My Recycled Bags.com » recycling

Recycled Kleenex Box Gift Tags

Cindy — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 21:13:49 +0000

Here are some gift tags I made from a pretty Kleenex box I had. The box was just so cute that I wanted to recycled the cardboard into something useful so I got out my tag die cutter. I cut as many tags as I could from the panels of the box and then used a hole punch to put a hole into the top of the tags. I used scrap yarn and some leather strips for ties to finish off my gift tags.

Here is one other set of gift tags I cut from another Kleenex box. The bottom had some plain white so I cut out a few of those to show you that with some pretty yarn, they make great gift tags too. For the other tags, I used pieces of plarn (plastic bag yarn) for my ties.

This is a really quick and easy project that you and the kids can both enjoy. Let the kids cut strips of yarn or other recycled materials for the ties and voilà — you have yourself some cute and free gift tags.[…]

Orange Crush Plarn Purse

Cindy — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:03:55 +0000

This week I present my latest recycled plastic bag project. I call this my orange crush plarn purse. The purse was crocheted using orange newspaper bags and white plastic grocery bags. You can check out my plarn making tutorials that show how to make the bags into a yarn from either newspaper or plastic retail bags. The base was made using just the recycled bags from orange newspaper delivery sleeves. I then crocheted with two strands of plarn held together — one strand orange and one white. This combination created the orange and white color blend for the main body of the purse which was crocheted using a granny stitch.

Next I added a beautiful pair of purse handles that I picked up from my local thrift store. I was so excited to purchase these brand new, still in the package, handles for just 99 cents. The black handles just added a great final touch to the purse.

This cute purse crochet pattern can be found free over at Debi’s Hooks and Yarns blogspot. I modified her pattern by working 10 rounds in the granny stitch as I needed just a bit more height for my purse. Debi crocheted her bag using two strands of worst weight yarn so you can change up this pattern pretty easily depending on if you want to use plarn, yarn, or even tarn (t-shirt yarn).

Until next time, happy crafting and make it a great day![…]

Recycled Egg Carton Fire Starters

Cindy — Sun, 15 May 2011 02:54:16 +0000

Recycling egg cartons into fire starters is easy and a very frugal way to start your fire. Whether you are starting a fire in a wood stove or campfire, fire starters are always a handy thing to have on hand. I love making my own fire starters from recycled materials I have on hand.

I use old egg cartons for my base and then add bits of burnable materials such wood shaving from a chain saw, pencil sharpener, or a miter saw. I put some wood shavings in the bottom of the egg carton holes and then added bits of cut up cardboard and scraps of cut up yarn. The added scraps of materials make your fire starters easier to light and help the burning process to produce a great fire starter.

Next I melted leftover wax from an old candle in the glass container it came in. I placed the glass jar in some water in a sauce pan. Over gentle heat, warm the wax until it melts. I added more bits of old wax to the jar as needed to cover the materials in my egg cartons. I used an old spoon to dribble the wax over each fire starter in the egg carton.
Click on photos to supersize

I added some lint from my dryer in one egg carton set as shown above. Dryer lint burns well and is a wonderful material to use for making fire starters.

I dribbled more wax over my fire starters and here is the final results. Now just separate the individual filled egg holders from each other which results in 12 very wonderful fire starters.

Closeup of the finished fire starters made from recycled materials.[…]

Newspaper Bags Recycled into Plarn

Cindy — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 03:50:19 +0000

This tutorial shows how you can recycle plastic newspaper bags into plastic bag yarn or plarn. Converting these narrow plastic bag sleeves into yarn is very similar to cutting retail bags to make plastic bag yarn. I have create a picture tutorial outlining the steps below. This method can be used for any narrow plastic bags like newspaper sleeves, English muffin bags, packing pillows and any other skinny plastic bags. The result is short plastic loops that can be joined into one long continuous strip for crocheting, knitting, or weaving.

First step is to take the newspaper bag which measures 7-1/2″ wide x 21″ long and flatten it out.
Click on any photo to supersize

Step 2 is to fold it in half lengthwise.

Step 3 is to fold it once more lengthwise. Now you are ready for the cutting stage.

Step 4 you cut strips 1 inch wide across the short length of the bag. This creates 1 inch wide loops of plastic.

Step 5 is closeup of the 1 inch wide plarn loops. Because the end is sealed off, cut a very thin strip at the end of bag to open up the last loop.

Step 6 shows how you interconnect the loops and then pull the knot tight.

