Micol (pronounced “Michael” and rhymes with “recycle” ) Day of recyclemicol offers a great tutorial on transforming greeting cards (or cardstock you have on hand) into pillow gift boxes that would make Martha proud. Be sure to check out her … Read More ...
Magazine Coasters
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 ...
Sports Jersey Tote
Sorry if I seem to be on a totebag kick — there are just so many good ideas out there. This fine tote tutorial comes from the imagination of Tiffany of RePlayGround. Perhaps the best built-in feature of this … Read More ...
Recycled Denim — Martha-Style
This has to be the most elegant recycled denim tote I’ve seen. Then again, I wouldn’t expect anything less from a project that appears on Martha’s website. Dimensional floral brooches take this project over the top. The same article … Read More ...
T-Shirt Tote
One can never have too many totes, especially when attempting to avoid using those evil plastic grocery bags. Craftbits member Tiffscraft shows us how she sewed up a simple little T-shirt handbag. What a great way to use up … Read More ...
Corduroy Laptop Sleeve
Laptop sleeves abound, but do you really want to pay the high prices for such a small piece of material? I found this detailed laptop-sleeve tutorial linked from Craft magazine’s e-newsletter. Lined with sweatshirt material, creator Sam made the sleeve … Read More ...
A Tote for the Inner Geek
What can you do with old floppy disks — I mean the REALLY old oversized, bendable floppies? Instructables contributor imanalchemist (yes, you read that right) shows us how he made a dashing tote bag from 18 old 5.25-inch floppies, canvas … Read More ...
Dirt-Cheap Dorm Room Furniture
Continuing with the theme of back to school, here’s a frugal — and green — idea for dorm room design: cardboard furniture. While you may not be able to craft Frank Gehry’s award-winning, high-design Wiggle Chair (retail $875, shown), I … 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 ...
Aluminum Mini Trays
Using only a pair of scissors, Instructables member xavtek has been making these mini trays from aluminum cans for years. They’re meant to be used as ashtrays, but they function just as well as jewelry holders, soap dishes, spare change … Read More ...
Better than HDTV
Move over, Animal Planet – here comes a more realistic wildlife channel. Sender-inner Trisha brought to my attention this tutorial of converting an old console TV into a fab new home for your fish. By carefully replacing the TV with … Read More ...
Stay Cool and Crafty
Trying to stay cool this summer? How to make a USB-powered personal fan from a used CD. It’s more techie than crafty, but it definitely would make your co-workers green with envy. Just don’t get too close to the … Read More ...
Baking with Blue Jeans + Procrastinators Wanted
Old denim has been repurposed into many crafty things, but these simple pot holders by Canadian crafter Lise Farynowski caught my eye (OK, they actually caught the eyes of ReadyMade editors as they were sorting through the entries of their … Read More ...
