Greenworks

One thing I'd like to do this month is repurpose some cardboard and paper from my recycling bin; this stack here consists of two somewhat dented clothing inserts, a 2017 calendar insert, a lidless chip box and the view-panel sleeve my new laptop skin came in. I have no idea what I'll make out of them, but I figure one project per week should be a decent challenge.

Her are some stats from the EPA on recycling:

In 2014, in the United States, about 258 million tons of MSW (municipal solid waste) were generated. Over 89 million tons of MSW were recycled and composted, equivalent to a 34.6 percent recycling rate. In addition, over 33 million tons of MSW were combusted with energy recovery and 136 million tons were landfilled.

In 2014, 89.5 percent of corrugated boxes were recycled. About 61 percent of yard trimmings were composted. Organic materials such as paper and paperboard, yard trimmings and food were the largest component of MSW generated. Paper and paperboard accounted for over 26 percent, and yard trimmings and food accounted for another 28.2 percent. Plastics comprised about 13 percent of MSW; rubber, leather and textiles accounted for over nine percent; and metals made up nine percent. Wood followed at over six percent, and glass over four percent. Other miscellaneous wastes made up approximately three percent of the MSW generated in 2014.

Recycling and composting of MSW results in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction. In 2014, the 89 million tons of MSW recycled and composted provided an annual reduction of over 181 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, comparable to the annual emissions from over 38 million passenger cars." (You can find the entire report by clicking here.)

My tiny town has started weekly recycling pick-ups, so I could just dump everything in the bin now, but I think it's still important to find new ways to reuse things. Recycling anything costs money for hauling, sorting, storing and processing. Repurposing costs little to nothing, and allows you to make something yourself versus buying it new, so you can also save money.

You don't have to make a huge art project out of recyclable materials, either. For example:

1. Instead of buying note pads or shopping lists, save whatever you print out, flip it to the blank side and stack it in a clipboard -- instant scratch paper. You can also cut it down to a smaller size and stack it in an open box.

2. If you have a shredder, you can shred your junk mail and use it as packing material for the next package you ship.

3. Keep a used envelope to store coupons for your next trip to the market. These also make great holders for lottery tickets, extra bookmarks, sticker sheets, or anything flat.

There are plenty of resources online to help you, too. Here's a blog post by Francesco Mugnai about projects made from recycled cardboard that is particularly fabulous (I love the chandelier and the cat furniture).

In the weeks ahead I'll report back on my repurposing projects as I finish them, and show you what I did to reuse the materials.

Recomposition Book #1

Before I get into the details of my first composition book makeover, I should explain the slightly-off weirdness of the pictures I took. On the day I started this project the little video display window on the fancy new Nikon my guy bought me last year stopped working. Basically I had to point the camera and shoot blind, then download the pictures before I knew how they came out. Fortunately Target has a very nice return policy; they took back the camera and gave me a brand-new replacement without a bit of fuss.

Onto the project: for this one I kept it very simple and uber-green by raiding the paper recycling bin for two pieces of the thin cardboard (mine were inserts from two of the wall calendars I bought for this year), a wallpaper border remnant, and a piece of pretty scrapbook paper. I also used a paper trimmer, scissors, a small paintbrush and some washable school glue:



The covers of the composition book are really flimsy card stock, so I needed to reinforce them first. I cut the two cardboard pieces to fit the front and back covers, glued them on, and let the notebook dry overnight (and to keep everything from warping I sandwiched the notebook between two bigger, much heavier books):



I fit the wallpaper border remnant as the outside cover for both the front and back covers, and folded the ends over inside before I glued that on and left it to dry overnight:



I then covered the insides of the front and back covers with pieces of the scrapbooking paper, glued that down, and left that to dry overnight:



Here's the end result:



I liked how elegant the composition book looks now, and it's certainly sturdier. I was especially happy to finally use that wallpaper border remnant, which is one I found when we moved into this house (the previous owner's wife had them decorating the ceilings in practically every room.) I also didn't have to cut the wallpaper to fit; it was the perfect size for the covers.

More recomposition idea linkage:

Dream a Little Bigger has a tutorial here on how to re-cover a composition book.

Ashley Hackshaw has a post here about turning a composition book into an art journal.

Ellison Lane has directions here on how to sew a quilted cover for a composition book.

Momtastic has instructions here on how to give a composition book a chalkboard cover.

