Stuff your stocking with upcycled cheer!

Old sweaters are great fabric for new projects. If you've forgotten to make your stockings with care, here's an easy way to whip one up just in time for the holidays. Embellish them with buttons and other found objects and you'll be celebrating the season in a style you've remade yourself. For the complete how-to complete with a PDF pattern, head on over to the lovely Craftzine.com. Happy holiday ReMaking!

Altered books

Here are some creative ways to upcycle old books. A good book never goes out of style!

Bookworm Linked Bracelet by Etsy jeweler TheUnwrittenWord

Hanging Hearts Valentine by Etsy crafter BooksETC

Book Purse: You can find a tutorial of this project in our book ReMake It!

Recycled Tin Ornaments

We love the eco-crafty inspiration behind the new Crate and Barrel Recycled Tin Ornament collection. These ornaments are handmade by weaving thin strips of recycled tin around an iron frame. What a cool way to add some upcycled style to your holiday decor!

Recycled Goods at Crafted at the Canal!

This Saturday Dec. 10th you can finish your holiday shopping in eco-style. Crafted at the Canal is a holiday craft fair that will be open from 10-5PM, and will include over 30 vendors! RePlayGround will be selling new recycling kits to make cereal box wallets and magazine gift bows, and you can pick up a signed copy of ReMake It!, which makes for the perfect gift for crafty friends and family.

RePlayGround's blogger Kathy Tingum will be there selling her recycled magazine frames, vases and other Twofold Designs items, so be sure to drop by and say hi!

The event is held at Build It Green! in Gowanus, 69 9th Street, Brooklyn, NY. Build It Green is a great resource for second hand furniture and building materials, and their new space is loaded with recycling inspiration!

See you there!

Cheapskate's guide to green gift giving

This holiday season it's ok to be a little tight on cash. RePlayGround will help spice up your gift giving the cheapskate way. Our book ReMake It! Recycling Projects from the Stuff You Usually Scrap is filled with ingenious ways to cut down on your holiday shopping bill, and impress friends and family with your eco-crafty know how. You'll be giving out hand crafted necktie iPod cases, tree ornaments made from holiday greeting cards, a yoga mat carrying case from old cargo pants, and much more!

For more info on the book, click here.

Grab your copy today and start ReMaking the season!

ReMake It at Barnes and Noble tomorrow!

Hey there RePlay readers! Tomorrow I'll be at Barnes and Noble in NYC from 12 - 1PM. Swing by, make your own gift bow from magazine pages, and pick up your own copy of ReMake It! You can start ReMaking all of your holiday gifts! At only $12.95 it makes a super duper present for that your favorite craftastic friend.

This Barnes and Noble is located at 86th Street and Lexington Ave. More details are here!

Plastic bottle portrait

Mary Ellen Croteau created this 8 by 7 foot portrait out of bottle caps and plastic bottle parts! The design is modeled after Chuck Close's portrait style and makes for an interesting critique on consumerism. Croteau's work focuses on the effect of plastic garbage on the environment, and asks that we look at our trash in a new light.

"I firmly believe in the power of the visual, and my work is my voice: a social critique and a visual challenge to all the cultural detritus we are force-fed every day. My art is about looking at things in a slightly different way, and is intended to undermine the status quo with wit and humor."

To see more of Croteau's colorful and inventive artwork from plastic bags and bottles, see: http://www.newdream.org/resources/2011-09-artist-critiques-consumer-culture

(close up of her nose!)

ReMake your holiday shopping at Union Square in NYC!

As we're entering the holiday shopping season, think about giving the gift of ReMaking this year. Our ReMake it kits are on sale at the Karma Kiss booth at the Union Square Holiday Fair. You can pick up a wine cork trivet, bottle lamp, stationery kit, and more. The gift of ReMaking never goes out of style. And neither does the gift of wine, for that matter. So consider picking up a wine cork trivet for your fave adult. If you can't make it to the holiday market, you can always score ReMake It kits online at Karma Kiss and Greenfeet. And don't forget to pick up my new book at Barnes and Noble! Happy holiday ReMaking!

Call for Skraptacular volunteers!

Call for volunteers!

The Skraptacular Eco Gift-Making Workshop will be held Saturday Dec. 3 from 1-5PM at the Muscota New School in Manhattan. This is an afternoon where kids and adults come together to create unique holiday gifts from reused and upcycled materials. Proceeds from this event will benefit Skraptacular and the Muscota Parents' Association.

Lots of creative adults are needed to help at the various stations. There's a creative child in all of us, so come have a ball to help kids make it all!

