Belt in Bloom

If you use fabric softener sheets like me, you're

usually left with limp sheets like these

after doing the laundry:

Blah.

Tada! Turn it into a flower!

Make a few more flowers & sew them on a piece of ribbon.

Use it as a belt.

Or as a headband.

Or to embellish a present.

Or as a floral curtain when you

make several strands.

Wasn't that fun?

Fabric Softener Sheets

It's a brand new week and a brand new blah to Tada! project.

This week, it's all about fabric softener sheets.

Do you use these when you do your laundry?

Just put a sheet in the clothes dryer together

with freshly washed clothes.

They leave clothes & linen soft and fragrant!

Instead of throwing these away after use,

let's do a little recycling!

Tada! A cute envelope made by

sewing the sides & trimming an edge.

Insert an equally cute card {store-bought or handmade}

and attach to a gift or vase of flowers

for a buddy's birthday.

See you tomorrow!

Plastic Yarn

The weekend has finally arrived!

This week, we transformed plastic bags from blah to Tada!

And today, I have another idea for you that will take us

to some of my favorite places in New York City.

Our first stop: The American Folk Art Museum in Manhattan.

Some museums blow you away with their extensive collection

and others leave you scratching your head and saying

to yourself, "That's art?"

Well, I particularly like the Folk Art Museum for

the reason that everyday objects are elevated

to art. Objects that you can make yourself

and secretly, you can call yourself an artist!

Take this colorful circle rug for example.

It's made out of plastic bags!

To be more specific, empty Wonderbread bags!

The artist made yarn out of blah plastic bags & wove it into a rug!

In fact, a lot of crafters use this -- plastic yarn or "plarn",

in lieu of regular yarn to crochet or knit into something

fabulous & useful.

Tada! An adorable bag made out of plarn.

Here's another bag using different stitches.

I learned how to make this craft early this year

at the Etsy Labs in Brooklyn.

I have to admit, though, that my bag isn't finished

yet {I'm a novice at crochet, still making

a lot of mistakes, eeep!}.

The bags here are all made by the talented Claire Baker,

who was also our teacher that day.

You can find the tutorial here.

Have a happy weekend!

A Barrage of Buntings

Whenever you're out shopping, a plastic bag takes the trip

back home with you (unless your purchases are packed

in a paper bag or you take your own cloth bag).

Well, there must be other uses for plastic bags

than just lining a garbage can with it, right?

If it starts as a blah...

Turn it into a Tada! -- beautiful buntings

for your next celebration!

They're easy to make: (1) Make a triangle pattern on cardboard.

(2) Trace the pattern on the plastic with a pencil or marker.

(3) Cut the plastic, and (4) Connect the triangles by running

these through the sewing machine.

Limit your hue or use a many colorful plastic bags as you like!

Buddy for a Rainy Day

When it's raining hard, isn't a bag like this

a godsend when you need to go indoors

with a wet umbrella in tow?

Sadly, not all establishments like shops or

banks give this away.

Why wait for a free bag, when you

can carry one that you already have

from your shopping trips?

But let's turn this blah plastic bag into

something even more Tada!

I made a smaller bag out of the bag

{enough to fit a small folding umbrella}

and sealed the ends by sewing.

Then I added a button & elastic closure.

That way, it can easily be rolled up and the

button closure can keep it from unfurling.

Tada!

This bag will go wherever your umbrella goes.

No more rain puddles at your trail.

Floral Accent

Very nice to see you today!

We all know what a threat plastic bags are to our environment.

While it will take some time to eliminate them entirely,

maybe we can turn them into something pretty

instead of just throwing them away when

we no longer need them.

This blah plastic bag,

and this blah plastic bag will get a

make-over today.

Tada! The orange bag is now a flower!

I cut the bag into petals. I gathered one end, tightly wrapped some

thread around & knotted it to make the bag look more like a petal.

I did this to all the petals, sewed them together and fluffed

them up for a 3-dimensional look.

The green bag had this pretty design.

{The books are stacked together to look like a leaf.}

So I cut around it, and...

Tada! The flower and leaves make the

perfect finishing touch to a plain box.

Instant gift wrap when you have

no ribbon or wrapper available!

Challenge: Plastic Bags

Happy Monday everyone!

This week, I'm up for a challenge!

It's a response to an e-mail from Susie:

Hi there! You inspire me so much and I love the fact that we're helping our environment at the same time. A few ideas I would appreciate your creativity on: (1) Old jeans/denim and (2) plastic grocery-type bags. That latter one - plastic - is so detrimental to our environment, I'm really ashamed I still have them once in a while but when I do, I'd like to know what I could re-purpose them for.

Thanks Susie! I've recycled denim here, here and here.

So this week, let's see how we can turn

plastic bags from...

blah...

...to TADA! The plastic bag is now a lei!

It's easy to make: Cut the bag (at least two bags) into strips

and string on a threaded needle in the middle of the strip.

Bunch up the strips and sew the ends together

once you have the desired length.

Give it to your little hula girl.

Or wear at a luau party.

Or turn it into an instant Halloween

costume with a floral dress and a

flower in your hair.

Have a great week!