(click on an image to enlarge)

* * please bear in mind, the finished project is not suitable for food * *

This one’s plain, simple, and best when duplicated.

Empty metal cans are an eco-stylish decorating advantage. These cheap and useful vases are a great way to disperse flowers throughout your home and yard while entertaining this summer season.

Simply collect and clean out your empty food cans. Tomato cans work well, because the inside of the can is coated with a special enamel finish, but any empty can will do.

If working with children, please make sure there are no sharp edges where the lid came off. If so, going over the area with a can opener one more time will usually do the trick.

To prevent rust rings on your furniture or ledges, coat the bottom of each can with clear nail polish, and allow to dry completely.

Fill the cans halfway with water. Add a few small stones to the bottom of each can to weigh them down, and then add the flowers. Tiny hands will find it fun and easy arranging flowers in these mini-marvels.

Using the trash twice is a very special skill… Here’s another really addictive project that reuses those styrofoam trays they strap our food to in the supermarkets.

Printing is a fun & easy way to make your own birthday party invitations, holiday and thank you cards. Styrofoam relief printing is great for young kids because no major cutting is required, only drawing and tracing. Scribble-scrabble even looks cool when it’s printed with this technique.

You Need:

• a rubber brayer
• water-soluble block printing ink
• styrofoam tray
• old magazine
• aluminum foil
• paper & pencil
• recycled paper to print on

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1. Start by cutting off the rounded corners of your styrofoam tray so that it lays flat. This is the size of the surface you have to work with.
2. On a piece or scratch paper, draw a sketch to use for your print. Tip: Keep it simple… tiny details do not show up very well with this type of print.
3. Tape your drawing onto the foam plate. Transfer the image to the foam by tracing over your picture using a firm and steady pressure. When you have gone over the whole image, remove the tape and picture. You will need to go over the foam plate one more time with your pencil to carefully carve out the details.
4. Get your work area ready! Cover your work area. Wrap an old magazine with aluminum foil to make a palate for your ink. Squeeze a finger sized amount onto your palate and roll back and forth and up and down with your rubber brayer until it is evenly covered.
5. Roll ink onto your foam printing plate.
6. Flip printing plate over onto a clean sheet of recycled paper.
7. Press firmly all around. Then carefully peel the paper off.
8. Allow to dry.

To use a new color, wash the brayer and printing plate. Re-cover the same magazine with a new layer of foil, and apply new printing ink.

Clean-up is easy, just wash right away with soap and water! Wash your printing plate and you can use it again and again.

Here are a few more pictures of what we did…

At bubbalulu.com we’re always ready with a few reusable bags to do our shopping. And while we’re finally starting to notice a shift away from plastic bags and bottles, they do still end up in our lives. The important thing, is what we do with them next… don’t toss them, reuse them!!

This is a simple project, inspired by an old Girl Scout camping trick, and it’s a great way to keep all those annoying plastic bags tucked neatly away.

Using an empty plastic bottle, cut off the top. We used a sharp kitchen knife to slice ours. Next, you need to trim the sharp, newly exposed plastic edge with some masking tape (so you don’t hurt yourself putting the bags in and out). And that’s it!

If you’re doing this with kids, have them stuff the dispenser with your plastic bags. We fit about 20 bags into each bottle. WOW! Under the sink looks so neat.

When clearing out the closet to make room for all the unbelievable  after-holiday finds, be sure to put aside a few graphic-T’s and interesting fabrics for sewing projects like this one…

Old Clothes Pillows is also an amazing way to hang on to a part of a favorite old shirt, or kids outfit that is never going to fit again. Tween girls will love filling up their beds with these tiny little pillows, and boys can turn their favorite old sports shirts into team pillows. Sewing skills are required (but not professional!)

1. Using sharp scissors, cut out the shape you are going to use for the front of your pillow. Then, choose and cut a contrasting color or pattern for the pillow back.

