Wednesday, February 24, 2010

More plastic and glass...

I finally got a few pictures taken of some of the bottles I've painted.

Strawberry vines, New Orleans street tile letters and sheep jumping over the fence

Here is a plastic bag that I tried to paper piece like you would a quilt...
Unfortunately I don't know how to paper piece a quilt, so I just made it up as I went and it shows. It was a learning experience and the bag is actually really good to take to the beach! It's all plastic on the outside and lined with some fabric I had left over from another project.

The iron was put to good use this weekend and the sewing machine got pulled out after a long rest. It's amazing what just a little break from something will do in terms of increased productivity when you come back to it! A nice little stack of projects were completed Sunday night.
Completing projects has not always been a strength of mine. But no more! I finish things and it feels wonderful!

More on those "finished things" soon...

Until then, Blessings!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Functional Recycled Art

Good morning!

As I mentioned earlier, reusing ordinary/cast off items to make something beautiful and functional is what I really enjoy. Here are some projects i've dabbled in.

Aside from fusing plastic, I've done some painting on glass bottles (that would have gone into the recycling bin), made books using recycled paper and cereal/tea/hot cocoa/etc. boxes, and skirts from pillowcases.
This is a peek at a jar I painted as a container for tea bags for my mom. I believe it was a pickle jar in its previous life!
This was a banner made for a friend using printer paper that was in the recycle pile. I left the printed side facing out for an extra touch (the text had a 'special' meaning to the banner recipient!).

More pictures coming soon. Writing about it has me inspired to work on some new projects!

Blessings!

Fusing Plastic

The next few posts will be projects that were done within the last year or so.

For some time, I worked with fusing plastic bags (ones from the grocery store). The recycling/reusing and making something so bad for the environment into something useful and beautiful really appealed to me. Unfortunately, the fumes heated plastic put off, were not as enjoyable.
This was one of the first bags. It's a little clutch with ruffles along the edge and some embroidered embellishments.

More recycled art soon...

Until then, happy Saturday and Blessings!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Hello there!


I've just started blogging, and I hope for this to be a place to record crafting goodness and to meet some other crafty folks!

Some recent goings on...

These are some table decorations I made for a friends baby shower. The theme was bumble bees!
The other decorations included tissue paper balls for the windows and paper cut to make clouds and giant bumble bees for the walls. The tables had simple yellow and blue dots (the centers cut from paper plates).

I had such a fun time putting it all together! Hopefully I'll get the opportunity to do some more decorating in the future.

Blessings!