Friday Finds: Repurposing Empty Prescriptions

Over on my facebook fan page,  Shannon T asked me if I had any craft project ideas to use empty prescription bottles.  I'm working on coming up with a tutorial for another way to use these for crafting, but in the meantime I found these ideas on the web. 

Before re-purposing your prescription bottles, remove the labels and wash them out.  You want to remove any of the medication residue that may be clinging to the plastic bottle.

If you'd rather recycle them, check out Jacob Willard's project

Pill Bottle Explosion Lamp

Make them into a lamp.  Instructables will show you how

Make a "Hide a Key" from Make Online

Blessings Overflowing blog will show you how to make them into decorative first aid kits

Families Online has a rain gauge tutorial

Craftstylish shows you how to make a thread keeper/cutter with a repurposed pill bottle

Pepper Paints will show you how to make your own watercolor paints which she stores in film canisters, but you could use pill bottles.

Make some noise!  WonderHowTo.com has an instructional video using a pill bottle to create an airhorn.  Could be fun for those sporting events!


Turkey Call? Here's the how to from Field & Stream
and here's a video of one in use:

Friday Finds

We're back with Friday Finds where I'm sharing fun, interesting and informative things I've found this week on the web.

Thread Banger has some of the best how to videos that I've found on the web!   Here's a great one for making a dress from Tshirts.  It's even got pockets!

Here's another re purpose T project for turning your old Ts into new halter tops.  Come on sunshine!:



Bicyclists, how about an upcycle wallet from one of your old innertubes?  Instructables will show you how!

Need a heavy duty bag.  Why not try upcycling some old jeans for this denim tote from Crafting a Green World

A quick n easy upcycle for plastic bags:  Make a fused plastic drink coaster from Cut Out And Keep

Oh I like this one!  Make some cushy spa slippers by upcycling an old pair of flip flops (We called those thongs when I growing up)  and an old bath towel  Crafty Nest will take you through each step!

Photo: Kayte Terry

This is one for you if your more mechanical.  You can make quite a beautiful lamp from a cd spindle.  (I'll have to see if I can convince Ben to help me with this project.


How about turning those colorful magazines that you've got stashed for a future project into useful and pretty boxes.  Abstract Octopus takes you through a step by step tutorial to make your own!

Are you a bibliophile?  Why not repurpose an interesting hardback book into a handbag.  Curbly shows you how:


Wow!  I'm absolutely fascinated by this.  Did you know could build a solar heater with aluminum cans and a few other items?  Me either, but I found this while surfing this week. If 10 year old, Rashel Cortez can do it, then it can't be too difficult!  Check this out.  Could be the answer for an outbuilding, green house or shed.  I'm thinking if my studio were heated with something like this I may even venture up there in the winter months.


Well that's all I've got for you today.  Enjoy these crafty and useful ways to get a second use from everyday items.  Drop me a line if you have some sites you'd like to share in a future Friday Finds post.  I'm looking for your DIY tutorials for green projects and upcycle crafts.  Just click on my photo below for email.

Thanks!

Friday Finds

This week for Friday Finds I've been looking for things you can do with cans, both aluminum and tin cans.  Of course most municipalities have curbside pick up for cans, some states even have a deposit to return cans and bottles.  Recycling is a great option, but the 3 Rs are Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, so I always like to find interesting and fun ways to reuse items before they go into the recycle bin.

Here's a neat one from Little House in the Suburbs to make these leaf ornaments from aluminum cans.  There are more photos over on the site and they look beautiful adorning her holly bush

10th Muse Studios used the same concept to show us all how to make some cute pop can flower magnents at her blog

The new new blog has a great tutorial to use aluminum cans for pendants and jewlery. 

This one's not a tutorial, but it's a fabulous Haute Coutoure dress made from all kinds of recycled materials including cans, labels, bottles and bags.  I surely wouldn't want to wear it, but it's always neat to see this artistic visions done with recycled materials.  I wonder how much this dress weighs??

Susan Beal at Craft Stylish has shared her idea to recycle cans along with wire and beads to make pretty little hanging baskets for a spring birthday or garden party.  I love this idea your decorations are recycleable and reusable and living flowers!  Great idea Susan!

Remember May Day when you were a young girl?  I do!  I loved making those little paper baskets and filling them with whatever flowers were within my reach.  I wonder if those neighbors ever asked themselves how many of the flowers in my little May Day gift basket were harvested in their own yard?  :0)

Here's another use for a recycled can from Skip To My Lou.  You can do this one with your own children or grandchildren and pass the tradition of May Day on to a new generation, while teaching a valuable lesson in recycling and reuse too!

