or silversmithing) feel as though I could … Read More ...
From Junk Mail to Fine Art
Paper craft extraordinaire Patricia from A Little Hut has created a series of recycled art projects on her blog, including this first in the series of six (so far). For this project, she simply cut junk mail into thin … Read More ...
Vinyl Sign Jotters
Leslie Herger of Comfortable Shoes Studio upcycles colorful and funky vinyl signs into one-of-a-kind covers for her delightful — and very reasonably priced — handmade jotter notebooks. She gets her sign vinyl from a grocery store chain where she works … Read More ...
Three Phone Books Too Many
Yet another phone book company delivered a book of “friendly” yellow pages to our front door this month — for a total of three giant phone books from three different companies — for our two-person household. I don’t remember the … Read More ...
Natural Mobiles
Grab some inspiration at (or bring a well-funded checkbook to) [tag]SILHO Furniture[/tag] from [tag]mobile[/tag] artist Kevin Inkawhich, who uses [tag]eucalyptus[/tag], tulip petals, gaultheria leaves, pine cones and more to create abstract hanging mobiles. Shown is a detail of his Eucalyptus … Read More ...
The Art of Bricolage
It’s not [tag]collage[/tag], not montage, but rather bricolage.
Perfect for the eco-conscious crafter, the art of [tag]bricolage[/tag] is to “make creative and resourceful use of whatever materials are to hand (regardless of their original purpose).” Among her many homemade … Read More ...
Cupcakes with a Shelf Life
[tag]Cupcakes[/tag] are adorable, delectable and on-trend, but artist Michelle Stitzlein’s cupcakes will last well beyond the current popularity of this portable dessert.
A sculptor from Ohio, Michelle does some amazing stuff with used [tag]found objects[/tag] around the house and in … Read More ...
MixtGoods — Not Good, but Grand!
I’m a sucker for clean design and good typography, so when I saw an advertisement on our very own site for [tag]MixtGoods[/tag], I immediately clicked to their site. And once I was there, I was drawn to every single … Read More ...
Taking Tips from Ten Thousand Villages
I’m lucky to live near a [tag]Ten Thousand Villages[/tag] store, where they sell beautiful, [tag]fair trade crafts[/tag] from artisans all over the world. While a good portion of us crafters take for granted the ample portion of craft supplies and … Read More ...
Shopping Bag Crafts — Part 1
Hop on over to [tag]Craftster[/tag] and take a look at jamiewatchthestars’ detailed tutorial of transforming plastic shopping bags into durable, sewable, waterproof fabric with tons of character. After fusing the bags with an iron, the “fabric” mimics [tag]Tyvek[/tag] (used in … Read More ...