Plastic Bottle Cap

Today, I will be finishing the process of everything you can do with the plastic water bottle. If I can come up with just one craft for all parts of the bottle, then I can start the process again and come up with more.

So far to date, I have made bags with the bottom, bracelets with the center, tussie mussie's with the top, wreaths with the plastic ring, and last but not least crochet magnets with the cap.

I am now ready to start the process again and create new items.

Here are a couple of my plastic bottle cap magnets.

I need a pin for Halloween, so I believe I will be making crochet bottle cap pumpkins.

Buttons

One thing I am not is a clothes shopper. I dress with the classic styles. My clothes last me forever. On occasion, I may not buy the classic, but very rare. When I wear out a piece of clothing, it almost breaks my heart. Because, I have had the piece for so long, it holds a lot of history. With the fact that I can't wear the item anymore, I have a difficult time getting rid of it. I have so many memories of, "Oh, I wore this when".

I am learning to let go of the pieces but still trigger the memories. I am not a quilter. I have tried, but it is not something I have the patience for. So instead of making quilts with my clothing that is no longer serviceable for wear, I cover buttons with a piece of the fabric to hold the memories.

I love this idea, because I have the memory without my closets being over crowded.

Pinecone

Last night I decided I would try my hand at making brown plastic bag pine cones. I think for the first try they have hope and will continue to try and work with this project before heading on to something new.

I crochet so much these days, I am going to try freeform crochet. My daughter is a big time purse person and that will be my first project. A freeform purse. I think I will collect some vintage potholders and build the freeform around the potholder.

I love to thrift shop, only issue is, I spend hours upon hours with the process and before I know it the day is done. As long as I am enjoying myself, it shouldn't be an issue, right?

Plarn

Today, I made plarn all day. Thanks to those that donated their grocery bags. I must of cut and slip knot close to 100 brown plastic bags. This should last me for a while, hopefully. I plan on making clasp coin purses with the plarn, but for today, just a small pouch to put my rings in while I bowl. The nice thing about the brown bags is any button will go with them.

I collect buttons and have a really hard time crafting with them because I don't want to part with them. Especially the vintage ones. I usually make button stems with them and put them in a vintage bottle to display, but today, one of the buttons will travel with me, attached to a small pouch.

The purpose of making the plarn was to clear my entry way and thoroughly clean the front part of the house. I had four bags of either grocery bags or plastic bottles. I have managed to eliminate one and still haven't started cleaning. I did not realize it would take all day to make plarn, but I have contributed to keeping the bags out of the landfill, so it was well worth it.

Guess what I will be doing this evening instead of watching TV?

Temari

I make yarn, or as they call it plarn, from my plastic bags. It is a great way to recycle and reuse. The only part of the bag that is not used when making plarn is the bottom of the bag and the handles. I have placed those pieces in an old sock, knowing that I need to come up with some way to use that part of the bag. In the process of placing those in the sock, I realized that I was creating a new form of stuffing.

We all have them and don't tell me you don't. Socks that get get old, socks your dogs chew up, socks that you wash and for some reason one mysteriously disappears.

They are perfect for making Temari balls. Use your plastic bags as stuffing, and if you don't crochet, well here is your opportunity to use yarn in a different way. Wrap, wrap and wrap that stuffed sock with yarn.

By stuffing the excess yarn in an old sock, I came up with the idea to make Temari Balls. I cut the socks down to a more manageable size and stuff with the excess plastic and then wrap the sock with yarn to form a tennis ball size Temari.

I have made many of these yarn balls as I call them. When creating, I don't always follow tradition or text book instructions. I come up with ideas and thoughts that give me the opportunity to express who I am or options that are different and new. Bring something new to the table. Is that not what it is all about?

My thing is, I don't want to do the traditional stitching that is used in the Temari ball. I want to embroidery on the yarn ball. I like to incorporate the old with the new. I never discount vintage, it has held the test of time and it is the base. So with that in mind, I am going to spend this evening, designing a way to place some vintage stitching techniques and colors onto the Temari ball.

Crocheted Stones

One of my craft fair items this year is the crocheted stone. I love to crochet. It keeps my hands busy and it keeps me out of trouble. My Aunt Sally taught me this art when I was in my early 20's. I have not crocheted as much as I would like to over the years, but I am definitely catching up over the past few years.

Seems that every craft I do incorporates crocheting in it, but not always. I think crocheting gives me a chance to sit and relax but still keep my hands busy. Gives me a chance to think or create new ideas or just ponder in my thoughts.

To me, creating is a form of freedom of speech. It gives me that opportunity to do things the way I want to do them, when I want to do them, and there is nothing to judge, no argument's, you own it and it is yours.

The crocheted stones are small and I place them with my sea shells or any nautical items that I collect. It brings both earth and water together for me.

Quarter End

It's quarter end where I work and that becomes life itself. This weekend, I am going to take a break and work on paper, paper, paper. Transforming all that junk mail, envelopes, magazines into a new creations, it gives me the opportunity to transform myself as well.

I am just now noticing that the art of communication has changed and I need to change. What was acceptable and not acceptable years ago, is not the case today. I need to transform the why I communicate.

So this weekend will be about changing all that junk paper into a piece of art and researching to change my old communication style into a new communication style. I think by doing this, not only will I eliminate a lot of paper in my life, I will accomplish and establish a new communication style that will be more acceptable for the times.

Of course, just as a new creation, a new communication style does not happen over night.

Developing in this area is my biggest challenge this year and I don't think I am going accomplish a complete change this year, but I can at least establish a foundation and work towards transformation.

On that note, as I outline my objectives and set new communications standards, I will also be creating and changing all that junk paper into something more useful.

Homemade paper, seed paper, beads, paper seed bombs, gift tags and hopefully a new items will arise.

Hopefully, with this process, I can start to eliminate the amount of paper that flows through this house and get a new development on communicating and how to organize paperless.