Category: Recycle it

Wedding Gift Ornament

This from ChristyRobbins: Take the couple’s invitation and cut into strips. Wrap around a pencil to coil up. Insert into a clear ornament. Give it as a wedding gift for them to hang on their tree every Christmas–simple, elegant, inexpensive, and will be treasured forever!

Christy advises this would also be cute for baby shower invites, or other special occasions.

Too Easy Melted Bead Suncatchers

Reblogged from craftster.com: “Melted the beads (400 degrees for about 20 minutes) in a metal cake pan and some ceramic dishes. Drilled a hole in them and strung them on fishing line.” “I used very cheap beads!! It was a big bag of beads from Michaels that I spent about four dollars on. For the blue and green catchers , I sorted the beads out. I had to buy a clear bag of beads too because there were no clear beads in the first bag I bought. Most importantly…make one thin layer of beads at the bottom of the pan. After the beads cool, you can just turn the pan upside down and the suncatcher falls right out…  I was able to melt these beads in cake pans,ceramic carafes and coffee mugs. I also did a group in a muffin pan…..that worked really well.”

Doitandhow Update: For the suncatcher, we tried clear, colored transluscent and opaque pony beads. The colored transluscent beads give prettier results. You can also use other size pans. I used a mini muffin pan and made cute little discs of colors. Once cool, they just pop right out! WARNING: melting plastic is stinky, if not toxic (?) so make sure your kitchen is well ventilated.