Monster Making

Yesterday, I got together with a group of Mom's and their 9 and 10 year old daughters to make Monsters from recycled sweaters. They were given very simple instructions and then given full reign of the materials available to make their monsters. They had sweaters, afghans, buttons, funky clothing scraps and embroidery thread. They were all stuffed with my big bag of scraps from projects I had worked on the last couple of months.

Some Mom's made their own, others helped their daughter with her project, but each daughter walked away with a Monster. All of the monsters were unique and showed the personality of the creator.

I will be teaching a recycled arts class at the Columbia Art Center in Hood River during  the Trash to Treasures exhibit this month.  Join us on January 28th from 9am-noon to make a monster and wallet, all from recycled materials.

Scrappy USA

While I was wasting time on pinterest.com, I came across this project made by fellow blogger at seekatesew.blogspot.com and had to make one of my own.

What a great way to use up fabric scraps and as a former 5th grade teacher and lover of USA maps, this was the perfect project for me.

I misjudged the placement of the continental USA on the piece of fabric I had, so I did not have enough room to include Alaska and Hawaii.

I had fun making this project, but it was time consuming and got a bit tedious. A friend of mine has asked me to make another one to hang in her new house, and I keep telling her that if I ever get inspired to make another one, she will be the first one on my list.

Coffee Sleeves

My local coffee shop, Ten-Speed Coffee, roasts their own coffee. The coffee comes to them from around the world in large burlap bags. Of course, I wanted to make something out of the bags and coffee sleeves seemed like a logical choice. I am now making reversible coffee sleeves using the coffee sacks, cotton batting and scrap fabric. This serves the purpose of re-using the coffee sacks and dwindling down my extremely large stash of scrap fabric.

What to do with all those Scraps

This winter, after making so many mittens from recycled sweaters for the numerous craft sales I went to, I ended up bags of scraps. I hate throwing those away in the garbage because they do not decompose... or at least not for hundreds of years. I always try and think about what I can make with those scraps. This scrappy wreath was what I came up with. I was able to use a variety of colors and had fun tying all those strips of scraps onto the foam base. My kids even joined in the fun. I think if I trimmed it a little more, it would look even better. Less sad and droopy. I am thinking of making more in different color schemes for different seasons. Making this wreath also allowed my to stop and think about all of the other projects I was working so frantically to finish this winter. Each scrap tells a story!

Reversible Headband from Scraps

What do you do with all of the scraps from your craft projects? I hate to throw them away to end up in a landfill, so instead I tend to keep them hoping for a future project. This is what I came up with. Reversible headbands made from scraps. I can make the headbands wide or thin depending on the size of scraps I have. I can mismatch the fabrics or pick a color or pattern theme. This headband is made from scraps of recycled bed sheets I had been using for a number of other projects.
The neighbor girls have been my testers to make sure I am getting the size right. Making crafts for others is always so much more rewarding. Seeing my neighbor wearing her headband on our walk the school puts a smile on my face.