DIY wedding favors

When you're creating special mementos for your wedding, do yourself a favor and use recycled materials. This project will help you upcycle your wedding with easy wine cork keepsakes. The complete DIY is over at Craftzine.com.

And a very special congrats to new newlyweds Thecla and Adam!

Puzzle piece friendship necklace at PlanetGreen

I'll be crafting up monthly DIY posts over at PlanetGreen. You can catch this first project on how to turn puzzle pieces into a friendship necklace here. It's a new, upcycled take on that old Best Friends necklace. This one is way more trashy.

Design challenge : shower curtains

A friend of mine recently replaced his shower curtain and instead of trashing it he sent it my way. After washing, there was really nothing wrong with it - he just wanted a refresher. But, like me, he felt bad throwing out something seemingly so useful.

We came across this rain poncho project from Threadbanger on Instructables.

It's a really durable vinyl material. And I bet, just like billboard material, it sews up really well. Maybe something bathroom related like a cosmetic pouch.

Anyone have any ideas out there to share?
If you're lucky, there could be a big piece of shower curtain material in it for you...

It's graduation time!

For those recent graduates who have to buy your cap and gown, here's a timely project that you can make from your mortarboard. View the whole DIY for creating over at Craftzine.com. It's a great project for those with some time on your hands while you're looking for full-time work.

Mini golf from found materials

I just learned of The Putting Lot, a summer installation here in Brooklyn designed to "provide a forum for discussing urban sustainability in a new context." It's a miniature golf course in Bushwick built from reclaimed materials and designed by teams of artists and architects. They hope to inspire people to think about sustainability on all kinds of levels.

Sounds like it's worth checking out - and it'll only be here till the end of the summer, so go get your mini golf on!

Craft contest: bathing suit coverup!

Here's a great chance to win stuff and show off some of your crafty skills: the good people over at Craft Magazine and Singer are running a swimsuit coverup contest. The grand prize is a sewing machine and an appearance in a Singer ad, and there are fun runner-up prizes too.

The contest is limited to sewn garments only, and we personally think it would be extra-special to see a recycled/repurposed item take top honors. Head on over to Craftzine for specifics and be sure to submit your design before the 7/16/2009 deadline!

Send us your junk!

At Replayground, we make projects from corks, used plastic containers, keyboard keys, dead umbrellas, and just about anything else you can imagine. We always appreciate getting new and exciting trash in the mail, whatever it may be. (See this page for guidelines if you'd like to send us something.)

Occasionally we have specific needs for specific projects, and this is one of those times. We're looking for:

• CDs
  
• Wool sweaters
  
• Neckties
  
• Buttons

Do you have a surplus of any of this stuff? If so, we'd love the opportunity to work some eco-magic on it. Email us at moreinfo [at] replayground [dot] com for specifics before sending anything along. Thanks, and happy recycling!

All ages

A friend alerted me to this NY Times article and I had to share it with all you recycling-minded folks. It's about the Materials Center at Beginnings Nursery School in Manhattan, which is devoted to collecting and reusing "garbage" for student projects.

It warms our Replayground hearts to find that kids as young as 4 and 5 are being taught to value the things we typically discard, and some of the projects are really inspiring (toy boats made from used corks, hand puppets from discarded plastic). Definitely worth a read.

Talkin' trash: june 1, 2009 edition

The Talkin' Trash team

Last night a few of us ventured into the wilds of Williamsburg on garbage night for a little PSA. Our goal: identify and label all the reusable "trash" we saw, hoping to inspire passersby to rethink their garbage.

The tools: recycled cardboard signs with speech bubbles and Replayground stamps; markers; tape; and a little creativity.



Some of our suggestions were simple and practical.


Empty drawer: "Take me home, I can store books in your home too!". Artillery case (?): "I can be a magnetic memoboard!"


Skateboard: "I can be a shelf, too!" (ed. note: kinda wish I'd taken this home)


5 gallon bucket: "I can be a trash can!" (ed. note: These also make excellent containers for tomatoes and other veggies on your fire escape or stoop - just drill some drainage holes in the bottom!)

Some were a little more elaborate.


Styrofoam speaker packaging: "Turn me into a lamp - fill me with xmas lights and put me on the wall or on a table!"


Old TV: "Turn me into a fish tank!"

And some weren't that practical.


Mystery funnel: "I could be a large monocle!"

See more pictures on Flickr.

Hopefully someone even took us up on some of our suggestions - but if we just got a few people to think of their trash in a new way, we accomplished our mission.