To volunteer, call Michelle Del Guercio at 917-699-8136

You can find more information at http://www.skraptacular.org/

Fortune Cookie Coaster

We came up with a fun way to recycle fortune cookie wisdom! Check out our fortune cookie coaster project on Instructables here to see detailed instructions. Show off your wise, yet crafty side with this easy paper project!

A minty fresh Halloween!

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween out there! As usual, I remade mine from scrap I had at my studio. I was an upcycled tooth fairy complete with a pleated skirt made from toothpaste tubes, a wand made from toothbrushes, toothbrush jewelry, and sparkly wings, tank top, and tights.

Want to make your own upcycled tooth fairy skirt? Head on over to Make:Projects for my step-by-step instructions. You can get a head start on next year's costume and try this pleated, upcycled skirt. It'll take a little while to collect all of those toothpaste tubes. But don't fear, after all of that candy this year, you'll be needing an extra dose of toothpaste.

What were you for Halloween? If you made (or remade) your own costume, you have 2 more days to enter it into Make's Halloween contest. I hear there are some scary-good prizes!

More crafty creations for Halloween! Courtesy of Kiwi!

Hey there blog readers! Spend your Halloween in crafty style tomorrow and try one of these crafty projects. I wrote up two new projects for the October issue of Kiwi Magazine.

Dish up this sweet recycling project with scrap paper and candy wrappers. Then, put a new spin on an old T-shirt with this spider web project. These projects are a sweet way to flex your recycling power this Halloween. So grab a copy of Kiwi Magazine for the complete how to and get crafting!

Craft up this cardboard carton candy carryall!

Getting into the crafty Halloween spirit? Check out these sweet candy totes we made for Craft. We used an empty salt container, oatmeal cylinder, and ice cream carton. It's a great trick for turning empty containers into Halloween treats. Get the complete how to over at Craftzine.

Green City Challenge Race & Family Expo

This Sunday Oct. 23 you can catch RePlayGround at Green City Challenge in Union Square Park from 12-3PM. We'll be teaching free eco-crafty projects to make and take, so stop on by! The event will demonstrate how to live, work, and eat green, and will also connect eco-friendly businesses and organizations. To see more info on the event, click here!

Plastic bag bangles by Garbage of Eden!

This week we're featuring our friend Stephanie Huffaker of Garbage of Eden! Stephanie, who is also a RePlayGround instructor, creates beautiful bangles out of plastic bags and yogurt cups. Below you can see the process of creating the yogurt cup base. Stephanie uses pre-consumer and post-consumer waste to make her upcycled designs. Materials include misprints from companies and also used materials that are sterilized for reuse. Garbage of Eden seeks to raise consciousness about sustainability. "If we take the time to seek out and realize the positive potential in the objects around us, there is no waste." To get your own recycled bag bangle, check out the Etsy shop!

Light up used glass!

Cargo Collective offers a line of JarLamps made from re-used glass jars! A hole is drilled in the cap and a lamp fitting is offered through to create your own recycled reading lamp. Our favorite is the Nutella JarLamp! Check out more functional designs including drinking glasses made from beer bottles and a jump rope from used plastic bottles at http://cargocollective.com/upcycle

Adam Matta remixes a recycled bicycle!

This year at Maker Faire we met a cool musician who beatboxes with upcycled style! Adam Matta (as pictured at Maker Faire 2011 below) reinvented the bicycle wheel as an artistic turntable. Matta combined Marcel Duchamp's Roue de bicyclette and a deconstructed cassette tape player to make his turntable sounds. The cassette tape runs along the outside of the bicycle wheel, and as he turns the wheel the tape moves across the cassette player piece at the base of the stool. he is then able to manipulate sound into a record scratching and spinning style. To hear Matta's upcycled musical creation, see his video here!

Adam Matta is great inspiration to remix the way we recycle!

Tie one on

I was just searching the internet for inspiration to make something nice to make my brother's upcoming 40th birthday. I want to make something for him from my dad's old neckties. I came across these great finds and just needed to share: Diane Gilleland's heart shaped necktie pins over at Craftstylish.
 

image courtesy Craftsylish 

This awesome dress from Glamarita's Etsy shop. Maybe not so appropriate for my brother, but something for my own wish list. 

 

image courtesy Glamarita's Etsy shop 

Here's Laura Martin's site Ties that Matter. She's my new friend and fellow upcycler collected from my recent Creative Connection event. Love her range of products from upcycled neckties. 

 

 image courtesy Ties that Matter

Whoa. Some of those neckties are up there on the styleometer with my dear old dad's neckties.

Then there's this whole Sewing With Neckties blog devoted to cool tie finds.

 And don't forget project 50, necktie gadget case, from my own book, ReMake It.

