By using coasters, coffee or water rings on your favorite magazine covers are a thing of the past — or are they? These adorable recycled coasters, complete with rope trim, are made entirely from used magazine pages. The San … Read More ...
Truly Feminine Notebook
No post-consumer cardboard packaging is off limits for Ivy Lane Designs, home of “crafty-licious, one-of-a-kind, insta-collectibles,” which offers a boat-load of nicely crafted notebooks and journals made from discarded boxes. Most of the notebook covers are made from cereal … Read More ...
Crispina’s Ragamuffins
Thanks to sender-inner Janet, I have discovered the wonderful world of Crispina, a studio that transforms old sweaters and cotton pieces into stylish garments, sweaters, rugs, iPod pouches and other home accessories. I’ve been a stuffed animal lover … Read More ...
Annie’s Sweatshop
Finally, a sweatshop you can feel good about buying from. Annie’s Sweatshop offers a fine sampling of handmade stylish doggy accessories, including super-soft collars made from old silk ties (shown), sustainable pet beds made from recycled plastic and harnesses repurposed … Read More ...
Sweet Stuff at SweetyPrize
Catherine of SweetyPrize is one versatile gal. If she’s not crocheting, she’s decoupaging. If she’s not decoupaging, she’s paper-crafting. And if she’s not paper-crafting, she’s beading.
A good portion of her items she sells on Etsy are made from recycled … Read More ...
Tin Can Jewelry
Jennifer from Made From the Heart at Etsy does a smashing (yuk, yuk) job of transforming used tin cans into stylish jewelry. I’m particularly fond of her sun-shaped Coke pendant ($7), shown.
Jenn shared with me how she started making … Read More ...
Wichita Women’s Initiative Network
Prolific knitter and fellow Wichitan Jill pointed me in the direction of a great organization: Wichita Women’s Initiative Network. Among the products that these women craft with love are top-notch rugs ($30) and place mats ($20) made entirely from … Read More ...
Modern Green Lantern Ring
Marianne Kirby of Once Upon/Reclaimed Whimsy (at Etsy) fashions some unique accessories, including a handful of gorgeous gear rings, which are typically accented with stones or beads. This ring, Gear Ring 5 ($18), is made from a salvaged gear part, … Read More ...
Maki Squarepatch — A Must-See
Sisters Enqi and Xin from Singapore opened their online shop Maki Squarepatch less than a year ago and already are seeing success worldwide. No doubt it’s due to their fun, fresh and imaginative line of one-of-a-kind clothing, bags, accessories, cushions, … Read More ...
Junk Mail Gems
Junk Mail Gems is an entire site dedicated to crafting useful objects from junk mail. Gretchen Fleener, an industrial designer from Minneapolis, does exactly as her credit card mailings demand: “Do Not Discard.” Instead, she turns the mail into eye-candy … Read More ...
Rosie’s Place
I first learned about Rosie’s Place a few years ago when I purchased a couple of vintage button bookmarks from J. Jill as gifts. Rosie’s Place, based in Boston, is a sanctuary for poor and homeless women, and the Women’s … Read More ...
Chopsticks Reincarnated
It’s unfortunate, but billions of single-use chopsticks are disposed of each year, a fact that prompted Bryan Parks to found Kwytza Kraft.
The company collects single-use chopsticks from restaurants in China, cleans them, sanitizes them at high temperature and … 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 ...
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 ...
Welcome (and welcome)
Black rubber welcome mats made from recycled tires are fairly common, but any crafter has got to love the color used in these cheerful rubber door mats, made from galvanized metal wire and scrap material from the production of flip-flop … Read More ...