Recycling and Art

Hi! I am looking for your ideas on recycling and art! I would also like to share some of my ideas and hopefully spark some creative imaginations with "what would otherwise by garbage".

I have always thought recycling was- well a good idea but did I do much besides putting paper in the recycle bin at work and reusing grocery store bags? Sadly..... no! I have always enjoyed many types of arts and crafts and dream of making a living at it someday. (No I am not there yet either.) What do the two have to do with one another you might ask? Well about a year and a half ago, I discovered I could make purses out of Starbucks coffee bags. We certainly drank alot of it! Well, I carried mine around and got many compliments. nobody had seen such a thing before (although I have to say I was not the first one come up with this idea). Then with all the GREEN awareness that suddenly came about coupled with questions people were asking about my Starbucks purse, the ideas started rolling! A friend suggested Freecycle.org and now I get most of my bags from members of the Freecycle community. I now make coffee bags from any type of coffee, not just Starbucks. Now I am going out of my mind with ideas but do not have time to carry most of them out! Maybe someday... For some reason I keep saving wine corks and I was saving some bottles and gave them away on Freecycle. I do have several baby formula cans of crushed glass that I am saving for some reason. For jewelry or glass tiles? Not sure how to pull that one off yet. My dad keeps talking about making a concrete counter top with crushed glass- that sounds cool! I keep trying to think of what I could do with old clothes or baby clothes but not quite sure yet. I may try this soon- framed and matted collages with empty cereal boxes, lables, etc. It does look good in my mind, I promise! This could also be done with the various birthday and holiday cards that just look pretty for a few days, and then get thrown away. My dad does woodworking as a hobby so I am trying to inspire him to make things out of old doors, furniture, etc. I do not have the room or the tools to do that!

Anyway, those are just some of my ideas. I have to say that although I don't have the stomach to go rummaging through the dump, I do look at garbage in a whole new light now! It motivates me to recycle more and it is especially motivating to directly see the results instead of just sending bottles off to who knows where. (Although I will do that because I know that every little bit makes a difference). Those are my thoughts, I look forward to hearing some of yours!

Also, check out my purses on Etsy! www.greendesignsbylisa.com