Recycling, Reusing and Giveaway!

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED. JANICE #2 WON!

Thank you all for entering.

I really like recycling, reusing, and repurposing items. My next column in our local newspaper will be about that very topic. But before that article is published, I’d like to share a wonderful book I received recently to review. It’s Eco Craft by Susan Wasinger.

In this user-friendly book, Susan gives the reader over 30 different, creative green projects. Her four sections – decorate, create, illuminate, and celebrate – list clear and colorful step-by-step instructions on making a variety of recycled projects I have never seen or even thought about before. The six-pack screen and the grocery bag shade were just two of those. In her projects she uses mostly materials we all have around the house: glass jars and bottles, yellow pages and phone books, milk jugs, soda cans, and tin cans. Also, her ideas can be easily converted to materials you have around the house.

I really love this book and I was so excited I could hardly wait to get started. So far I’ve made two different projects.  As I’m looking back through this book to write the review, I’m seeing others that I’ve just got to make!

I’ve been wanting to make a recycled tote but just couldn’t find directions I really wanted to attempt until this book. She made her tote out of coffee bags. Since we haven’t saved our coffee bags (we will now!), I substituted a cat food bag.

I cut up my cat food bag, made sure that the inside white material would be the outside of my bag, taped it all together with colorful duck tape and added a couple staples. Love this tote.

It is so strong and was so much fun to make. Using the inside white lining on the outside of the bag made it so versatile. I love the silver duck tape and could see another one made just with the silver.

The next project I would never have thought about. We don’t buy much produce since hubby grows most of our food, but we do buy mushrooms. (We did try growing mushrooms, but that’s another story!) Anyway, they come in these blue containers. She used a plastic-to-go container, but I thought this would work fine with her technique.

She used glue and water to paste newspaper strips onto the container.  I remember doing something like this when I was a kid. She added tissue paper on the inside to give it a little color. I decided to take it a step further. I added tissue paper accents on both the inside and outside and covered with sparkle Mod Podge!

Now to decide what to store in it. Let’s see what I have around here that needs a home.

I spotted another one of those mushroom containers in the fridge. I’m looking forward to having a whole set of these in my cave. They can be used as drawer dividers or just colorful bins to contain stuff. Of course, I can see using scrapbook and homemade papers and glitzy embellishments instead of newspaper. Pretty neat way to save something from the dumpster. It’s fun making new from something we usually discard and can’t recycle.

I also wanted to mention that I really enjoyed her introduction about turning green and starting where you are with what you have on hand. She gives the reader a little bit of personal information on her quest to repurpose and reuse. And her projects sure inspired me to do more eco-crafting.

And now for the great news! This book can be yours by just commenting on this post. The drawing will close Wednesday, June 23 at 6 pm CST. I will be using the random generator or maybe I’ll put all the names in the hat and let hubby draw. Anyway, be sure that you leave a way for me to contact you to get your mailing address. Good luck!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are 100% my own. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review and received no monetary compensation. The giveaway prize being offered is the review copy I received.