Blog Action Day-the environment

So I have read a bit about this, here and there. I even tried to sign up, but was a little late. I tried to copy the html code to put it on my blog myself. But I was unsuccessful.
This is all about the blogging community working together for one day to focus on a topic: the environment.
I wrote a little bit about what my thoughts were on "going green" here.
Before I read Ali Edwards blog today, I had the thought of sharing this. And her blog thoughts were along the same as mine.
I love to make things.
My kids love to make things.
We have lots of leftovers from making things.
We also eat, a lot.
We have a lot of trash leftover from making things to eat.
Where we live, recycling is not as easy as it was in OR.
SOOO
in keeping with the motto of
"use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" (aka: reduce, reuse, recycle)
here are a few of my favorite "green" crafty items.
One I already blogged about here: creative juice (ribbon straps)

The next 2 can be adapted to so many different ideas.

We go through a lot of cd's here in this house. We burn them, they don't turn out. They get scratched. I tried making a mini photo album out of them once. But it did not turn out so well. (anyone that has instructions to make one, please let me know)
I wanted a birthday banner. I wanted something I could reuse over and over whenever we celebrated a birthday. I wanted something that I would not just wad up and put in the trash.
So I came up with the CD birthday banner.





I found a cute circle template from Martha Stewart.
Colored and cut them. Covered the CD's, and pasted the letters onto them. Then punched out holes with an eyelet punch. Pretty easy.

The next one I used last year as the containers for my "favorite things" Christmas gifts. I am covering more this year for other uses.





These were large cans, but you could use any size can.
You take printed napkins, and peel them apart. They usually have 2-3 layers. Cover the can in Modge-podge, and put the napkin with the print on top. Let it dry, then add another coat of Modge-podge.
If you use a napkin with a lot of white in it(first can), or with a white background, the metal shines through. If you don't have a lot of white in the napkin,(2nd can) it still looks pretty and the overall effect is metallic. We punched holes in them, and added wire for a handle.
My friends, Donna, and April, had the idea to use these for trick or treat buckets, or for birthday baskets, the possibilities are endless!

Now my last one for today.
This idea came from Kim and I found the directions here. Its great to use up extra bits of ribbon, and all of the lunch sacks that we don't use anymore.
I needed a cute little something to send with Savanna for the girls in her cabin at camp.

The way this is made, you end up with pockets that you can add a little something inside. For the girls I put in small Halloween packages of candy.

Well that is it for the day. Kind of a long post, but there are so many possibilities. Once your mind gets going, you just keep coming up with more and more ideas for projects!

"use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" (aka: reduce, reuse, recycle)