Top Last Minute Eco Gifts for the Holidays

Do you need a last minute eco gift for the holidays?  We now offer gift certificates to our ReInnovations Upcycle Shop on Etsy.  The gift certificates are available in several different cash values and are only redeemable in our Etsy shop.  You can have your gift certificate delivered via email or you can print it and use it as a stocking stuffer for the holidays.  We have upcycled handmade gifts that are perfect for your earth loving friends and family.

Top 5 Eco Green Gifts for the Holidays

5.   These Superman bracelets are made from an old ripped up comic book.
  



4. We used an old ripped up Wonder Woman Comic book to restore these wonderful and gently used vintage heels we found in a thrift shop.

3.  These lovely butterfly earrings are decorated with butterflies punched from Cheerwine pop cans. They hang on a board made from the Cheerwine box packaging.







2. These paper beads are made from junk mail Kroger and Rite Aid flyers that are so annoying when they come in the mail, but make beautiful beads.






1.  We collect discarded cigar boxes from a cigar company and turn them into lovely comic book themed gifts.

Holiday Cheerwine Butterfly Earrings

 We absolutely love working with pop cans.  Cheerwine is a soda pop made in North Carolina where we have relocated.  We are pretty excited about how these earrings turned out.  There's even more listed in our Etsy and Ebay shop and each pair is made in a different style.

Upcycling a Vintage Purse with Wonder Woman

This vintage purse is one of our most favorite finds. It has an awesome flip mirror inside.  We decided to upcycled this purse with Wonder Woman comic books. The deep forest green of the bag compliments the comics nicely.  

We realized after starting the bag that it could use a leather shine with some dark green polish.  The bag is in great conditions, but does have some worn leather look in some areas. Some polish would make the artwork pop out more.

There is still  a lot of work that needs to be done to make this bag awesome. We're having fun doing it, though.  Once new life is breathed into this bag -- it will be available in our Etsy and Ebay shop.

New Comic Book Boxes Available!

 We make our comic book boxes by upcycling used cigar boxes we obtain from a cigar company once the cigars are sold as singles and are emptied. We also have a stack of old comic books that are torn and worn and waiting for new life.  

The comic book boxes are actually the most sought after items in our shop.  We do custom orders of your favorite comic, as well.

Comic Book Paper Beads and Bracelets!

Lately, we've been having a lot of fun working with comic books. They make pretty awesome paper beads.

 We begin by using sock size knitting needles to roll our beads.
 
Next, we add glue that dries clear and hard.  Once they dry, we coat them with a glossy finish.  The end effect is pretty stellar.

Some of the beads get made into awesome stretch bracelets or chain bracelets for our shop.  We have comic book paper bead bracelets available in adult and child size in our shop on Etsy and Ebay.

We also have bulk quantities of the beads available if you want to design your own comic book jewelry.

In the Making: Upcycled Comic Book Accessories for the Holiday Season

     We decided to begin sifting through the boxes of old comic books in our closet and to start giving them new life this holiday season.  It's fun watching an old item become a piece of pop art.

      I've always loved digging through the racks at thrift stores. Partially, because I can't bring myself to pay high prices for new low-quality clothes -- and partially because I love looking for treasure.

 
     Our new focus on working with comic books has given me an excuse to hunt for treasure.  The Wonder Woman heels in the picture above are my first attempt at covering an entire shoe with comics.  I'm pleased with how it turned out. The heels were an old vintage pair of heels that I found at a thrift shop.  Maybe someone would have bought them -- or maybe they would have sat there for years.  As a piece of canvas to work with -- they were irresistible to me.  The vintage style was perfect for laying down some vintage Wonder Woman.  Vintage Wonder Woman comics look so much better than the more modern comics.

     After that, I was officially on a Wonder Woman kick.  Last holiday season, comic book jewelry was a hit.  However, I didn't make a wide selection last year. This year, I decided to make theme sets of 5 paper bead stretch bracelets.  The first pack of Wonder Woman bracelets sold within a few hours of posting them to Ebay.  Keep an eye out in the next few weeks because more theme packs will be rolling out.  If you have a favorite comic book -- or have a friend you need a custom request for -- contact us and we'll make it for you.  These packs of 5 comic theme bracelets are going to be listed on Etsy and Ebay for $15 a pack.

      Another great thrift store find was a handful of red & pink  or brown & pink wallets.  I found them in almost new condition.  The surface of the wallets was just screaming to be filled with comic book heroes.  I decorated the first of the bunch with Supergirl.

     Hopefully, I'll have time to roll out more of these wallets before the holidays.  Anyhow, support upcycled gifts this holiday season.  Why would you want to?  We may be able to replicate a process - but never an item.  This means the gift you give to your loved one is going to be one of a kind -- the only one in the world. Why support mass production -- it's destructive to the environment and our health to keep creating new stuff.  There are thrift shops, garage sales and dumpster bins just full of stuff that can be given new life.

     All the upcycled items (except the bracelets- but we have other bracelets) are available in our Etsy and Ebay shop.  We also have some purses and clutches in the works that will be posted in the shops soon. Come visit us!

and Have an Upcycled Christmas this Season --

The ReInnovations Upcycle Shop Rap

An artist we found on Fiverr.com created this video for our shop.

Check out his sweet rap about ReInnovations Upcycle Shop and what we do.

When you're done -- check us out on Etsy!

...and work continues

 We added the second layer to our Wonder Woman shoes, next we're going to start coating it with layers of matte gloss.

One Shoe, Two Shoe -- Wonder Woman Shoe

One shoe down in our experiment trying out a new method for putting together comic book shoes.  There were difficulties with the first method we tried.  This method is proving much easier, and looks awesome.

The images in the photos are the first of two layers.  The second layer will include some cutouts of Wonder Woman and a few "CRASH", "SMAASH" and "SKREEE" blurbs.  We're thinking of using a matte finish rather than glossy to match the vintage matte brown of the original shoe underneath.

If you wear size 9 1/2 an want to preorder these shoes before we even post them for sale on -- send us a private message in our Etsy shop.

If your a crafter, and you want to know how to make some shoes yourself... you should LIKE us on Facebook.  We've been posting information all month on working with comic books.

Check us out on Facebook...
https://www.facebook.com/ReInnovations


Toodles.

Getting Snazzy: Comic Convention Gear

We're beginning a new adventure in upcyling comic books.  Now we're hunting out unique gently used or vintage shoes, purses, wallets and other accessories to dress up with Super Heroines and Villains.  We've collected a lot of fun items, and can't wait for you to see their designs when we're done.

These items are a great way to get snazzed-up for the upcoming comic conventions all over the U.S.

"Laser Beams"

Set your laser beams on this!  Chris has taken his designs to a new height.  It's been a long process finishing this piece because we just moved to Asheville, North Carolina.

We're super excited about the move, and ready to start creating some wonderful new pieces.

This geometric piece has some super fine detailed cuts in its design. 

The bright backgrounds add a nice touch to the box.

It's now available in our Etsy shop, and will soon be available on Ebay.  Keep an eye out for moregreat designs.  Sends us a message if you have something custom you'd like done.

Huge Moving Sale

We're planning to move to Asheville, North Carolina within the next month.  The store will still be happening and we will have a shop on the streets of downtown Asheville.  However, we really want to pack light.  So, all our handmade inventory is now on sale!!!

 

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.