Why Buy Mailers When You Can Upcycle?

It seemed silly to buy new envelopes to ship upcycled goods out to customers.  Once our envelopes ran out, we set off to work on an upcycled solution.  At first, we tried shipping in leftover coffee bags from our morning coffee.  It was smelly though -- and we weren't sure if customers would appreciate the smell.  Is there anyone who doesn't like the smell of coffee?  After some thought -- here's what we came up with...



Yes, that's right -- our food packaging from our own kitchen has become the solution to our shipping problem.  We turned the boxes from our Morning Star veggie chicken meal inside out to reveal the cardboard inside.  We weren't sure if the post office accepted shipping packaging with a lot of print on it.  Once they were turned inside out we taped them together.


These handmade envelopes have worked great for shipping small items.  The envelopes are strong -- and best of all -- upcycled!

Pop Can Butterflies

I got this great punch machine for Christmas that works great for upcycling cans.  Watch it in action.

 The punch cut through an Arizona pop can without a problem.  I was able to get a handful of butterflies from one can.  I have tried other punches, but they barely even made a mark in the aluminum.

 These are the earrings I was able to make from the cut butterfly pieces.  I cut up a plastic soda bottle to make a piece to display the earrings on. These earrings are available in our Etsy Shop.

Beads... Beads... But Not a Sneed

Beads... beads... beads -- but not a single Sneed - no trees had to give their life again in the making of these beads.  We upcycle old magazines, comic books and junk mail that we mostly collect through our local Freecycle.  If you don't know what Freecycle is you should look it up.  It's an awesome way to get things others want to get rid of, or to get rid of something you don't want.

Suffice it to say that we're up to our ears in magazines.  After months of researching, experimenting and massaging sore wrists -- we are beginning to roll out our beads.  Thus far, we have about 40 different styles of beads to bring to you and we'll be gradually adding them to our shop on Etsy and Ebay.

 
We can even make seed beads!  It's amazing how changing the process can create so many shapes.

What Superpower Would You Want?

We just designed a whole new batch of boxes for the new year.  We also created a listing for anyone that wants one done custom.


The empty cigar boxes we use are obtained from a cigar company after they have been used to sell single cigars.  We upcycle them to give them new life.  The comic books are used and come from a variety of sources.

We do special requests.  You can choose your hero theme and whether you want a decorative or wood box.  However, we choose the specific box.  We are limited by what is available and we also like to make sure the box and comic work together in unison.  We take the color and shape of each box into account before beginning its design. 

from Comics to Jewelry

Years ago the Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman were my most favorite thing to read.  Now my beat up old copies have found a new calling.  Soon, we're going to be rolling out these earrings and some bracelets to match.

   

The fun doesn't stop there. We have tons of comic book scraps left over from our custom boxes.  We like to use everything until there's no waste left.  We have all kinds of Marvel and DC Comics themed jewelry in the makings right now.  Email us if you have a specific request.

Valentines Day Gifts: Upcycling to Let You Know We Care

We just rolled out a few special items for Valentines Day.  We recently discovered we could print on bracelets, which opened up a whole new world of fun with these personalized Valentines paper bead bracelets.

     We've also started going through our stacks of upcycle material to find found words.  We found a bunch for Valentines Day.  This opens up whole new possibilities for some children's bracelets we have in the works.  There are a lot of great found words in National Geographic magazines like "Pirates", "Blackbeard", and "nanobots" -- so much fun for future making.                                                                                                                                                                       
Lastly, we bring out the cocoon container beads in a smaller earring version.  They contain hidden messages that can be customized.  



Valentines is right around the corner... we have plenty of handmade ideas for you to make it a special one.

Trash Collection: We’re Looking for Trash to Upcycle

We are currently looking for several items that will be upcycled into something new.  Here’s a list of what we are looking for at the moment.

Magazines

Comic Books (battered is okay)

Cigar Boxes

Coffee Burlap

Corduroy (torn is okay as long as there are good parts to the clothing item)

Junk Mail Flyers (like Kroger, CVS ads – thinner paper and not cardstock)

Send us a message if you have items to donate.