Container UPCYCLED crafts

 

Ok, today I was a busy bee. I was in my master bathroom when I realized, we REALLY need a bathroom rubbish bin. I starting thinking about going to IKEA and getting one that MIGHT match by bath decor or would fit in the small space in general. My pocketbook started to groan a bit at me. Then I remembered I had a popcorn tin that we had given my partner. (ok. the intent was for him but the kids and I partake before he got home. Sorry, honey!) I decided I would decorate it.

I thought about the covering it with paper from the stationary project that I had done but decided that might be bad idea because it might get damaged in the bathroom. I ended up using and old white cloth shower curtain that I had.

 Now I ended up using Spray adhesive ONLY because it was what I had on hand. I don't think Mod glue or Elmer's would really work well on the metal to be honest. I use the Spray adhesive for my photos so this is  a product I use frequently. In lue of the spray you can just wrap the fabric around twice and then tie in front with a knot to be a bit decorative. It should stay on just as well.

Next I cut it the the same height at the container when folded, because I didn't want the holiday design to show through. I left a two itch variance at the top to give it a seam less look later. I did notice that the glue left a greenish stain in spots where i sprayed to much or it seeped through. But I'm not really concerned about that. Then I sprayed the container and rolled it along the cloth, with the bottom of the rim at the folded edge. Once I was done, I smoothed it down with my hand to make sure that the cloth layed flat on the tin. Next, I folded over the excess top and sprayed the area of the tin beneath them and clipped them down. Here I use clothing pins but any binding clips will work. Just as long as the cloth makes contact with the tin so the glue will stick.

When the glue was dried I removed the clips GENTLY. I then placed a plastic grocery bag in side the container and to keep in place, I fold it over slightly of the edges, wrapped the top with scarf (that just happens to match my bath decor) and wala! It hides the "bag" look and looks still feminine too!

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My bag tot here is actually from a book that I found recently called Big Green Book of Recycled Crafts . I have to admit there are some REALLY cool ideas in here. Some are just, probably won't happen ideas but some I think are adjustable to my style. So I won't lay claim to this creative solution to grocery bags.  I can't tell you EXACTLY what I did because of copyright laws, but I can give you the gist. It took me about 18 bags to do this project. Considering the amount of bags I had, this was still worth it. You fuse 6 or more bags (depending on how thick you want it) together with an iron. You have to place paper under and on top of the bags so they don't melt all over the iron. Next you cut them into pieces. You can make it any size you want. For my bag the bag height was only 12 inches so to make it square I made 2- 12x12 pieces for the front and back, 2- 2x12 pieces for the handles, 3-5 1/2x12 pieces for the sides and bottom. I added the top design (which wasn't in the ordinal instructions) from an iron on t-shirt to emphasize the bag was "earth friendly" now. 

I'm looking forward to other projects in this book. I also found Craftcycle: 100+ Earth-Friendly Projects and Ideas for Everyday Living. I think I might give that one a look over too. I'm still working on my crochet a day projects. With school, I just haven't been able to put as much time into it as I want to. Hopefully, I can get it done soon!  I will post when I have more.

Cheers!

Gin

Slow Cooking CHICKEN WINGS!!!!

Ok. So in an effort to reduce some cost and SSSTTTTTRRREEEETTTTCHHH  that money I spend on meat (I SO need to go back to being vegan, ug!) I purchased a Slow Cooker with my Target Gift card that I got for Hannukah from my parents. I bought a 6-qt Hamilton Beach 33966 Set 'n Forget 6-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker since we have a BIG family. The Programing was a must for me and the Probe for the meat was the decision breaker. I made chicken in the oven one time and a tummy ache later, think I undercooked it. For my FIRST meal, I made Easy Honey BBQ Wings...here is the recpie.

1-large jar of Fry's honey bbq sauce

3-lbs or more chicken wings

1 cup water

Directions: Cut wing tips and and joints to seperate wings. (So one wing will yeld two "wings" similar to what you get in the restraunts.) Place in crockpot. Pour entire bottle of bbq sauce and a cup of water in crockpot. Mix to cover.Cook on Low for 5-6hrs.