If you cut the strips about 1 inch wide, it will result in about 19 loops per newspaper bag. Once joined together, this nets about 3-3/4 yards of plastic bag yarn per newspaper bag. Continue to add loops to your chain of plarn rings to make your recycled plastic bag yarn for whatever crafting project you may have in mind.[…]

VCR Tape Designer Bag

Cindy — Sun, 02 May 2010 02:47:06 +0000

This is my first vcr tape designer bag. This bag was a custom order from a customer of mine that sent me a picture of a specific purse she wanted crocheted from recycled vcr tape. I crocheted the shell and added the two handles as outlined in the description that accompanied the photo. I lined the purse and also added a removal insert that I created from plastic canvas to give the bottom of the bag a sturdy base.

I took several photos of the project as it progressed. I hope you will find the photos useful as you craft this recycled vcr tape bag. You could also use the crochet pattern below to make the bag using plastic bags (plarn) or bulky yarn. Just adjust your gauge and work the pattern to create your own unique recycled designer bag.

Free Pattern for Crocheted VCR Designer Handbag

Materials needed:
2) Vcr video tapes recycled into yarn
4) ¾” D rings
1) 1” Button
2/3 yards of fabric for lining
50 inches of 3/8” cording
1) Magnetic closure
1) 15″ long by 4″ wide piece of plastic canvas for bottom insert
Small amount of super glue

Hooks: “N” and “J” size metal hooks
Description: VCR designer handbag measures 15-1/2” wide, 10” tall and 4-3/4” wide
at base with 22” handles.

Directions:
Using N hook with 2 strands of vcr tape held together, Ch 28.

Rnd 1
Hdc in 2nd ch from hook and in ea chain st down to end st. Work 2 Hdc in end st. Then continue around other side of chain by working a Hdc in ea st down to other end st. Work 2 Hdc in end st.

Rnd 2
Hdc in ea st down to the two end sts. Work 2 Hdc in ea of the two end sts. Hdc in ea st down the other side of chain to the 2 end sts. Work 2 Hdc in ea of the two end sts. Do not connect at end of rounds, just continue working Hdc’s in rounds as this creates a seamless bag

Rnd 3
Hdc in ea st down to the three end sts. Work 2 Hdc in ea of the three ends sts. Hdc in ea st down to the other end. Work 2 Hdc in ea of the three end sts.

Rnd 4
Hdc in ea st and work 2 Hdc in the four end sts. Hdc in ea st down to the other end, work 2 Hdc in ea of the four end sts.

Rnd 5
Working in back loops only, add another strand of VCR tape and Sc around the strand and into ea st of round to create bottom of bag. This will help create a strong bag bottom. Drop extra strand of VCR tape at end of round. (This is an option to make your bag bottom stronger, you can skip this option if you want.)

Rnd 6 – 25
Hdc in ea st working in both loops now. […]

E-Waste and Mobile Phone Recycling

Cindy — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:37:21 +0000

What comes to mind when you think about recycling? We all know the importance of recycling when it comes to plastic, glass, tin, and paper but what about electronic trash. Electronic waste is defined as discarded, surplus, obsolete, broken electrical or electronic devices.

Electronic waste or e-waste includes computers, entertainment device electronics, television sets, and mobile phones just to name a few of the most frequently found e-waste items.

Today I want to focus in on mobile phones. Each year nearly two hundred fifty million phones cell phones are discarded and many get thrown away and end up in our trash and landfills. Cell phones contain toxic chemicals and hazardous materials such as copper, lead, arsenic and zinc products just to name a few of the concerning materials.

So what’s the answer? Well mobile phone recycling of course. Not only can you turn your e-trash into cash, you can be helping our environment by keeping them out of our landfills. By recycling your old mobile phones you keep them from leeching into our Earth, contaminating our water aquifers, poisoning our animals and thus harming all of us.

One company in the Uk is making it easier to recycle some of those 68 million old mobile phones found in the UK. Sell My Mobile.com is the UK’s number 1 mobile phone recycling price comparison site. They help you to turn your trash into cash by providing an easy to use search box that will help you identify the make and model of your mobile phone. Then by comparing all the UK’s leading mobile phone recycling companies and with daily updated price checking, you can choose the best deals possible when you sell mobile phones.

Is your old cell phone broken? Never fear — Many of the merchants listed even pay out for broken phones. You could still receive up to 90% of the original working phone offer depending on the level of damage your phone has. The reason is that even damaged mobile phones can be repaired back to factory standard and parts can be reused and refurbished by retailers.

