The book Recyclo-gami by Laurie Goldrich Wolf offers 40 crafts that you can make at home or school to upcycle your everyday "stuff". These are really great crafts to do with your kids on those rainy spring days or for a green Mother's Day gift! It is a fantastic way to repurpose items that you would normally toss out.
Now let's get down to the fun stuff! My friend Sam made some cool art supply containers out of old cans and cookie containers.
On my list to make in the coming months (hopefully with B's help on some) include:
Decorated Bobby Pins - made from the millions of bobby pins I have kicking around and some stray buttons
Napkin Rings - made from toilet paper rolls and scrap materials/ribbons/crafting supplies
Rolled Paper Vase - made from leftover paper
Crayons - made from leftover broken crayons
And a very cute idea for Mothers Day would be the chapter that outlines making paper flower bouquets from leftover paper.
The Giveaway
Enter to win a copy of Recyclo-gami! Giveaway is open to residents of Canada and the US. You must leave your email address. Giveaway is open until Friday May 20th at 11:59PM EST. Winner will be contacted at email address provided and must respond within 4 days (since it is the Canadian long weekend and all).
Mandatory Entry
Leave a comment for this entry. Other entries will not count if this entry is not completed.
Tell me about something that you have upcycled and what you made! If you haven't had a chance to do it yet tell me what you would love to upcycle.
Additional Entries
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Tell me how you are being green this Mother's Day (worth 1 entry)
Follow me on Twitter (worth 1 entry)Tweet about this giveaway Upcycle your stuff! Enter to win the Recyclo-gami book on @JnJGoGreen http://tinyurl.com/3hxl2lq (worth 1 entry - can tweet daily)
I recently discovered your blog and am really liking it. This sounds like a great book. I am like you, trying to go through my stuff and de-clutter. I also have big ideas at first, them end up giving the stuff away because they never happen. Maybe this would change that. Really interested in the rolled paper vase.
ReplyDeleteI follow you with Google reader.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I'm pretty green most of the time, so I didn't really think how to be green specifically for Mother's Day. Then I remembered that I specifically did not send my mom a paper card - to reduce the paper and CO2 emissions with sending. I created a beautiful e-card (with my daughter's help) and emailed that to her.
ReplyDeleteWe take the metal lids from frozen juice containers to make label tags in the garden!
ReplyDeletealklong at hotmail dot com
gfc follower #1
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gfc follower #2
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twitter follower!
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i am going no power! outside all the way!
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My Mom would love this book!!! She is sooo into changing her junk into something useful lol!!! I think I should learn a thing or two from her!!!
ReplyDeleterckmeade@cogeco.ca
I make candle holders out of empty tomato paste cans. You can cover them with fabric or paper for a more decorative effect.
ReplyDeletecontactlillea at gmail dot com
I have made a tote bag out of old Disney printed sheets!
ReplyDeleteaniwilsonintx at hotmail dot com
I follow now via GFC. #1
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I follow now via GFC. #2
ReplyDeleteaniwilsonintx at hotmail dot com
We were green on Mother's Day by staying home!
ReplyDeleteaniwilsonintx at hotmail dot com
I'm in the process of upcycling old jeans into a quilt. I also reuse soup cans and oatmeal canisters for cute storage.
ReplyDeletelindseythompson83 (at) gmail (dot) com
We are the ULTIMATE garbage pickers! Most of the stuff we find is used in the garden. We found venetian blinds, for instance, and I cut them into 8" strips. I use them for row markers. I write what's growing in each particular row with a sharpie and then draw a little picture. The blinds material takes colored pencil well, so I colored int eh pictures. We have some pretty cool row markers now!
ReplyDeleteohmiss14 at yahoo dot com ☮
On Mother's Day, we converted plastic juice jugs into watering holes for our garden. I merely cut the bottoms off, poked a bunch of holes in the sides, then buried them (bottoms up) about every 5 feet. I can get water to the roots of my plants by pouring it into the jugs. It conserves water because much of the water poured on top of the ground is evaporated. This way, it stays down below the top@
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I'm a GFC follower #1
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I'm a GFC follower #2
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I follow you on Twitter
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ohmiss14 at yahoo dot com ☮
I had a white silk prom dress that was never going to fit me again, helloooo mama hips, so I cut it up and made a halloween costume for my daughter. : )
ReplyDeleteI have done lots more things like that since then but that was my first. : )
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I followed your blog with gfc
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I followed your blog with gfc
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as a student I love to upcycle! My boyfriend and I have found some pretty awesome stuff on the side of the road that we have cleaned up to make our own. We found two wooden mirrors that were all dirty and looked ruined but we washed them up and painted them and they look fabulous now! Its amazing what you can do for free, or for a verry little amount of money!
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I am a follower on GFC (Dawnjane)
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I am a follower on GFC (Dawnjane) #2
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I used a empty tissue box and decorated it with different pastas and spray painted it
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Follow you with GFC - Denise G #1
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Follow you with GFC #2
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follow you on twitter @wishwash1
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I love to recycle, freecycle, and precycle. andreacrandall at hotmail dot com
ReplyDeleteI love upcycling- and would LOVE to win this great book. My fave upcycle is using my old tees to make clothes for my kids. T-shirts make the coziest and cutest dresses, shorts, skirts, etc
ReplyDeletethanks
meangreenmom[at]gmail[dot}com
I'm a gfc follower (entry 1)
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I'm a gfc follower (entry 2)
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On Mothers day me and my girls went to the farmers market and bought some organic veggies- shopping local is one way we are green :)
ReplyDeletemeangreenmom[at]gmail[dot}com
One of my latest upcycle was a open frame and vintage chalkboard that I made into a magnetic perpetual calendar with game pieces and scrabble tiles.
ReplyDeleteI use old jeans for quilts, old tires in the garden to plant strawberries in.
ReplyDeleteI live in the Cariboo, and here we have something called "The Share Shed". It's at our local dump, it has it's on little building. You can leave stuff there or take stuff. We have taken LOADS of stuff there for others to use and we have taken old stuff too. I even found an old rototiller there my husband fixed up for me!
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I am also a blog follower on GFC!
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On Mothers day we didn't use the stove, so we conserved power for the whole day, we made a picnic the day before and had a WONDERFUL stove free day!
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GFC 2
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I use the comics section of the newspaper to wrap gifts! kayvay39 at yahoo dot com
ReplyDeleteRecently I used a turned a half barrel into a cute little planter for my garden and I have my eye on something now... not really sure what it is... but I see some sort of wall hanging happening with it.
ReplyDeletecrystalmarieporter at gmail dot com
I follow you on twitter
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sounds great. we've just started upcycling things at home.
ReplyDeletethis morning on Marilyn Denis's show, there was an upcycling segment. I would love to upcycle some clothing to make some handbags (even grabbing some material at goodwill). my MIL makes those plastic bag ones (braiding them together), and I donate a lot of my bags to her for that.
ReplyDelete-Rach
I follow your blog by "another means"... just remembering to come here often (and Tim and I have a secret crush on you and Joe!)
ReplyDelete-Rach
On Mother's day we went for a hike, got my mom /grandma some shiney rocks as a present and the boys picks me some dandelions from our lawn/garden. no need for flowers shipped from Mexico!
ReplyDelete-Rach
GL to all participants!
My boys and I made crayon pucks from leftover crayon pieces and I made pillow cases from our sheets. I am planning to make a quilt for each of my boys denim (with all our wrecked jeans) on one side and warmer material on the other.
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twitter follower (@freebreeluv)
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