Crafty Uses for Your Home and Office Waste

There could be a couple of reasons that you’re interested in using waste for art and craft projects. Maybe you just want some ideas for alternative things to do with your waste other than throwing it away or just recycling. Alternatively, perhaps you enjoy crafting but don’t want to waste resources. Besides, commercial craft materials can be very expensive!

Crafty projects with waste are only limited by your imagination. Here we have rounded up a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing! 

Pots and Jars

Plastic pots and jars can come in handy for all sorts of craft projects. At the simplest level you can use yogurt pots and glass jars as little paint pots and glue holders. Children will also enjoy using food packaging for playing shop - cheaper than the plastic toy food you’ll buy in toy shops that’s for sure!

If you come across any pretty bottles or glass jars they make nice storage containers or vases. You can even get some glass paints and set about making your own eye-catching designs.

Fashion

There are loads of fashion statements you can make with household waste. People are increasingly trying to create a unique style and by customising your own look with unwanted household waste you’ll definitely look more original than if you spend loads on the high street.

Old clothes can be customised in numerous ways. Cutting up and reconstructing old T-shirts is especially popular. Your male friends or relatives may have some old T-shirts that are too big which you can personalise. Band T-shirts are especially trendy. Some ideas include lacing coloured ribbon up the sides or the back, adding lace and sewing on sequins and beads.

If you live with someone who likes to sew you can bet there will be a box of mixed buttons around somewhere. They are like treasure to some crafters and clothing be-decked with buttons is really fashionable at the moment. Use them to jazz up dresses, shirts and T-shirts, making them into ear-rings, string them into a necklace and decorate brooches and hair pins. If you are ever recycling or re-using the fabric from shirts and jackets always cut the buttons off and add them to your button stash.

Boys don’t have to be left out either. Jeans, T-shirts and shirts can all be jazzed up with fabric paints, screen-printing or some strategic chopping.

There are even some instructions online for making a bag from old juice cartons. It might sound naff but they have a very modern, stylish Japanese look and if you saw one in a shop you’d pay over the odds. Just google ‘juice carton bag' for loads of instructions.  

Paper Goods

Most businesses and homes produce at least some waste paper. Magazines, newspapers and coloured papers are great for collage and decoupage.

If you’re an aspiring drawer or artist the blank side of waste paper is fine for practicing and is far less wasteful than buying drawing books.

You can even use old paper to make…more paper! Good instructions are available at www.ecofriendlykids.co.uk/PaperMaking.html

Homeware

If you haven’t used all your leftover fabric up on making new fashions for yourself you can use them to jazz up your home. Old fabric can be shredded up to stuff cushions. You can also make the cushion covers from old tablecloths, curtains and bedspreads. Charity shops often have these items with retro designs on them.

Old lampshades can be fabric painted to brighten them up and modernise them. Check the instructions on the paint to make sure it’s suitable Look around trendy home décor sites and shops for design inspiration.

Using old records is popular these days. You can melt records to make unusual bowls and use sleeve art to decorate your walls, for decoupage and even to make bags and folders.

This article really only scratches the surface of crafts you can do using items you would initially presume were waste and fit for the bin. The possibilities are endless so get your thinking cap on - if you put your mind to it you can probably make yourself one from an old egg box!

How to make a house with waste materials

Recycled Houses

Bulb Buffoon

 THINGS REQUIRED

An opaque white or coloured bulb (a fused one), a large colourful printed balloon, a cardboard square, strong glue and red and black marble paper.

METHOD

1. Stick the bulb onto the cardboard square with glue.
2. Cut out eyebrows and eyes from the black marble paper.
3. Cut out a nose and mouth from the red paper.
4. Stick these on the bulb as shown.
5. Now slip the open end of the balloon over the metal portion of the bulb.

Switch to LED and Save Energy

1. The LED advantage: LED (light emitting diodes) are solid state technology and offers the most efficient (energy savings) form of lighting available. In comparison to conventional incandescent light bulbs, LEDs can be equated at approximately 7 to 8 time equivalence. For example, a 3 watt LED can produce as much illumination as a 20 watt incandescent light bulb.

2. On average, LEDs last 3 to 5 times longer than fluorescents and 20 to 30 times longer than incandescent.

3. LED lamps allow less maintenance costs, lower heating and utility costs and reduces the need for higher rated cable, transformers and electrical components.

4. LED lamps are very resilient, shock and vibration proof and virtually waterproof.

5. LEDs are smaller and more compact and provide more light output per square inch than any other light source.

6. LED lamps produce very little heat and no UV rays, making them safer to handle and safer to use. Ideal for sensitive fabrics/paintings.

7. LEDs are not sensitive to extreme temperatures (unlike fluorescent).

8. Solid state LEDs can be controlled with a processor to achieve unique lighting effects.

9. LEDs are available in cool white, warm white and multiple colors.

10. LEDs draw (on average) about 1/10th the power of today's conventional lighting, providing new alternative solutions to conventional energy saving lamps. LEDs are the most environmentally friendly lamp technology.

11. Along with Fluorescent bulbs, LED technology is the future of lighting. It can reduce many types of pollution and meet the need for the continued world wide energy demand

Save Earth with LED lights

LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. LED's are now found on almost every electronic device including MP3 players DVD , TV's, clock radios and computers. LED's have been popular for decades, however today they are cheaper, brighter and come in more colors than ever before. While the incandescent light bulb has been the light of choice for at least 100 years, many believe the LED will soon replace it. Here is how LED light bulbs work:

What is an LED Light Bulb?

LED's are very similar to traditional light bulbs, except that they fit directly into an electrical circuit. LED's do not have a filament, so they generally last for a long, long time without burning out. Because there is no filament, LED's do not get hot and require far less electric power than traditional light bulbs due to their efficiency. In fact, LEDs are illuminated by electrons that run through the semiconductor material that LEDs are connected to.

What is a Diode?

An LED is a light emitting diode. A semiconductor diode is a two-terminal device, sometimes described as a pn. An LED is fabricated from a semiconductor material. One side of the semiconductor is attached to the P side which is the anode; the other side of the semiconductor is attached to the N side, the cathode. Electricity can flow from the p side to the n side. However, no electricity can flow in reverse. In effect, therefore, a diode is a unidirectional conductor.

Components of an LED Light

Common components of an LED include: A whisker which is connected to the anode, the anvil, which is connected to the cathode, a lens to illuminate the light created for distances and a high impact plastic casing to protect the LED.

The Color of an LED Light

LEDs are available in a variety of colors. While popular colors include red, yellow and green, one of the most difficult colors to create is white. In fact, it is currently not possible to create pure white for mass production. Most LED flash lights or light bulbs today that are white in color are actually not pure white, but whitish-blue.

LEDs Offer Many Benefits

There are many reasons why LED Light bulbs continue to be popular. Here are some of the main benefits they offer:

• LEDs are extremely efficient and require very little current to illuminate. Since they do not have a filament, LEDs don't heat up, making them perfect for many electronic applications where heat is detrimental. In a traditional light bulb, the vast majority (sometimes more than 80%) of the electricity used to illuminate a light bulb is wasted not in light, but in heat.
• LEDs are manufactured within an epoxy resin epoxy, which means that that they are virtually indestructible. Compared to a traditional light bulb, an LED is far more durable.
• LEDs can be mass produced. Just like traditional light bulbs, they are extremely affordable to produce in large numbers.
• LEDs are considered to be solid state devices. Solid state refers to any item that has no moving parts. When an item has no moving parts, it is generally more reliable because of less friction and fewer parts that can malfunction.