Need a few minutes fuss-free? Here’s a quick toy you can whip up in thirty seconds using recycled cardboard: a cardboard cell phone. I posted the tutorial over at Make and Takes. These pretend phones kept my sons busy for hours. You can make many toys out of regular cardboard; these simple toys will inspire your child’s imagination and give them lots of room for …

It’s Back to School time, and seeing all the school supplies in the stores is making me giddy!  I love school supplies!!  Of course I couldn’t resist creating a little project in honor of Back to School — a cute little recycled pouch to hold some crayons and maybe a notebook.
This little pouch would be so cute clipped to a backpack.  I just want to make …

Covering school books is a back-to-school tradition. Whether your school requires it or not, it’s a fun activity to do in preparation for the new school year. Over at Make and Takes, I posted a tutorial for making book covers out of recycled chip bags and patterned duct tape. I love the pop art element of reusing commercial packaging, plus the earth-friendly aspect of reusing …

T-shirt “seconds” are in stock at my local dollar store!  There are so many fun, bright colors — I just couldn’t resist stocking up on over a dozen to use for projects!  I’ve been known to create clothes using dollar store T-shirts as raw materials…  I just had to do another variation!
After looking at all the colors of shirts I came home with, I just HAD to dive …

We didn’t have Barbies when I was a kid (something about them being “too grown up”), but my Grandma had all my aunt’s old 60s Barbies, so we’d play up a storm with the Barbies (and Midge!) when we visited. Along with the readymade clothes and accessories, making little goodies for Barbie made our play even more fun. We would always use the staircase for …

This handmade Indiana Jones satchel, like the Upholstery Sample Backpack, was made for my 3 year-old son. And, like the backpack, it’s a quick project that is elegant in its simplicity. My son really enjoys the Lego Indiana Jones game, and loves to pretend he’s Indy. And what would Indy be without his satchel? I used a panel from a leather skirt to make this …

What do you do when you have spare upholstery samples, a couple of hours to kill, and no sewing machine? You hand-sew a backpack out of upholstery samples, that’s what you do! I could have finished this in fifteen minutes with a sewing machine, but there was no sewing machine.* The good news? If you are afraid of sewing machines, you can make this backpack …

Today’s project is inspired by the idea of “kitbashing,” where you take pieces from several model kits to create something new and unique.  My family first got into this concept on a recent trip to my brother J. Clark’s house, where we created some unique model spaceships out of items we went and found at a local thrift store.  That was only a few weeks …

Since spring began, there are flowers everywhere (outside AND in blogland). It’s so beautiful! I’ve gathered up some thrifty ways to bring the beauty of flowers indoors. Done any good flower projects lately? What’s your favorite way to bring the outdoors into your home?

Recycled Jar Vases
Kellie at Ada and Darcy shared this tip for making colorful vases out of recycled glass containers. Don’t you love …

Over at Gingerbread Snowflakes, my good friend Pam has created some adorable Mushroom Canisters from recycled goods and stuff from her stash. Yes, that’s right, I said “stash.” I know I haven’t said anything about it all month, since we had our whirlwind April Stash Bust month where all I talked about was stash, stash, stash. I still need to bring you a few more …