DIY Scraps

Ruffled streamers. Ruffles are still so ubiquitous in the blogosphere, it just kills me. But how brilliant is this? It turns boring old crate paper into something frilly and feminine and elegant and colorful. I own about a gazillion rolls of old and lonely crate paper that have a new life ahead of them thanks to this idea.. pink, red, and light blue are looking f-i-n-e together here.

I have made circular felt banners before, but paper?? Awesome. I had no clue until this project that a sewing machine could rip through paper like it did. New life for all my paper too! Here is a link to the how though it's pretty easy peasy to figure out.

My genius crafty friend once looked at her ginormous pile of empty formula cans and inspiration told her to wrap fabric around them. I copied her, and now they are all over my house serving for different uses. My boys' bathroom has a little gray-colored theme to it, so these sit there with all of their toothbrush and comb and what-have-you items in it. Thank you, first lady of the house Camilla!!

Some shoes need new oomph. I thought rosettes would solve the problem. And for me, they did. I got so carried away that they started showing up on random things all over my closet.... shoes, shirts, and I even made earrings out of them (see below). Easy. Best yet, all those annoying 2.5 x 12 inch fabric scraps are now being used to spice up my life with color. For these rosettes, I googled how to make them and trust me, a plethora of links will pop up- I would cite which site I used but now I cannot find nor remember which one it was- apologies.

Scraps are on my mind more than I should admit- i.e. how should use up this last little bit of stale bread, how can I utilize this box into something functional, etc. Fabric and paper aren't the least of these.... and as much might as I give it, it's hard to not feel urges of desire for new fabric and papers, thus, permitting my scrap piles and scrap bags to proliferate.

A few weeks back I was vehemently determined to put them all to use before buying anything new. And these are a few of the things we (meaning, me, my two year old, and my 1 year old, because they are basically around for all of it:)) put our scraps to- earrings, shoes, storage, and party decorations.... I also used fabric for sprucing up some boring old white onesies and t-shirts, none of which are pictured.

It makes me feel like a part of the great "Green" revolution that has swept over America. It's not perfect, but it's a start to finding new uses for old things.

Do you have any fun crafts using up scraps? What am I missing out on? Would love any of your creative juices shared!!