Crafting with recycled items.

button_box

My Mother's mantra in life was, "if you use what you have you will want for nothing" and she used and reused lots of things in her crafts. She would unravel knitted items to knit new items, clothes were remodeled and embroidered to update. My sister and I had the best dressed dollies! She also used this fabric to teach us to sew.

I have a stash of craft items which I am using up but don't want to buy anything new and wondered what items fellow crafters recycle to stretch their budget and stash.

My main crafts are sewn crafts/quilting/ papercrafts and decorative wreath making.

I have listed some of the things I re-use but I am sure others will have ideas I have not thought of.

Clothes and household textiles not worth saving as the original item:- I use for patchwork and quilting and lavender/potpourri bags/ tote bags

We get several calendars from suppliers and I fussy cut pictures to mat and layer on cards or use the whole picture to make small gift bags. The card at the back and sometimes the card envelope they came in can be used as construction card.

I fussy cut greetings cards to make my own toppers.

We get diaries from some of our suppliers and use the Map pages at the back as background papers on cards. I use the ribbon page markers for loads of things.

I have cut leaf shapes from fizzy pop cans to make wreaths (sprayed with paint from stash) I have also embossed sheets of these cans and used to decorate box lids.

I have  some Isopropyl alcohol in the office and plan to try making my own alcohol ink with some felt tip pens and store it in small baking essence bottles.

I have used paint and bubble wrap to print some backing papers for cards.

I am a compulsive gatherer of cones, seed heads and feathers which I use in my wreaths.

So, what other things do others recycle to get their crafting "Fix" for (almost) free?

Liz65

You sound very talented and thrifty.

button_box

Thank-you Liz65 I am thrifty but I am not sure about talented.

My Father died when we were quite young and there wasn't a lot of money to spare, so, my Mum was quite thrifty and showed us how to use what we had for our crafting. I was also a fan of the makes on Blue Peter which tended to use stuff people would have at home. I tend to look at things that might go in the bin to see if I can re-use them.

An Aunt of mine, who was an art teacher, always said, "you are only limited in art and craft by your imagination". 

twopenny

You're art teacher was right - we were shown how to sharpen a stick to use for ink drawing (and of course you can make your own ink )

Thought it was daft at the time as I had access to so many fancy pens and such.

Was brilliant. Really made you think of every mark you made. Very different.

If you unravel woollen sweaters and such you can crochet wreaths and much more. We have some sophisticated yarn bombing in town at the moment

I've decorated a fabric suitcase rim with emulsion paint.

Easy to pick out on baggage reclaim and no one will walk off with it as it's too identifiable.

I did it one night very late before leaving the next morning and it's lasted over 10yrs.

button_box

Love the wreath,twopenny.

I don't do much knitting & crochet but admire the skill of those who do and make a point of going to see the yarn bombing festival in one of our local towns.the exhibits make me smile.

Snowie1949

If my die's for intricate cutting are not coming out properly, I run through bubble wrap. Lay on top of the die. 

Christianne1957

Long switches cut from from overgrown Hazel or Willow bushes in the hedgerows are pretty much perfect for making homemade twiggy wreaths for free. I am also a keen collector of pine cone, acorns, teazels & seedheads!

Strong cardboard boxes cut down and covered in recycled giftwrap to make gift hampers

Prettily coloured autumn leaves can be pressed in the pages  of old books until flat & dry - multiple uses!

Clear glass jars decorated with decoupage cut from pre-used wrapping/tissue  paper or painted with left over paint  become tealight holders 

Baler binding twine from haybales can be made into "pumpkins" (lots of YouTube tutorials)

I'm a bit of a hoarder!

button_box

Thank you @ christianne1957 I hadn't seen the Twine Pumpkins on YouTube and might give them a go. I don't have any sisal baler twine but I do have Orange Polypropylene baler twine. Not sure how easy it will be to work with. Here is a picture of one of the wreathes I made with fizzy pop cans

Christianne1957

That's a really lovely & unique wreath - could I ask to "steal" your idea please? 
Do you use just aluminium cans or are the steel ones okay to work with?
Do you spray with metallic paint to get the colour variations?
Busy painting pine cones for present toppers and displays for Christmas at the moment but it's always good to have another project in mind!
 

button_box

Thanks for your kind words @christianne1957. You wouldn't be stealing my idea because I stole it from a Youtube tutorial! Unfortunately I haven't found it again to send you a link but I will keep looking. Ordinary cans would be too difficult to cut. Aluminium drinks cans can be cut with scissors. Cut the top and bottom off and cut them up the side to open up and then rub them down the side of a table or worktop to straighten them. Just be careful of the sharp metal. I got 2 leaves per can. The youtube post had templates for leaves you could print off and trace onto the can. At this time of year there should be plenty real  leaves you could use as a template. I sprayed mine with copper, pewter and antique gold spray. When you have cut out your leaves you can draw the leaf veins on with a pencil before you spray them. The can metal will mark quite easily. I sometimes run them through my die cutting machine in an embossing folder for other projects. All the offcuts can go in the recycling bin. It took me a while to collect the cans from friends. If the "deposit return scheme" had come in as planned in Scotland I probably wouldn't have got any!  I stuck the leaves (with a hot glue gun) onto a circle of cardboard for the wreath shape.

PS. love the sentiment for your retirement!

Christianne1957

Thank you so much for all the information button_box, it's really helpful.
I'm definitely going to start collecting empty pop cans and once I have a few collected, I am going to have a go at doing this. Such a good idea to use real leaves as templates - I have a stash of pressed leaves in my craft room (once I find them!) to use for templates but I will be on the lookout for some too.  Luckily we live in the countryside so there is a lovely assortment for picking up.
I collected drift wood & sea shells on holiday and would like to make a Christmas tree wall hanging with those too. 
Retirement is brilliant but not enough hours in the day 😄