Recomposition

One project I started but never finished last year was making over a standard school composition book. I got as far as buying the materials before work dragged me away. It's actually good that I stayed too busy to go back to it, as my initial idea was pretty complicated. While doing some pre-spring cleaning in the office this week I found these two extras:



The composition book, also known as a copy book, study book, student book and a lot of other regional terms, is one of the few things I loved about school. I always had one with me, and they often kept me out of trouble. After using the first couple of pages for schoolwork I would devote the rest of the pages to journaling, short stories and even some sketches. I wouldn't have wasted the first pages except they made excellent camouflage for when the teacher would walk by my desk (which is how they kept me out of trouble.) I still get a warm, fuzzy feeling every time I see one. I think my mom used to buy them for five or ten cents each.

Composition books remain pretty cheap; I always see them at dollar stores, and the two I have here I got on sale at Target last January for fifty cents each. Let's see what I can do with them this week to make them less schoolgirlish and more fun.

Wall Calendar Keeper

If you'd like to recycle your beautiful old picture wall calendars, here's a way to make them into pocket keeper books, where you can save things you don't want to lose, get dinged, etc.

For this project you'll need an old wall calendar, a single hole punch, scissors, double-sided tape, and three 12" to 18" lengths of ribbon, yarn or string. You can also use a paper trimmer if you have one large enough to accommodate your calendar, and staples or glue in place of the double-sided tape:



First, remove the two staples holding your calendar together, and separate it into the six pages plus the cover:



Cut each page in half along the spine line. You will end up with twelve pages and two cover pages:



Place each page picture-side down, and fold up the bottom up to form the pocket for each signature (top page below). To know that you've got a page in the proper position, the little holes in the calendar that you used to hang it on your wall should be at the top of every page, with an upside-down calendar grid facing up (the back cover page will not have that litte hole, however.) The size of the pocket is determined by how much you fold over. Once you've done this, fold the page in half to form a signature (bottom page below):



When you're finished folding all your pages and covers, you should have a pile of pocketed signatures like this:



With your single hold punch, make three evenly-spaced holes along the spine fold of each signature:



Once you've punched holes in all your signatures, open each one and apply a short piece of double-sided tape to the inside of the pocket fold, where I've indicated below in red, then refold. The tape will seal the sides of each pocket:



Assemble your signatures in a stack, and remember to put them in the order you want them in your keeper. I used the signatures I made from the covers for the first and last pages, as the covers are a bit thicker than the rest of the calendar and make nice covers for the keeper.

Thread your ribbons through each hole in every signature, leaving enough so that you can tie the ends together once it's through all the signatures:



Knot all three of your ribbons (and if you open your keeper to the middle when you place it down before you tie it, this will help prevent you from tying the ribbons too tightly):



And you end up with a keeper that looks like this:



And when you open it, like this between signatures:



What can you keep in your keeper? Anything you want to save that fits in the pocket. A keeper can store your bookmarks, photos, and greeting cards:



Postage stamps or clipped recipes:



Laces, ribbons and paper, sewing or mixed media ephemera:



It's a great way to keep notes, journal pages or receipts, too:



I think the nice thing about this project is that you don't waste any part of the calendar. I made four of these in one day, so it's easy, too:



Some other ideas:

Combine two calendars to make a bigger keeper book.

Instead of using ribbon, try small binder rings.

Punch corresponding holes in pieces of notepaper, and stack them between the signatures to make pages you can write on.

If you're feelings really ambitious, don't punch the holes or use ribbon, and instead coptic-stitch your signatures together.

Label each pocket with a month of the year and use the keeper to store any deductible receipts for tax time.

Recycled Gift Wrap 3

I'm pretty sure most of you thrifty souls out there already know this way to recycle a handled store bag into a gift bag, but I'll show how I do it just in case there's still someone out there throwing them away. For this extremely easy project you'll need a handled paper store bag, a picture, old Christmas card or pretty paper to cover the bag logo, tape or glue or double-stick tape, and some scissors for any necessary trimming.

I brought this store bag home when I bought a gift at Bath & Body Works (and I always save their bags to recycle them because they're clean, usually unwrinkled, and all around nice to work with):



All you have to do with a store bag like this is cover up the logo with a seasonal image that has matching or complimentary colors. Here's a pic I printed out, trimmed, taped over the logo and also used it as the gift tag:



Or to make it a double-recycled bag, use the front of an old Christmas card to cover the logo:



Be creative with what you use as your cover image. A family photo would be terrific -- or how about a photo of the recipient instead of a gift tag? This is also a great project for kids, who can draw or color the cover pic for the bag.

For this one I salvaged this piece of holgraphic card stock with a beautiful snow flake from an old origami kit box:



You can also layer pics and things, like this variation with a piece of holographic paper and a snowflake I cut out from bond paper:



New gift bags can be costly, so every time you recycle a store bag this way you'll definitely save $$$. Get into the habit of saving your store bags, and you'll always have one ready to recycle for those times when you run out of wrapping paper, or have a hard-to-wrap gift, too.

