Says Shruthi and it truly is a subject close to my heart.

My worst nightmare is all the trash collecting to heaps  and humankind drowning in it. Before throwing things, I try my hand on turning them in to something that can be reused. Some of these are imitation of what serious crafters have done, some are my versions of what I read.

I would like to dedicate all these projects to my wonderful glue gun without which many of these projects would not have been possible. My colleague encouraged me to get a glue gun and once I used it there was no turning back. Spread news papers to cover working surface, gather the materials and lock ‘n’ load glue gun, every single time I feel like Laura Croft 🙂

Created so far…..

CD Many Ways

(1)CD Coasters1: Children’s art work on one side(cut to size and laminated) and left over flannel scraps on the other side. A birthday gift for the children’s teacher.

CDArt1

CDArt1

(2)CD Coasters2: I am having a serious love affair with burlap these days. I have been saving the burlap bags in which they sell rice. The big idea was to make a bag. But considering my non existent needle skills, I decided to turn them in to coasters. I loved the result. Especially the coasters that show tamil letters and words such as INDIA and IDLY put a smile on my face.

BurlapCoasters

BurlapCoasters

(3)CD Coasters3: I made some ‘very Indian’ art work on these CDs. I had to sand and prime the CDs for the acrylic paint to stick on the CDs. The big idea is to make these in to ornaments for the children’s teacher’s christmas tree.

CDArt

CDArt

(4)Another CD project: The girls painted a ready made bird house(thanks Reva) and I just added this to the birdhouse and hung it.

CDBirdHouse

CDBirdHouse

Gerber Bottle Many Ways
(1)It’s A Boy Party Favor: R’s nephew had a baby boy in May and I mailed these party favors for their baby announcement. I sterilized the bottle and the lids, painted the lids, added some IT’S A BOY ribbon and buttons on the top.

ItsABoy

ItsABoy

(2)Party Favors-Candle and Candy Jars: We had so much baby food bottles that I was looking for something else to do with it and I stumbled on this. Loved it. The candle votive holders looked really pretty with vibrant yarn. But I decided to use the left over baby blanket/sweater yarn I had.

PartyFavors

PartyFavors

Tetra Pak Containers – Tetra Paks cannot be recycled or composted. I try to buy the gallon cans, but sometimes,  cannot avoid tetra paks. When I throw them in to the trash can, I feel guilty. I saw this simple project in FamilyFun magazine. All it requires is hardy scissors and sticky back velcro. I use these as food containers, especially when I want to give a friend some food without having to chase the person to get my containers back.

TetraPakContainers

TetraPakContainers

Brown Bags To Envelopes: I carry my own bags for bringing back groceries, but paper grocery bags tend to collect over a period of time. Brown bags are pretty hardy and are perfect for little hands that learn to wield a brush. But the girls are grown up and want real paper for painting. So I converted my collection of brown bags to envelopes.

GroceryBagEnvelope

GroceryBagEnvelope

Fuse Bead Greeting Cards: The girls do fuse bead work. We have a ton of fuse bead art work, which I am turning in to hand made greeting cards.

FuseBeadCards

FuseBeadCards

Soup Can Pencil Holders and Big Metal Can Planters: This is just for home use and I used them as is.

CanHolders

CanHolders