Recycle 2008: Idea 2

Well a little later than originally planned, here's Idea 2 of my 2008 Recycling project- you can see idea 1 here. As I didn't manage to publish one in February, I will try to fit two in this month.

This project is about re-using something I always have a lot of- glass jars.

I use them for lots of things already- tea light holders, water for painting, vases for flowers like these:



And here are just a few of the ideas I found on the Thrifty Fun website:

Craft storage, Gifts in a jar, Mix recipes, glass paint, Terrariums and a change jar.

In the past I've also made a memory jar as a cheap and easy Valentine's Day present for my fiancé. I filled it full of little bits of paper with memories written on them like the moment he proposed and the skydive we did a few years ago.

Idea 2
I took some of my favourite fabric scraps, cut them to size (the circumference of the jar plus a bit) and ran them through my trusty Xyron sticker maker. I stuck them on the jar et voila, a pretty candle holder! You could go a little further and add pretty trims and buttons.
You could also use ribbon, lace and how about fabric selvedges?

Here's how it looks with a tea light inside:



Let me know if you make any yourselves and share the picture in the comments. And tell me what other ideas do you have to reuse glass jars?

Note: Be careful when using these as tea-light holders. Use the same caution you would whenever you use candles- don't leave them unattended and place them on a suitable surface.

Recycle 2008: Idea 1

So here's my new project for 2008. I'm going to attempt to come up with a way of recycling/reusing something from my household recycling box every month and share it with you here.

Maybe predictably, my first idea is around recycling Christmas cards. I would normally put them in a collection box in the Supermarket or my normal recycling bin but this year I thought I'd try and think of some other ways of using them.

Before I jump into idea 1 of Recycle 2008, here are some ways other people have recycled Christmas cards:

• Christmas ornaments by Martha Stewart
• Coasters
• Boxes
• And ATCs like the ones I did here

Idea 1
My mantlepiece is looking a bit empty now all the decorations and Christmas candles have gone so I thought this would help liven it up a bit. The same could be said for any walls, book shelves or other such surfaces in your house. But I thought that as I had a spare shadow frame, it would look good standing on the mantlepiece.

All I did for this was use a hole punch to punch holes in a card, the multi coloured circles were then stuck to the shape of a bird I'd already cut out from the other half of the card. Then I cut out a tree shape from yet another bit of Christmas card. I put it all together using little sticky foam pads, put it in a frame and there you go. A pretty piece of art for the mantlepiece.


[click photo to view in full size on flickr]

Of course I still have lots of cards left so I need some more ideas to use them up, any thoughts?