So Many Uses for Those Used Dryer Sheets!

For the times when line drying your clothes just won't do, it's likely that you toss a fabric softening sheet into the dryer along with your wet clothes.  When your clothes are all dry, you likely toss that used sheet into the trash (well except for the ones that stick to your clothes in somewhat obtrusive places).  What else are you going to do with it, right?  Believe it or not, there are a ton of options!

Here's a great list of things you can do with old dryer sheets to keep your home spic and span and smelling fabulous.  To that list, here are a couple of other crafty things you can make with them.

1.  Make a ghostly plant stake for Halloween.  Simply place a ball shaped bunch of batting (or, as in this case - dryer lint) and tie it off around a bamboo skewer. 

2. Handmade Mamas has another really cute ghost craft using gauze, but I think you could easily substitute a dryer sheet.

3.  Sew up a sachet for the lingerie drawer and toss in some dried up buds from the garden.  If you use scented dryer sheets you won't have to worry about adding your fragrant flower buds as the dryer sheet will still hold on to some of its own scent.  Add a little scrap of fabric and viola!

 

Do you reuse your dryer sheets?  Tell us how below in the comments!

Wordless Wednesday Featuring an Upcycled Project By Mom (I'm so Proud!)

Making a Staked Butterfly from a Soda Can

Last week my Facebook Fans voted for my next tutorial and they chose the butterflies made out of aluminum beverage cans.  So I set right to work on a series of YouTube videos to walk them through the entire process.  In all, I ended up with three videos that I hope you'll enjoy!

 

The First video is a simple review of how to cut an aluminum can without stabbing yourself

The second video is the nitty gritty of cutting your butterflies and assembling them on the stake

And finally, add a little paint and embossing to finish off the look

Be sure to add any tips and tricks that you have below, I'd love more ideas!  Have fun.

Wordless Wednesday Featuring a Very Rainy Prelude to Autumn

Advice from a Novice

It's been almost a year since I started to toy with the idea of Upcycling as a craft and second income and even less than that in the art/craft festival scene.  So, I may not have a ton of experience with which to qualify as a person to seek advise from.  But I have learned a thing or two that has helped me increase my festival sales and I know I have readers who are just getting started or are at least thinking about it.  With that in mind, I'd like to share the three most important lessons that I've learned so far:

1.  If you sell something special find a way to tell people without actually saying a word.  When people walk by my booth they see yet another vendor selling jewelry. And if they aren't in the market for jewelry it's hard to get them to stop.  What they don't realize is that my jewelry is made out of trash.  While I find it very complimentary that people don't see the difference in my beads and those that one would find in the craft store, it would be nice to have shoppers stop and look.  I struggled for a long time to figure another way to tell people just how different my stuff was from every other vendor, I mean other than installing a neon sign outside my booth. Well, I'm happy to say that I found my "neon sign."  Remember that grand shutter display that I used chalkboard paint on?  Adding the simple words "made from newspaper, magazines and soda cans" has drawn an increasing number of people to my booth and not just women!  There are so many husbands who stop now and pull their wives in to look when they read my display.

2.  Square up!  If you aren't set up to accept credit cards do it now!!  I can't count the number of times that I made or increased a sale because I would take a credit card.  And, yes, people are Christmas shopping already and the ability to accept credit cards will start driving that traffic now.  Square Up is great little gadget that is only a 1" square piece of plastic that acts as a credit card reader when plugged into your iPhone or Droid.  It's free to sign up, you don't pay monthly fees, the equipment is free and you only pay a small percentage when you accept a payment just like Paypal...except that you're money is deposited into your designated bank account much quicker and automatically!  I can not recommend it highly enough.

3. A mending kit is a must!  In one day, I adjusted the length of three bracelets for customers who needed a little more room.  As a result, I made three sales that I would not have made otherwise.  And that was just on that one particular day.  I make adjustments pretty regularly as well as change clasps and earwires (when someone needs hypoallergenic wires).  As a bonus, you make a very happy customer when you are willing to make their purchase just right for them.

Like I said, I'm a novice so take the advice with a grain of salt and please DO leave a comment below and share your secrets to success with everyone else.

Wordless Wednesday Featuring a Little Fun with Beverage Cans

Paper Beads Out of Just About Anything

A few months ago I started to experiment with making paper beads out of packaging material; from frozen food containers to feminine hygiene packaging, you name it I've tried it.  And it's created some really cool pieces, like this necklace made from a Tampax box.  However, I often found that the pieces of the cardboard would separate making the rolling process more of a challenge than I like.  I decided one day to stop fighting it and happy that I had because I ended up with a finished product that looked like this bracelet.

To achieve this sleeker look I had to peel the layers of the cardboard apart which means that I have a mass quantity of cardboard shreds sans color that I was going to have to chuck into the recycle bin.  I did not like this idea, so I came up with a better way to use those bland cardboard strips in my paper bead making endeavors.  Check out this two part tutorial on YouTube to see what I did.



First how to get your cardboard strips and roll those beads:

And now to add a little color and glaze those puppies:

Have fun and post below to tell me how you used your paper beads!

Wordless Wednesday Featuring a Cassette Storage Riser/Mending Kit

I picked up two of these at a yard sale; one for cash the other for supplies

The two make great risers for the necklace stands in the back of the table!

OLD Shutters Turned Jewelry Display Rack

I kicked off a pretty busy month of fairs and festivals this weekend at the Simpsonville Labor Day Family Festival.  In preparation I pulled together a fun little display for my upcycled jewelry out of two old shutters, I was pretty proud of it, what do you think?

Here's what they looked like when I picked 'em up for $10 from Craigslist:

 

Besides being filthy, there were big chunks of wood missing.  So, off to the hardware store for wood putty and hinges.  After applying the wood putty I ran over the surface of the shutters with a few different grits of sandpaper and had something that looked likes this:

Then I added a couple coats of spray paint (using my Goodwill sheet as a drop cloth):

Destiny has to be the center of attention ALL the time

Added a couple hinges and some shelf brackets to keep the display from falling backward while customers were browsing and viola!

Well, ALMOST viola!  I then decided that I wanted to be able to write right on the display so I added some chalkboard paint across the top of each shutter.


And ladies....I did it all by myself - ez peazy! Want to learn from my mistakes?  OK!  I was so careful to make sure that the slats of my shutters were all facing upward (so that my product would hang from them) that I didn't realize that one of my shutters was backwards.  So, while the slats were facing the right way it was still upside down and you can tell if you compare the trim along the top; one side is thicker than the other.  But really, who's going to notice?  If they do, I'll just tell them it was artistic liberty!

What else would I change?  Definitely by the time I hit the Apple Harvest Festival in Westminster, SC next weekend, I'm going to cover the entire trim with chalkboard paint.  There's just something about chalk!

Give it a try and then post a link to a picture of yours below!  Good luck and happy upcycling!