So whatever type of e-waste you may have, please consider recycling it rather than allowing it to end up in the trash. When you choose to reuse, refurbish and recycle, you are making a positive move in making our world greener. A greener world is definitely a goal that we all can support and reach towards. Remember every little bit helps. […]

Recycling Plastic Six Pack Rings

Cindy — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 16:56:08 +0000

This project involves recycling those plastic six pack rings you get from cans into useful towel holders. The rings are cut apart and trimmed with scissors. You may not have noticed but once the rings aren’t around the cans anymore, they aren’t completely round. Using the shape as a towel holder worked out great. It has a natural bend in the ring which accommodates a folded towel over the ring.

Of course I wanted to keep this a recycled crocheted project, so I used t-yarn or tarn to make this towel holder. T-yarn is the yarn created from recycled t-shirts and cut very thin into strips to cover this plastic ring.

Once you crochet a few rounds, you can slide your towel handle around on the plastic ring. The last photo shows about where you want to place your center over the curve in the plastic so your holder is centered. I used a thin tea towel to insert in the ring as it fits better than thicker towels.

Here is the free crochet pattern below. Enjoy!

T-Yarn Towel Ring Holder

Materials needed:
2-3) ozs of white T-shirt cut into ¼” wide strip and stretched to curl into t-yarn
Here is my t-yarn or tarn tutorial on how to make yarn from recycled t-shirts.
1) plastic ring cut from a plastic six-pack holder
1) 5/8” button
Small amount of fingering or thread yarn for trim

Hook: “J” U.S. size metal hook

Description: T-yarn Towel Ring Holder
Holder measures 4” wide and 7-1/4” long when buttoned

Directions:
Row 1
Attach your t-yarn with Sl St around trimmed plastic ring. Sc loosely around the ring and join with Sl St to beg Sc. (Approx 34-36 Sc)

Row 2
Ch2 *Hdc in next 5 sts, then 2 Hdc in next st*. Repeat between * around, ending with Hdc in any remaining sts to finish round. Join with Sl St to top of Ch 2 beginning.

Row 3
Ch 2, Hdc in next 7 sts. (8 sts counting the Ch2)
Move sts around so your handle is at center of natural curve in the ring. Just slide the sts over the ring to get it centered.

Row 4 – 15
Ch 2, Turn. Hdc in ea st until handle measures 5” or desired length. (8 sts across)

With RS facing, Ch 7.

Row 16
Turn and Sl St across chain and Sl St across the 8 sts of handle, and then Ch 7.

Row 17
Turn and Hdc in 2 st from hook and in ea st of chain and handle and across to the other end.

Row 18
Ch 2, turn. Hdc in ea st across to end.

Row 19
Ch 2, turn. Work 1 Hdc dec over the first 2 sts, then Hdc in ea st to last two sts. Work 1 dec Hdc over the last two sts.

Repeat Row 19 until you have just 7 sts remaining.

Buttonhole Row
Ch 2, turn. Work 1 dec Hdc over next 2 sts, […]

Recycling Old Cell Phones

Cindy — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:05:52 +0000

What do you do with your old cell phones? Do you recycle them? Each year nearly two hundred fifty million phones cell phones are discarded and many get thrown away and end up in our trash and landfills. Cell phones contain toxic chemicals and hazardous materials such as copper, lead, arsenic and zinc products just to name a few of the concerning materials.

And we all know what happens to stuff in landfills — It ends up leeching into our Earth, contaminating our water aquifers, poisoning our animals and thus harming all of us.

Recycle Mobile Phones in the UK is a company that is promoting the safe recycling of cell phones. The company provides useful information on suppliers who are paying cash for old cell phones. Through the process of phone recycling you can get your old cell phones disposed of correctly, into responsible hands. These companies know exactly what to do with the old models and how to recycle them efficiently and responsibly. Consequently, fix the phones (if need be) and put them to good and practical use again, as the phones were initially intended. For example, there are mobile phone recycling companies who repair old broken cell phones or use the parts to repair other recycled phones.

Additionally some recycled cell phones are made available to under-developed countries, the military, and nations suffering from natural disasters, such as the recent major earthquake in Haiti, in which thousands of cell phones were sent to that impoverished nation.

