Craft Friday

Black Friday brings out the materialism in our society, without a doubt. So this Black Friday I decided to suppress materialism, or at least modify it.* That's why I invited some friends over (although only 2 could actually attend) for a Craftluck! We shared a meal, lots of desserts, and then launched right into our recycling projects.

First up: denim rug or other creation. Kelly did some clothing deconstructing this summer & we had brainstormed some ideas for the scraps left over. We decided to recycle our old, hole-y jeans into a rug. The project is still in its newborn stage, but I'll be sure to post a picture if & when Kelly finishes it! My idea behind the rug is to cut thin strips of jeans & braid the strips together, tying them when you are almost to the end of your strip. Another option that I might try with my own clothing remnants would be to use a huge crochet hook & make a crocheted rug. This is a project for another day, though!

Our candle mold station!

 Second item on the list was our candles! We set up a laboratory to melt old wax (read: aged & ancient church candles saved for such an occasion by my resourceful grandfather.). Thanks to the tradition of using particular colors for the Advent candle wreath, we even had some pink. In the future when I do the project again, I'm going to melt down the beautiful dark blue candles! Tips for candle making: put newspaper EVERYWHERE in your workspace. Last time I embarked on such an adventure I added some new pock marks to my parents' kitchen floor. Whoops! Also, candle dyes seem to dilute quickly, or maybe I just didn't buy good dyes the first time I did this. Nevertheless, if you're a cheap-o like me, better get used to having a lot of pale & cream-colored candles in your life! On the other hand, candle scents do seem to go a long way, so I do recommend buying a small bottle of candle scent.

Our third & final project for Craft Friday was recycled glasses. We had high hopes for these potential beauties. In preparation I spread the word to everyone I knew (my sister & friends) to save their wine & beer bottles for donation to my cause. We had about 30 bottles ready to be transformed from average recycling to extraordinary upcycling! You heard me: we were going to make our very own drinking glasses from the old bottles. Sounds great, right? And we even had a simple process to follow (about which we'd heard of from our dear friend C.C.). Just grab a cotton string, soak it in nail polish remover, tie it tightly in the place on the bottle you'd like to be the top of the glass, set it on fire & plunge it in ice water to finish it off! Flawless.

Not. At right is a photo of my hand holding the bottle for one of our 370 attempts to successfully heat up the bottle & cut the glass. As you now know, it didn't work & I'm not convinced that that process is actually successful. But I'll welcome any proof to the contrary. After attempting one too many times, we found a creepy video online & went out to buy a glass cutter (only $6 at the local hardware store!). To make a long story short, we did learn how to cut glass successfully, but we are still stumped as to how we can make these creations smooth enough to be safe.

Even though our final project divulged some stumbling blocks mid-process, I'd declare our first ever Craft Friday a success. I'm interested in making Craft Friday a tradition & have lots of crafts to add to the list for next year (lint mache bowls, anybody?! And then we can decoupage them?!). It was an excellent follow-up to Thanksgiving! I hope you all had as great a holiday weekend as I did!

*I have to admit, I went shopping all day Saturday. I'm sorry. I know, I'm a hypocrite. But family tradition dictates that all of the females above age 10 in our family get together to tackle our Christmas shopping lists! It's fun, exhausting, overwhelming, but also gratifying!

Happy Lint

I walked into my room and proclaimed, "I have an idea for lint!"

My roommate thought I said, "I have an idea for Lent!"

Neither of these statements makes much sense.

My mother has always saved lint from the dryer and made it into fire starters. She stuffs lint into egg cartons, pours wax over it and you have compact cubes of lint to use in your fire. That's the first thing to learn about lint: it is incredibly flammable.

I knew that my mom was not the average mother; I didn't know anybody else who saved lint but I wasn't really bothered by it. Until this year when I first had to wash my clothes away from home. My room is conveniently located near the laundry room and I really don't mind doing wash.

One thing I do mind is throwing away anything that can be reused or recycled. After months of throwing lint into the trashcan, I decided that there had to be more to life.

There is. I discovered a whole host of ideas about what to use lint for. I'll share my favorite recipe with you:

Make Lint Clay!

• Cover 3 cups of lint with 2 cups of water in a saucepan.
• Slowly stir 1 cup of flour.
• Add a few drops of vegetable oil.
• Stir over low heat until the mixture binds together.
• Pour onto a sheet of wax, parchment, or newspaper to cool.
• After you're done molding it, the clay may take 3-7 days to dry.

You can just as easily make lint papier mache (which is very similar to clay, just use about 2/3 c flour), lint paper (just add lint to your paper pulp, it won't stand well on its own), lint animals (be careful, they're flammable!), and lint firestarters.

Most importantly, lint is compostable. So don't throw it in your trashcan! Put it outside, let it fertilize your garden or just compost in a corner of your garden or behind a bush. Hopefully we'll get the point that we all create more trash than we need to we'll make an effort to reduce unnecessary waste!