2. Pin the fabric together inside-out, and then sew. We used our sewing machine (because practice is good) but, for the most part, these pillows are not that large and can also be sewn by hand. Be sure to leave an opening for stuffing the pillow

3. Flip your pillow case right-side-out and stuff! We used poly-fill from an old dog bed, we also suggest shredding the remainder of the clothing fabric you did not use for stuffing… or my mom’s favorite recycled stuffing: old pantyhose!!

4. Hand-sew the stuffing hole and you’re done! Enjoy! …but watch out, they’re totally addictive!

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What You Need:
- Old Magazine
- Scissors
- Mod Podge glue
- Paint Brush/Sponge
- Old Frame

Instead of tossing out those old, banged-up frames… Recreate Them!

1. Cover your work area with paper, then start cutting out pieces from the magazine to cover your frame with. It is a good idea to cut and measure all your pieces before starting to glue.

For our frame, we went with a patterned background and then put a couple of cute pictures on top of the pattern… to make them stand out.

2. When all the cutting is done, you are ready to decoupage.
The steps are simple: apply Mod Podge glue to frame with your brush, place your cutting on top of the glue, then cover the entire image with even more glue. Do this for the whole frame.

Tip: If you are applying picture layers (a picture on top of another picture) allow the bottom layer to dry before applying the next layer to the top. As Mod Podge starts to dry, painting over the same place again while half-wet, often results in paper tearing.

3. Allow your decoupage to dry a few hours, then apply one last coat of Mod Podge, to even things out, and you’re done!!

Save a box and make a toy! This is a great gloomy-day/sick-day activity for children because it takes up a lot of time, but you’re having so much fun you don’t really notice it pass. It’s so easy to get wrapped up collecting tidbits from around the house and adding the little details that will make playing with your finished project so much fun! All you need to get started is an old box, scissors, some glue or modge-podge, magazine clippings & paint. Where you go from there is up to you… Help kids get started by deciding on a theme… Castle, Jungle, City, or Pirate Island (like us!) Draw a simple outline in pencil, cut-out any shapes then let them go. The steps in this project are outlined visually, below. Click through the numbers to view the pictures.

Tis’ the season for online shopping. And where there’s deliveries, there are cardboard boxes! This year, before you toss them in the recycling bin, make something crafty instead. *Note* a cereal box will also work for this. At bubbalulu.com we keep all our once-used paper, handy by the printer for a second go. We used our magazine file to help keep it neat. Aside from cutting the box, this is a pretty easy project. Give it a try! Click through the pictures below to learn how to make one for yourself.

With the holidays encroaching, this is a great time for getting busy with some arts-n-crafts… and Pant-Leg Pillows make the perfect gift. They are easy to make, customizable and recycled!

This is a easy project for any child or teen. Younger children will need help cutting and tying, but because this project requires no sewing,a child of about 7 or 8 with good cutting skills & who can tie their shoes, could do this project on their own!

To get started all you really need are an old pair of pants or jeans, some polly-fill stuffing, and ribbon or string to tie the ends. To add some more flair, we suggest rhinestones, decorative fabric swatches, or fabric paint (in our example).

reuse idea#2: Keep a bag in the closet for old tights, stockings and pairless socks… these make great stuffing for pillows and dolls!

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STEPS:

1. Choose an old pair of pants of jeans and cut off both legs close to the top. These leg-tubes are going to be the outer shell of your pillow, cut to the desired length.

2. If you are going to decorate the pillow, do it now! It is much tougher to work on a stuffed-surface. Keep all artwork 2 or 3 inches from each side.

Note: Young children can use sponge shapes or paint brushes to spread paints on the fabric. Let them make a big mess, it doesn’t matter what it looks like, as long as they have fun doing it. If you want, when they’re done, write their name in the center in the colors they choose.

3. When your artwork is completely dry, gather one end of the tube and secure it tightly with a strong piece of string or ribbon. We tied ours first with string, then added different color ribbon and rick-rack to jazz it up.

4. Once one end is secure, stuff the pillow to your desired firmness. Kids of all ages love this part!

5. Repeat step 3, tie the other end, and you’re done! So easy to make… they’re addictive.