It is so easy to simply compare the best price you can get for your handsets that are just lying around and send it to a phone recycling company. Some mobile phone recycling programs will even prepay your delivery cost to help you out. So please check out Mobile Phone Recycling sites like recyclemobilephones.co.uk, to recycle your old phone and as they say in their slogan Get the most for your old mobile and do your bit for the planet!

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T-Yarn Baby Bib

Cindy — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 02:42:50 +0000

Here is my latest t-yarn or tarn project that is created from recycled tee-shirts. I cut an old white tee-shirt up into a very narrow strip about 1/4 inch wide. The shirt I used had no side seams so I just cut around and around the body of the shirt to create one long strip. I then gently pulled on the strip to curl the t-yarn into a nice thin strand which I used to crochet this baby bib. Here is a tutorial on how I cut and curl the t-shirts into curled t-yarn or tarn.

So if you haven’t already tried crafting with recycled t-shirts, check out the process and give it a go. It’s a great way to repurpose those old t-shirts into cool new items.

Free Pattern for Crocheted T-Yarn Baby Bib

Materials needed:

One white T-Shirt cut into ¼” wide strip and stretched to curl into T-yarn (about ½ of shirt used)
1/2 oz of cotton yarn (Pink used)
One hook and eye closure

Hook:
“H” USA size crochet hook

Description: Baby Bib measures 7-1/2” wide at middle and 11” long

Directions:
Ch 18

Row 1
Sc in 2nd ch from hook and in ea chain st down to end. Ch 1, turn. (17)

Row 2
Sc in ea st of row. Ch 1, turn.

Row 3
Work 2 Sc in 1st st, then Sc in ea st to last st of row, 2 Sc in last st. Ch 1, turn.

Row 4
Sc in ea st of row. Ch1, turn.

Row 5
Repeat row 3.

Row 6
Repeat row 4.

Row 7
Repeat row 3.

Row 8 – 22
Sc in ea st of row. Ch 1, turn. (Should measure approx. 6” long after row 22.)

Row23 (Shaping for neck – ea side is worked separate)
Sc in next 9 sts, leave remaining sts unworked. Ch 1, turn.

Row 24
Sk 1st st of row, Sc in next 8 sts. Ch 1, turn.

Row 25
Sc in ea st of row. Ch 1, turn.

Row 26
Sk first st of row, Sc in remaining 7 sts. Ch 1, turn.

Row 27
Sc in next 6 sts. Ch 1, turn. (6 sts on ea row from here on out)

Row 28
Work 1 dec over the first two sts of row (work 1 Sc together over 2 sts to create 1 dec)
Sc in ea st to last st, 2 Sc in last st of row. Ch 1, turn. (6)

Row 29
Work 1 dec over first two sts, Sc in ea st to last st, 2 Sc in last st. Ch 1, turn.

Row 30
Work 2 Sc in 1st st of row, Sc in ea st to the last 2 sts of row, then work 1 dec over last two sts. Ch 1, turn.

Repeat last two rows until a total of 39 rows completed.
FO and weave ends under.

Row 23 (Other side neck shaping)
Working the opposite side, attach yarn using a […]

Crocheted Kitchen Ensemble Set

Cindy — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 23:12:12 +0000

I have been busy crocheting a kitchen ensemble set for an upcoming house warming gift. I was lucky and scored a big bag of cotton yarn at a local thrift store for a wonderful price. I was able to use the cotton yarn to crochet all the kitchen items making this a very frugal gift. Here is my completed kitchen set which includes dishcloths, potholders, and a recycled plastic scrubbie.

Of course no kitchen set of mine could be complete without a touch of recycled materials so I included one of my kitchen scrubbies which are reinforced by adding recycled lettuce netting for extra scrubbing power. The free pattern link and tutorial on how to create the scrubbie is found here.

The granny motif dishcloth, star dishcloth and the potholder are my original patterns. Click on the green links above for the free patterns to those projects. I also have options on these two dishcloth patterns to add a plastic center so they can be used for extra scrubbing. The multi-colored nubby dishcloth pattern shown in the lower left hand corner is from Charlotte over at Crochetville and is available free here.

This has been a wrap up of my latest completed crochet projects. I continue to create new recycled craft ideas. As a sneak preview, I will share that I am finishing a striped purse crocheted in a shell stitch. Each row is a different color as I changed colors of the plastic bags I used every row. It is turning out very colorful and definitely has a unique look. I will be back soon to post that free recycled shell purse pattern. Until then, enjoy your summer!

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