Saturday, August 18, 2012

Upcycle One Gallon Water Bottles into Pretty Gift Baskets!


My husband and I buy Crystal Geyser spring water in one gallon plastic jugs; we go through a lot of them and I have been putting the old containers into the recycle bin. After recently watching two informative documentaries about plastics "Bag It" and "Plastic Planet" on NetFlix, I realized that "recycling" plastic may not be the best way to recirculate plastics, many companies do not what to reuse plastic and prefer manufacturing a new, "clean" product, thus many of our plastics get shipped overseas for child labor sweat shops to rummage through and reuse. It takes plastics hundreds of years to disintegrate! Now, I am inspired to UPCYCLE plastics as much as possible and transform them into something functional and beautiful.

In the picture above, it shows the lovely little gift baskets that I made out of recycled Crystal Geyser one gallon water bottles. All you need to make these is: a one gallon plastic bottle (similar to the one I used), a box cutter, some wrapping paper with a pretty design on it, scissors, and packaging tape. Cut the bottle in half with the box cutter creating a cup-like bowl, this will be your basket; then simply wrap the original base of the bottle like you would wrap a gift and secure all paper edges with packaging tape. Vwa La! You have a gorgeous, little gift basket that you can fill with all sorts of goodies for birthdays and holidays!

Stay tuned, I will soon be posting another "how-to" about an upcycling project that you can create with the leftover, funnel-like topper from this water gallon container!

Friday, August 17, 2012

Bag It!


Inspire and Inform! I recently watched this wonderful documentary called "Bag It" on NetFlix! It is very informative and gets you thinking about PLASTICS! Now I am going crazy about plastic! I have always been inspired about recycling and upcycling glass, metal, paper, and plastic all about the same...Now, my plastic upcycling is going up full throttle baby! So please stay tuned for some plastic upcycling ideas shared on my blog! As I mentioned above, this "Bag It" film can be found on Netflix and may be found at your local library...mine in Tulsa, Oklahoma has it! This film starts off talking about the infamous "plastic bag" but then ventures off on everything "plastic". Best of luck and happy upcycling to all!!!

Please visit Jessica's shop of upcycled and vintage treasures at: Eco-Friendly Freckles

Radiant Ramblers!

Today I was delightfully surprised by a blog feature from Edi of Memories for Life Scrapbooks! Thank you Edi! She featured my Vintage Sixties Rambler Car Advertisement while sharing a cute story about her own retro Rambler car! Check it out, leave a comment, and share the love! Edi also has an Etsy Shop with the same name of her blog "Memories for Life Scrapbooks".