Funky Find Friday: This used to be what?

For this week's Funky Find Friday, I thought I would showcase some reduce, recycle and reuse principles I reflected on in a post earlier this week. All of today's finds are from Etsy and are things that take something already in existence and use it for a new and/or totally different purpose.

First up is a beautiful bracelet made from recycled plastic bottles found in Artwork by KD's shop.
Or how about a bird feeder made from old streetlights by Red Yellow and Blue Ink.

I love the colors the two lenses make together! Simply beautiful.

I've always love glasses like these from YAVA Glass.

I located a vintage glass bottle cutter from the seventies, and I'm practicing with it, but man does it take patience. Plus I love these because they are Fresca! (I have an unnatural obsession with Fresca at the moment.)

There is nothing better by recycling using vintage objects! How about using this great wooden crate from Bird In Hand for organizing all your stuff!

It never ceases to amaze me the things people can make out of something completely different. I love the entire principles of recycle, reduce, and reuse simply because of the beautiful transformations that can happen. (Oh yeah, and it's good for the environment too!) ;)

Happy Crafting!

Ugly to Cute...It just needs some spray paint.

I love what a can of black spray paint can do. It can take something that looks like this:

To this:

Isn't that cute! I found it at the thrift store for a steal and deer are so in right now. I love quick easy projects like this.

Happy Crafting!

One man's trash...

My 7 yr. old niece asked me several weeks ago to "please sew my net back together." The net in question is a cute green butterfly net that lives at their lake cabin. The same lake cabin where she catches frogs, moths, worms, fish, and every other imaginable creature she can and then tries to keep them. Of course, being the good auntie that I am, I said I would fix it and bring it back to her next week. This was four weeks ago. She asked me again last week if I had fixed it yet. I had forgotten all about it. I forgot about it as soon as I got home again, too. I thought of it today only because hubby and I are going up to see our nieces and nephew tonight. I realized I better get cracking if I am to get this "sewn back together." So I pulled out my needle and thanked the lucky stars even though I don't embroider and I haven't cross stictched in years, I have embroidery floss. I pick green to match the net. (Although one of my other nieces (8 yr. old) would tell me that it doesn't match because it's not exactly the same shade of green.) So, I managed to get the net all sewn up over lunch break.

During these last few weeks, I thought about telling my niece I couldn't fix the net, and then buy her a new one. But I realized two things. First, that it wouldn't be the same to her. Second, that maybe it's good to teach kids that not everything needs to be thrown away the second it gets broken. That maybe things can be fixed or reused in a different purpose. It's never too early to teach "reduce, recycle, reuse." Especially if you're teaching it in a practical way that's easily understood by all ages.

Happy Crafting!