Lady Gaga actually wore hers out and about, but you can use cans as hair rollers to form big beautiful curls.

Martha Stewart has a really cute "robot dog" idea that you can make from tin cans.  He's even got little roller feet, so your little ones can take him for a walk!  Very very cute!

You can even make your own camp out cook stove with these video instructions!

I'm sure there are a lot more fun, useful and intersting ways to repurpose cans.  Do you have some good ideas or links for this type of project?  Share them with us in the comments!

Friday Finds

This week I've been thinking a lot about all those plastic bottles.  We try to buy things in glass whenever we have a choice, but so much of what we use comes in plastic bottles.... juice, syrup, mayonaise.... seems like almost everything is packaged in plastic bottles!  Fortunately our area has an extensive curbside recycling program that includes many types of plastic, but even still I thought it might be fun to look at some plastic bottle reuse craft projects.

Building Nemo
Here's a fun one for the kids that I found over at National Wildlife Federation.  It requires some adult help, but is a great opportunity to talk with your children or grandchildren about reuse and recycling.  Also a great lead in to talk with older children about the North Pacific Garbage Gyre and the problems of plastic pollution. 

Forever Spring Flowers

Here's another rainy day project for kids, or doctor these up for a more adult theme. 

Here's some reused bottle crafts for the garden

Mr Brown Thumb shows us how easy it is to start seeds in a plastic bottle seed starter


Make a full size greenhouse using recycled plastic bottles.  It can be done, these kids did it!


The Family Corner has easy instuctions for turning a 2 liter bottle into a bird feeder with a perch


Water your tomato plants slowly and directly to the root. Poke holes around a plastic bottle ( I like a 2 liter for this)  bury the bottle into the ground along with your tomato transplants.  Now when you water, fill the bottle and the water will seep out the holes directly at the root of your tomato plants.  This will also help prevent blight which can happen when you get water on the foliage of your tomato plants.


Create a Cloche.  Cut the bottom off of a plastic bottle, then when you put out your transplants, cover them with this "dome" of plastic to form a cloche (greenhouse effect).  Be sure to remove this as the plant matures and the weather gets warm.

Instructables has a great tutorial for an herb garden grown in plastic bottles


I haven't tried this one, but anything to keep the slugs out of my garden is worth a try.  My Zero Waste has a blog post with video to make a slug collar for your seedlings


Make your own "wall of water" plant heater.  Fill jugs with water and arrange them in a ring around plants. When the weather warms, use the water in the jugs to water your garden and save jugs to use in the late season to extend your growing season .


Problem with wasps or yellow jackets in your
yard?  Try making this do it yourself wasp trap using a plastic bottle.

Friday Finds

Friday Finds is an idea I had to bring you some of the fun, interesting and exciting things that I come across throughout the week while surfing the web.

This week I've been looking at a lot of sites with recycle crafts hoping to find some new uses for items that might otherwise wind up in the trash, so for this first installment of Friday Finds I thought I'd show you some recycle themed projects that I've found in my never ending web adventure.

Here's a creative way to reuse / recycle bottle caps to make a cute charm bracelet like the one above.  Over at Go Make Something you can learn how!

 

How about something to make with those hard to recycle plastic bottle caps.  I found this pincushion tutorial over at My Little Mochi  

Are you a seamstress?  Do you refashion old items into new fashions?  Like me you may have looked at purchasing one of those *very* expensive dress forms and thought, wow, if only it wasn't so spendy!  Well Cut Out and Keep has a great solution to make your own CUSTOM dress form.  this is a 2 person project, so grab a crafty friend and make one for each of you.

The Storque Etsy's Handmade Blog shows us how to make this adorable little chipmunk toy by recycling a glove.  I'm thinking of trying a couple of these one for my granddaughter and another for my dog Echo the eco dog!

And we can't leave out one for the kitty cats.  Design Sponge has made an easy cardboard scratcher for her pretty kitty and you can make one too!

Ok this is my favorite one for making grocery bags so far!  Wisdom of the Moon teaches us to turn a repurposed sheet into enough reusable bags to bring home all of your groceries!  This one requires only very basic sewing skills, so no more excuses for plastic shopping bags!

Here's another craft you can do with those plastic bags you have collected in your kitchen. Lucky Ladybird Craft Blog instructs us all how we can repurpose them into baskets for decoration and storage