 

So, definitely inspired, but still trying to figure out that perfect gift for the tech-savvy brother who doesn't-really-wear-ties-himself all that much. Any ideas out that can tie together the sentimentality of my dad's neckties and a gift my brother would definitely use?

Maker Faire Fun!

Thanks to all who came to Maker Faire NYC this weekend and visited the RePlayGround booth! We taught how to make bottle cap magnets, and used the caps to build a colorful mural that spelled out MAKE.

Tiffany also ran a workshop where she taught Makers to fold their own paper picture frame. We had fun creating with all kinds of crafty people, and we're super inspired by all the amazing Makers we met! To see more photos, check out RePlayGround on Picasa!









We're already counting down to next year's Maker Faire!

ReMake your weekend!

There are some trashy happenings this weekend you won't want to miss out on! RePlayGround will be at the 2nd annual Maker Faire this Sept. 17-18, 2011. Come make recycled art with us, and check out all kinds of hands-on projects including arts, crafts, science, tech and more.

On Sunday Sept. 18, we'll show how to make your own Scrap Paper Picture Frame. The demo will be from 2-2:30 at the craft demo stage. For more info on this Maker event, click here!

RePlayGround can also be found at the Creative Connection this Sept. 16-17 in St. Paul, MN. Tiffany Threadgould will be teaching Repurposed Paper- Gift Bows and Paper Beads. This workshop shows you ways to add pizzaz with recycled magazines and scrap paper.

And if you can't ReMake it at either of these events, you can follow this scrap paper picture frame how-to over at Craftzine.

We hope to see you out for some end-of-the-summer recycling fun!

go green in the garden!

Enjoy the last of the summer weather with some upcycling projects for your garden! These crafty ideas will make you think twice about those discarded items in the garage or attic.

Glass Totem

see a tutorial by Gardens & Crafts here!

Wren House with License Plate Roof

D&G Gardens and Crafts

Plastic Container Planters

instructions can be found in the ReMake It book!

The grass is always greener on the upcycled side!

art and reuse with Louise Nevelson

Artist Louise Nevelson's work is crafted from found wood objects that are arranged and painted in a monochromatic fashion. Before she became an exhibiting artist, the impoverished Nevelson collected discarded wood from the streets to burn as firewood. Her 3-dimensional collage style was born from these piles of scrap material, and now grace the walls of major art galleries worldwide. Nevelson used everything from boxes and crates to bowling pins and wood bannister posts. For a detailed biography, check out http://www.louisenevelsonfoundation.org/

ReMaking It with The Creative Connection!

I'm super excited to be a part of this year's The Creative Connection! This conference is being sponsored by Sterling, the super-awesome publishers of my book, ReMake It.

I'm excitedly preparing for my sessions on Repurposed paper - creating gift bows, paper beads and more. Class participants will learn all my paper tricks for ReMaking projects from magazine pages. There will be loads of other super-awesome classes led by other authors, crafters, cooks, and more. A few highlights include crafty faves like Shannon Okey, Betz White, and Ashley English.

So get Creative! Get Connected! And secure your crafty spot this September! There are still a few registration spots open. The event is September 15 - 17 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Mark your Calendar for Maker Faire

Thanks to all who came out this weekend for some RePlayGround fun! We had a blast teaching craft projects and talkin' trash at the New York Hall of Science Maker Days and Summer Streets NYC event.

To view photos of the events, click here and here.

If you missed out on all the fun, not to fear! We'll be back at the NY Hall of Science for Maker Faire NYC in September. This year's event includes robotics, textile arts and crafts, biotech and chemistry experiments and much more! Be sure to stop by the RePlayGround table for some hands-on eco-crafty projects to make and take.

What: Maker Faire NYC

When: Sept. 17-18 2011

Where: NY Hall of Science, 47-01 111th St, Queens NY

RePlayGround fun this weekend!

Are you looking for some recycling fun this weekend? Drop by one of our events and make a free craft project! We'll be at Summer Streets NYC at the GoGo Squeez tent, where you can make a gift bow and a wallet out of recycled GoGo Squeez applesauce wrapper. You can also find us at Maker Days at the NY Hall of Science, where you'll learn how to craft envelopes and gift bows out of old magazines.

Summer Streets NYC

August 20, 2011 7AM-1PM

Foley Square, NYC

Maker Days

August 20-21, 2011 12-5PM

NY Hall of Science

47-01 111th St. Queens, NY 11368

See you there for some eco-crafty fun!

Times for upcycled office designs!

Hey there RePlayGround readers!

Here's a great article that came out yesterday in the New York Times. It's titled Making Designs out of Rubbish by Penelope Green. It talks about my work with the uber-awesome-upcycling company TerraCycle and about our upcycled office renovations that I put together with the rest of the design crew.

If you're interested in having your own office space upcycled, let me know!