15 Ways to Look at an Altoid Tin

Do you love those "curiously strong" Altoid mints? Do you hate throwing away those tins, just knowing they have to be useful for something? Well you're lucky you found this blog post then! I promise you, you'll never see an Altoid tin as garbage again, but rather as...
1. A mini garden

2.  A watercolor box

3. A travel candle

4. A crayon holder

5. A mini tool box

6. first aid, sewing, and dental kits

7. A guitar

more uses for Altoid tins:

7. a mini time capsule

8. A business card holder

9-15. "Office: paper clips, thumb tacks, mechanical pencil leads and erasers 

Sewing: pin/needles, thimbles, pins, folding scissors, needle threader 
Knitting: small travel kit with a few stitch markers, a nail clippers for snipping threads, a short bit of pencil, retractable measuring tape, darning needle. 
Purse: nail clippers, lip balm, a couple of individually packaged wet naps. 
Jewelry: rings and earrings 
Bathroom: bobby pins, hair elastics, floss pics 
Camping/Hiking: matches, small first aid kit with a few band-aids and some wet naps" -damascusannie on Ravelry

These are all great both for saving money, and saving the evironment. They're also great for getting the creative juices flowing.

Have a great week everyone!

17 Uses for Old Credit Cards and Gift Cards

Don't throw those old credit cards and gift cards away! Here are 17 ways to upcycle them into something great and help the environment.


1. Use one as a bookmark.


2. Make some Guitar Picks


3. Open a Locked Door
Just slide a credit card between the jam and the door where the lock is to open. 


4. Paint mask. 
Professionals use credit cards to make a neat trim line when painting. Especially in tight spots.

5. Make an iPhone/cellphone stand. 


6. Use one as a straightedge


7. Caulking edge 
Run the rounded corner of your credit card across the caulk bead for a professional look.

8. Cheese grater. 

Apparently the raised numbers on a credit card work in a pinch to grate hard cheeses. Just make sure you wash it first!

9. Make a letter opener

10. Make an Office Supply Holder
Cut one credit card in half for the ends, use two cards for the sides, and one for the bottom and glue the pieces together for a awesome little box for your paper clips, push pins, etc.! 

11. Scraper

Scrape ice off your car, gunk out of your bathtub, food stuck on dishes, mud off shoes--anything that needs scraping--with an old card.

12. Make a mosaic. 


13. Make a Stencil 


14. Make a Flower Box Fridge Magnet 




15. Makeshift Knife.
For when you're on plane (since you can't bring a real knife with you) or if a birthday cake needs cutting at school, work, etc and there are no knives on hand. (Again, be sure to wash beforehand!)


16. Make toothpicks.




17. Make a Cable Cord organizer

How-To Tuesday: Make Skirts out of Shirts!

Ruffle Skirt from 3 T-shirts 

 Skirt from Mens Button Down

Skirt From Too-Small Shirts 

Skirt from 2 T-shirts

30 Second Skirt 

Jumper Skirt

Happy How-To Tuesday! =)

10 Uses for old CDs and DVDs

Do you have a bunch of old CDs, DVDs, and CD-ROMs (remember the ones AOL used to send?) piled up in your house? Don't throw them away! Here are 10 (mostly) practical, green uses for those old CDs. 




1. Glue non-shiny sides together, and voila! You've got a coaster :)


2. Make a disco ball



Recycle Junk Cd's - Make A Disco Ball! - Watch today’s top amazing videos here


3. Make a clock.

4. Make a playing card holder 


5. Turn your CDs into a work of art by making a mosaic.


6. Make a pen holder.


7. Refrigerator Magnets - Cut a picture into a 2"- 3" circle and glue to center of the CD's shiny side. Attach a magnet strip to the back.


8. Make a wallpaper. (alternative: stick them directly to your wall, shiny side out. do this at your own risk of course.)

9. Make a lamp 


10. Cut them into rectangles, and place them on your bike spindle to use them as reflectors.

How-To Tuesday: T-Shirt Tote Bag

Here is an easy way to make a tote bag from an old T-shirt. This is my first tutorial, so I really hope you like it! :)




What you need:

One T-shirt. needle and thread (or a sewing machine), pins, scissors, chalk (not shown)

Step 1: Turn the shirt inside out and iron it. (not completely necessary. If you're feeling lazy, skip this step.)

Step 2: Pin up the bottom hem of the shirt (with shirt still inside out).

Step 3: Sew the bottom hem of the shirt using a straight stitch. This will go very quickly on a sewing machine, but mine is broken so I did it by hand.

Step 4: Reinforce by doing another straight stitch in the opposite direction.

Step 5: Cut of the sleeves, being careful not to cut the seams.

 

Step 6: Draw an outline for a wider neckline with chalk. Starting your outline about an inch away from the neckline should be fine.

Step 7: Cut along the chalk outline.

And you're done! Fill your bag with groceries, library books--whatever you want--and  enjoy!

p.s. I reached 100 followers today! And I wanna say thanks to all of my followers. =)

Also, this completes number 85 on my list of 101 Things to do in 1001 Days  

Happy Tuesday everyone! :)

The Art of Upcycling

According to Wikipedia, Upcycling is "the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value."

So basically it means you take something you would normally throw away, and turn it into something new and useful.

Upcycling reduces the use of new resources, reducing the emission of greenhouse gases and the amount of money spent on new materials. This makes it great both for the environment AND the economy.

Keep reading to find out where to buy upcycled items, and how to do some upcycling on your own!

Where to buy Upcylced Products

Ecoist.com - 

Handbags woven from recycled candy wrappers and soda can tabs

Upcycled Items on Etsy

Upcycled Bottle Dish by bentbottle

Poptab Bracelet by Jwhiz

Suit Coat Laptop Sleeve by SewMuchStyle

Plastic Bottle Bangle Braclet by Electric Penguin

Monopoly Game Board Purse by Treasures Renewed

Recolored Crayon Letters by TALKTAGZ

 Upcyled from broken crayons

Boxy Bag  by marymule

Made from Menswear Shirt

Decoupage Art Canister by EcoFriendly Freckles

DIY Upcycling - Upcycle it yourself!

How to make T-Shirt yarn

How-To Make a Laptop Cozy from an Old Sweater

T-shirt to Fringe Necklace

Briefcase to Fashion Backpack

Table Out of Magazines

(no cutting or gluing!)

Tape Cassette Purse

Hope everyone enjoyed this post, have a great week! :)

Altered Art!

new hobbbbbyy! I found out about altered art from the Altered Pages and Altered Thoughts blog ok, so as you can see from the last post, a new hobby isn't exactly what i NEED right now...agh, but its so cool!

I'm made a few of my own, and these are my 2 favorites

*Candy Case*

*Long, Yellow Days*

I'll be uploading my others to the Altered Pages blog soon, so keep your eye out for me there!

Don't forget to vote in the poll>>>>>>>

and tweet it if u like it! ^_^