Recycled Bird Feeder

One of my favorite sounds in the world, along with my dad's laugh and Corinne Bailey Rae's Put Your Records On is the sound of birds chirping. The quintessential springtime cacophony can be lost in the low hum of city sounds outside our back door.  I can see myself seriously taking up birdwatching as a hobby. Is that super dorky? I think it'd be fun. 

Low on funds, but in want of a bird feeder to attract more fine feathered friends to the vicinity, I set out to create one from recycled materials. It's quirky and cheap, the only thing I paid for was the birdseed. It'd also be a great craft to do with kiddos! 

You'll Need:

recycled half-gallon milk carton

knife

scissors

colored pencil 

hot glue
fishing wire 

paint (if desired) 

1. Cut a hole in the milk carton, about the size of the label on the front. I had to make an incision with a knife first, then use scissors to cut the rest.
2. Cut a small hole underneath the larger hole-- just big enough to insert colored pencil. Don't worry if the cut is too big.
3. Push colored pencil into small hole, top of pencil first so it touches the back of the milk carton. Reinforce with hot glue.
4. Cut length of fishing wire longer than you think you'll need. Wrap wire around the top of the milk carton several times and reinforce with hot glue.
5. Let dry. Test the colored pencil stand and fishing wire by holding the bird feeder by the wire and putting light pressure with your fingers on the colored pencil. Hopefully nothing gives. If not, reinforce with more hot glue.
6. Paint a funky design on milk carton!
7. Let dry.
8. Fill with birdseed, hang and enjoy.

Happy birdwatching and listening! 

Madelyn 

A Review: Rug Pad Corner!

Several months ago Rug Pad Corner contacted me about doing a review of their product. They must've been reading my mind because I've been coveting all the pretty rugs on pinterest lately. I think it'll be one of my first major investments when I get my own apartment. Rug pads are a material that goes between the rug and the floor to prevent the rug from damaging the floor beneath while also extending the life of the rug. With rugs as expensive as they are, it's a worthy investment.

Rug Pad Corner is a family-owned business that makes rug pads out of recycled felt and natural untreated rubber. Y'all know I have a soft spot for reusing and recycling. I also have a lot of respect for companies who understand the importance of giving back to the community. This is directly from their website:

"We believe that every person should have a chance at a good life and unfortunately for some, there are conditions beyond their control that prevent this." 

With this understanding, they donate a portion of their sales to three different organizations: St. Jude's Children's Research, The American Cancer Society, and The American Red Cross. The more I learned about this company, the more impressed I was. We laid out the rug pad underneath a rug in my family living room and my and my mom's first comment upon stepping back onto the carpet was "ooohh, it's kinda squishy!" (that would be the natural untreated rubber, I'm guessing). I'll report back in 15-20 years to let you know if the pad lasts as long as it says it will.

I've written some about voting with your dollar, and if you agree with me that the purchases you make support the world you want to see, then this company is one you'll want to support. Their product is great, the business is doing good things. They are offering 15% off  to blog readers with the code REVIEW15.

I leave you with a photo of Ollie, who barked the whole time we laid out the rug pad. He doesn't like when new things are in the house. He's a bit of a 'fraidy cat.

  

-Madelyn

This post is sponsored by Rug Pad Corner, but all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the rad bloggers and businesses that make running this blog possible. You rock. :) 

DIY// Flower Wreaths

One of the items I get the most comments about on instagram and in blog comments are these awesome flower wreaths that hang above our couch. They were made by my roommate Devon and she was planning on doing a guest post explaining how to DIY them but she just got engaged (!!!) and now has six months to plan the wedding. Understandably, she's a bit busy but I got her permission to create the post myself. 

You'll need:

-Small paper plates
-Regular paper plates
-Old dictionary or other book
-Hot glue
-Tape
-Paint in the color of your choice (I used Pollen by Martha Stewart)
-Fishing wire

The first step of this process is a significant time investment because you have to spend time ripping pages out of the dictionary or other book and rolling them so they come to a point.

The best way to do it is to spend some time figuring out the size and shape of the roll you like, practicing it a few times, then sitting down and watching a movie (I recommend Star Wars) or two. I started in the left corner and rolled over towards the right, as I rolled, the paper naturally curved back to the left creating the rolls with the nice point. Tape rolls into place.

After making all the rolls, take a paper plate and your hot glue gun and glue the rolls onto the plate by flattening the paper rolls at the bottom part and hot glueing them in a circular fashion onto the plate. You'll end up with something that looks like this:

Then, you're going to do the exact same thing again, on the inside, placing the rolls and glueing them so the points fall between the one's you've already glued down. You'll get a nice, full looking flower.

If you want another layer, you can flip the flower over and glue more on the back. This step is optional. In the first and last photograph of this post, only the center flower has this back layer which is why they're both bigger than the other two next to them.

Then, once you're done creating the back layer, cut a hole in the top of another paper plate and reinforce the hole with tape and string fishing wire. This is your hook that you'll hang the wreath off of. Hot glue this plate to the back of your wreath behind your third layer of rolls.

Flip the wreath back over and you'll have a nice space in the center to fit a small painted paper plate.

Let dry, then hang!

Happy Crafting! 

-Madelyn 

Recycled Office Crafts

I have this weird thing about recycling. Specifically, about reusing and reducing. It's like a game for me, where I get points for recycling things like old t-shirts, cans, and cereal boxes. I hope this trait will serve me well when I start teaching and have to stock my classroom on a shoestring budget (and I also hope you aren't reading this and going weiirrdddooo). Today, I am sharing one of the first classroom/office crafts I've done in preparation for organizing my school space.

Cereal Box Filing

You'll Need:
-Scissors
-Cereal Box(es)
-Fabric*
-Hot Glue or Elmer's Glue**

Personally, I plan to use these to store interactive notebooks (composition notebooks my students will keep in the classroom) but you could (depending on the size of the cereal box) use these to store notebooks, loose paper, or folders. Just make sure the depth of box is large enough to fit your materials.

1. Trim off top flaps of the cereal box. Cut face of Cereal box at a diagonal, cut short side of box straight then cut back of box (other face side, where the games/other advertisements sometimes are) at a diagonal parallel to the one on the first face of your box. You can also guess-timate this: it doesn't matter that much.

2. Hot glue fabric to box, making sure to keep the bottom edge of the fabric flush with the bottom edge of the box.

3. Trim off excess fabric and fold edges over to the inside of your box, hot glue into place.

Done! An easy place to store student notebooks.

*I used half a yard of fabric to cover three small mini-wheat boxes.
**I did one box with Elmer's glue and it works, but I'm worried it won't last as long as the hot glue.

Pencil Container

You'll Need:
-Can(s)
-Scrapbook Paper
-Ribbon
-Hot Glue

I chose a bigger can because I'll be going through pencils much quicker than the average person (hello sixth graders).

1. Remove paper label from can.

2. Measure height of can without the top and bottom border (where the label originally was).

3. Measure circumference of can.

3. Cut scrapbook paper to size.

4. Carefully glue paper around can, making sure to keep paper flush with the top border of the can.

5. Measure two lengths of ribbon (the circumference of your can), leaving an extra quarter inch or so to overlap.

6. Hot glue ribbon to top and bottom edges of can in the same way you did #4.

7. Celebrate because you now have an awesome utensil holder!

That's it! Super easy, and super cheap- I think both of these crafts together cost me a grand total of $3. Hope you are inspired to rethink and re-use what you intend to recycle this week. :) 

-Madelyn