Cheap and Easy - Recycled Crafts!
Be honest...Have you ever been a dumpster diver?
I have said it before and I am not embarrassed to admit it----I AM CHEAP! My husband is convinced that I will end up on the TV Show Hoarders and he could be right! At least once a week, I see something that he has thrown away that I quietly pull out of the trash and hide until I have the inspiration and time for a project. I am constantly watching these home improvement shows where the person finds junk and turns it into a masterpiece. The professional junkers usually spend hours stripping, painting, glazing, and constructing their creations. Me, on the other hand, my attention span just won't allow for it. I have to find simple projects that I can do without help and with minimal tools. Luckily, while my husband is embarrassed by my trill for dumpster diving..He is usually impressed with the end result. Here are two that took a few minutes and turned out!
RECYCLED TOWEL RACK:
At the end of the summer, I found this lonely piece of fence in my father's trash bin. It was a leftover piece and I hated to see it thrown away. At first, I had planned to use it like a bulletin board for my home office. I quickly painted it and sat it aside in the kitchen. I noticed that it began taking on a new shape....suddenly towels were being placed on it (just like the treadmill in my bedroom). I loved this idea so much that I waited for a while and found another to place in my bathroom. It is a little touch of "country" but still can be made to look pretty sheik. I like to place mismatched towels on it..gives it a bit more of a shabby feel!
I imagine that there are tons of uses for this trashed item! Use pins to tack up family photos to add interest to a picture wall.Use it in your kitchen as a memo board...whatever you choose, its recycling something that certainly would have been trash.
DUMPSTER ARTWORK:
This one was so simple it was even amazing to my husband. I have the habit of starting a project then taking months to get them completed. This required no paint or effort on my part! I found an ugly broken broken picture frame in the garage when I was cleaning it out. I just couldn't bring myself to throw it out!!! I took all of the backing off and eliminated the broken glass. I kept just the wooden rectangle. It has sat in a closet until just yesterday. I had a blank wall in my newly painted kitchen (yes, its a wild color) and I felt that I needed something funky to place on it! So--I dug through a box of my "treasures" and found this rooster form. I simply hung him in the middle of the broken frame and to me (and maybe me only) I created artwork!
Sometimes there are not too many steps and certainly not much time involved in a recycled art project. They may have been cheap and easy but certainly cute additions to any room!