The kids LOVED them!!! I only did it for 5hrs, which was good becuase the meat was falling off the bone but that is what the kids loved about these wings. They were juicy and sweet! YUM! 

So far this was a nice introduction to slow cooking. 

Cheers! 

~Gin 

Recontructed T-shirts and Crooked Crochet!

So if you remember I got the Generation T  book and my daughter, Amie, was willing to try some items out. We only really got to one The first thing we did was a bit of dying some things to what we thought was black, but they ended up coming out a sort of purplish gray??? In either case, the results of the new dye jobs that came out were really kewl...I'm sorry. But I don't have any "before" pics only the resulting piece...In this shirt was a bit stained down the front so we dyed it that "black". I cut the neck off and the arms and hemmed all the edges so they were smoother and not jagged. (I've posted picures but if your reading this via Facebook you will need to click the hyperlink that allows you to see the orginal blog to see the photos, i think) So I took a pic of the after project. Front and back. We left the arms the orginal color since they were still rather white.

I rather like how it turned out and Amie even wore it to school. I think we will try some more ideas when we get the chance.

I'm very disapointed in the Crochet CalenderCrochet: 2011 Day-to-Day Calendar that I got. Although I'm not able to get the same yarn on some of the projects I am able to fudge most of them. However, some projects required some highly specialized yarn that I was only able to get from Italy, they do not ship to the US, AND its discontinued. How annoying. I did manage to make the first scarf. It wanted me to use a speclized metlic yarn but I was unable to find anything that would subsistute it so I just got something made with similar materials and the same yarn weight.  What came out was a the green keyhole scarf you see. The reason they call it a keyhole scarf is because it criss crosses through the hole in the middle of the scarf. Its suppose to be alot longer, but I'm not a huge fan of overly long scarfs. Plus, if I was to spread this out you could see the hour glass wobbly effect i had from lack of straight lines. SOmething I feared if I kept at doing crochet by hand. What I think I might do then is stick to my looms and convert the projects with the loom. I might redo this same pattern but with the loom this next time. Right now though, I recently received my sock loom and I'm already starting on learning how to do my socks. I'm following the directins from Isela Phelps  Loom Knitting Socks book as I got one of her families EFG Wonderlooms at DaLooms. I will post pics when I'm done.

This will be a busy month for me with school starting and with all the projects I plan to do to keep me busy. At least I should have plenty of "homemade" presents to give out. :)

Until then!

Cheers!

~Gin

Busy times ahead!!!

SOOOOOO....I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. I can't seem to keep still. In an effort to keep cost down I've been working on making my own things, right? Upcycling and all that jazz. I recently put all the clothes that are too small for my kids in a massive bags in an effort to "reconstruct" them into something they will wear. So far I've scaled down my oldest son's size 16 pants down to a size 6 for his little brother. I also read Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt got some ideas for my daughter on some things to do. However, some of these wear more skin bearing than I would like my 8yr old punk to have. I found the

undated version Generation T: Beyond Fashion: 120 New Ways to Transform a T-shirt was much less skin revealing and would work for my little punk at heart. I've also decided to take a Basic Sewing class at the local community college to help with my so-so sewing skills. I have basic skills now, but I think I want to improve upon them. I saw the school also has clothing construction courses as well. Although I'm not looking to go into fashion design. I figured it wouldn't hurt.

The other think I'm tackling right now is in addition to my classes I need to finish my degree this semester, I've decided to take the gardening class at my school. It's REALLY great because it works with the Arizona's own, Phoenix based, David Owens's books Extreme Gardening: How to Grow Organic in the Hostile Deserts and The Garden Guy: Seasonal Guide to Organic Gardening in the Desert Southwest (Outdoor and Nature). I REALLY recommend his books. STUFF REALLY GROWS!! and I have a brown thumb. I'm looking forward to the class. I'm hoping it will help demystify the whole compost thing and all. Plus, it should help me get my butt back in the backyard.

