Creative Projects Using Everyday Materials
30 tutorials published
Trace an opened envelope onto cereal box card to make a reusable template, then cut and fold envelopes from magazine pages, calendars and maps. Includes folding order and gluing.
Three ways to decorate glass jars as lanterns lit by battery LED lights: a frosted tissue paper finish, a cut-paper silhouette band, and a twine-wrapped neck with a handle.
Turn clean food cans into small planters that last: how to add drainage holes, three ways to handle rust, how to paint or wrap the outside, and which plants suit a small can.
Make a pocket notebook with a cereal box cover and scrap paper pages, sewn with a simple three-hole pamphlet stitch. Includes cutting sizes, hole positions and the stitch order.
A step-by-step way to get paper labels and sticky residue off glass jars, tins and plastic containers using warm soapy water and a paste of cooking oil and baking soda.
Four non-food gifts to assemble in clean glass jars: a sewing kit with a pincushion lid, a paper bead kit, a notes jar and a seed-starting kit, with steps for the lid and tag.
How to use clean glass jars for buttons, beads, ribbon, pins, clips and brushes: matching jar size to contents, color-coding lids, changeable labels, trays and sensible stacking limits.
Tear or cut fabric remnants into strips and knot them onto twine with a lark's head knot. Covers strip size, mixing prints and solids, trimming, and a glued triangle pennant variant.
Build a wicking planter from one clean beverage bottle: cut it in two, invert the top into the base, thread a cotton wick through the cap, then plant a small herb and fill the reservoir.
Cut long tapered triangles from magazine pages, roll them around a skewer, glue the tip and seal. Includes a table showing how strip size changes the bead, plus three simple uses.
Step-by-step instructions for three bookmarks made from paper scraps and thin cardboard: a layered strip with a tassel, a folded corner pocket and a woven two-color strip.
Three autumn projects from paper bags, magazine pages, thin cardboard and a clean jar: a traced-leaf garland, paper strip pumpkins gathered on twine and a pinecone jar display.