Recycled Gift Wrap 2

Okay, deadline done and I'm back. To continue with my posts on how to make your own gift wrap by recycling paper and some other items you may have around the house, today I'll show you how to turn a plain brown bag into a neat gift container.

For this project you will need a small brown paper bag, a sheet of white paper, tape, and scissors. Some optional items to use: double-stick tape, glue, stapler, old flat Christmas ornament or a small candy cane. I got this bag when I bought some cards at the market:



Accordion-fold the top of your paper bag six or seven times:



Place your gift or treat inside the bag now, and then fold the top accordion fold you've made in half, to form a fan shape:



Tape the back of the two sides of the top fold together (you can also staple them if you want):



Cut a snowflake out of your white paper (if you don't know how, Martha Stewart has a photo gallery with simple instructions here) and tape (or glue) to the front of your bag:



You can add a little candy cane on top of the snowflake as extra decoration:



Or use an old Christmas ornament:



You can do this with just about any size plain paper bag; all it has to be is flat at the top so you can fold it. It also makes a neat, inexpensive party-favor bag during the holidays, birthdays or any special occasion.

Recycled Gift Wrap 1

This week I'll show you how to make your own gift wrap by recycling some old paper, sacks, and shopping bags, and using a few ordinary things you probably have around the house:



We'll start with the big sheets of paper on the bottom, which is old, wrinkled newsprint that a store employee wrapped around some glass jars I bought. Usually people throw this away, but it's actually great paper to recycle as gift wrap.

For this you will liquid food coloring, water, and (optional) an old clean sponge, and a small plastic cup. First, spread out some old newspaper to protect your work area. Since we'll be using food coloring to dye the paper, you may also want to put down some plastic or protective sheeting under the newspaper to prevent the colors from bleeding through the paper and staining your surface (I used the old metal table on our porch as my work surface, as it can't be stained.)

Wet your paper (which will immediately remove all wrinkles and creases from it) and spread it out on the newspaper:



Dribble some drops of food coloring directly onto the wet paper:



Add some dribbles of another color:



As you work the colors are going to spread like watercolor paint. Now add a third color. If you want more control over where the color goes on the paper, apply with a sponge, as I did here with the blue:



Also, if you'd like to add a subtle pattern of circles, apply the color by dipping the rim or bottom of a small plastic cup into your food coloring, as I did here on another sheet with the red:



Which turns out like this:



Let your paper dry for about an hour, and it will be ready to use:



Some other tips:

If you don't want to get food coloring stains on your fingers, wear plastic gloves as you work.

Carefully lift and tip the wet paper back and forth to help the colors spread.

For lighter colors, dilute your food coloring with a little water.

Mini Quilt Recycled Watercolor Journal

My fifth and final project for Recycled Journal Week began with this mini quilt I picked up at a show some years back:



It's made of wool, and really too small to be anything other than decorative, so I thought it would make a great cover for a little pocket watercolor journal. I went into my painting drawer and found a pad with a few sheets of unused 140 lb. watercolor paper leftover from a painting class I took, and then grabbed some old wrapping paper from the recycle bin:



First I cut my wrapping paper to size as end papers, and then tore the watercolor papers from the pad and trimmed off the preforations:



I then folded everything into signatures:



I didn't want to use the sewing machine for binding the signatures as that would show on the outside of the quilt. I dithered around for about an hour at this point because I didn't have a lot of other options -- and even though about going out to buy some sort of binder clip piece to use -- and then while I was straightening up the sewing room I found some leftover ribbon and decided to use that as the binding.

To do that I first punched two holes in the signatures:



I took two long pieces of the scrap ribbon, threaded them through a tapestry needle, and drew them through the signature holes on both ends:



I then used the needle to work both ends of the ribbons through the mini quilt in the center:



Once I knotted the ribbons and tied them together everything was bound nicely:



I also left enough slack in the ribbon while I was knotting it to allow the pages to stay flat:



The finishing touch was a piece of stiff, heavy cardboard to tuck in the pages, which will support them as I work in the journal:



This project taught me that I can come up with a solution to a problem (just not instantly) and that sticking to my objective is worth a little dithering. Total project time: 4 hours.

This has been a fun week for me. As you may remember I started out with this collection of unused stuff:



Without spending a dime on new materials I turned the stuff (plus an extra calendar) into these six handmade journals:



You can do this too, you know. Look around your home, see what unused junk and paper you have sitting around, and apply some imagination to transform it into your own unique recycled journal.