I love recycled/upcycled crafts.  I love being able to make something beautiful and/or useful from something that would otherwise be junk.  (My hubby thinks of this as a picture of redemption!)  I also like to find great ways to reuse things so they don’t go into the landfills!  It can be hard, though, to track down ideas for projects to use up “trash” items, that don’t look like preschool projects.  (And I’m pretty bad at coming up with ideas on my own.)  Some of the remaining ideas are great, but use bizarre items that most of us won’t have available.

So I’ve decided to start collecting many of the recycled craft projects I’ve come across that I think are especially great.  To be included on this list, they must a) make use of some junk item that is widely available (that is, it’s not some bizarre, obscure item that only one in a thousand people will happen to have), and b) produce an end result that is useful or attractive.  These are not projects that turn out looking like first grade Sunday School crafts, and you don’t necessarily need to be the “artsy” type to appreciate them (like some of the shabby/grunge-style upcycling projects).

I have also avoided projects that are so obvious we could all think of them (“Hey, look, you can use the fabric from old jeans to sew something else!”) unless they’re a particularly unique take on the technique, they capitalize on the original shape/design of the source material, or they’re an especially good use for the smallest bits of things that we sometimes can’t figure out how to use.

UPDATE: I’ve started putting all of these on a Pinterest board. The board is divided into sections, one for each type of material. That way you can easily look for ideas to use whatever materials you have on hand.