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

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!