All this crafty stuff is making me sound like a bored housewife, but there is a method to my madness. I want to eventually get my home to self sufficiency. Growing are own food, making and designing are own clothes from old clothes (you can't beat $1 days at Goodwill plus it shows more our own personality), and lower our overall cost. Once I've mastered the art of needle craft with embroidery, knitting, and crocheting; I plan to move on to growing our own cotton! Arizona is one of the few states in American were we can do this and all in my front yard! I takes a lot of cotton to make a fabric so I figured it would be good for small projects. I'm still trying to work the bugs in my head on that one. I've thought about just getting bunnies for not only their meaty properties but for their fur. I have this book that I'm starting to consider the Bible of Self-sufficiency The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre! as it has TONS of ideas. I've added a link on the side if you want to check it out. Although some things are not conducive to my area and my lot size, however, there are SO many things AND info that I keep this thing by my bedside when an idea pops up in my head.

I know this blog has a lot of links and post. I apologize. I didn't get a chance to take any photos of my recent projects. Right now I'm working on the first crochet project of the year from my Crochet: 2011 Day-to-Day Calendar. I know its a little early, but some project in there are for baby dolls and we don't own one nor does anyone I know keep baby dolls. Plus, I plan to busy this next year with the garden and the sewing of clothes. It looks like 2011 will be a busy year for me. Maybe its the little bit of old Mayan in me that is subconsciously preparing for 12/20/12 and if we turn into some post-apatoplypic world I'll at least have our home prepared. LOL.....I'll still need to get a gun then and I HATE guns, so the worl will just not have to end. lol.

When I get the pictures, will post soon. Problem is right now I have been just completing the projects and forgetting to take the before, during, and after photos. I only have the after! ARG!! I will get organized!
Until then!
Cheers!
~Gin

Who is next??

Ok. So I gave the kids all their presents and they seemed ok with the lower budget gifts. It sucks that we can't do much for Hannukah. I'm hoping that in the future it will get better. Now, for presents for all my friends and family who still celebrate good old X-mas. There is my Mom, my sister, my boyfriend, my best-friend (and her family), my Dad, My stepmom and dad, my boyfriends parents, and the g*d knows who else!

For my mom though, I found this cute Stationary Box video to make my own cute box. In the effort to keep Upcycling I used the same pattern but with old cereal boxes and recycled paper. Then decorated with some scrap paper. I really like how the finished product came out in the end. Although I like the way the cereal box one came out, I think I will send her one that I made using card stock, like in the video. I'll see. I did find though becuase of the size of the boxes. I needed to use at least two cereal boxes to make the product. One for the base and the other for the top and the little compartments. SO if you want to make your own, I would recommend that. Even when I used a giant Cereal box I found I still needed the second box for the top. This wasn't a big issue for my family as we typically go through a box of cereal in one sitting.

I have a few ideas out there. When I get them done (and the respective parties have received them) I will post what I ended up with. Until then, I better get crackelacking (sp?)

Black Fingerless Gloves

My son is all into the "emo" look right now (Teenagers?) so I'm making him these fingerless gloves for Holiday. He's a guitar player so he can even still play his guitar while wearing them. I used the ProvoCraft Knifty Knitter pattern that they have on their website to make these. Feel free to click and try it your self. I used only one yarn as the second yarn might make it look a bit girly. The left one came out a big snuggier then the right one so I think I might do another one since I have extra yarn. He already had a hat to go with it so I won't be making any hats or scarves with it anyways.

I have a few more days to finish everyone's presents for Holiday. So far I've only got three people done! I really need to get on the ball. I'm hoping they will like what I did for them. Oh well.

Yummy Spinach DIP!!!!

My step-mom made this dip not too long ago. Which is a feat in itself since she doesn't cook. I'm not into Spinach dip but this was too good to resist. Its the classic Knorr recepie except it uses the Leek Soup in lue of the Vegetable soup. I've omitted the chestnuts and onions since i just don't like them in my dips.

1 Package of Frozen Spinach (thawed and COMPLETLY drained of water)

16oz of Sour Cream

1 cup of Mayo

1 package of Knorr Leek Soup

Before adding the Spinach, you need to make sure its thawed (not cooked and patted it till try). Mix well and then leave in fridge for at least an hour or two. It taste better chilled.

YUMMY AND ENJOY with your favorite potato chips