Upcycle Living

No matter how hard we try to buy everything in the least packaging, we somehow still end up with quite a bit that we can't avoid. These net packaging came with some of the potatoes and onions that we bought from our local store, when we had absolutely no choice but to get them. Over time, we've collected quite a few and here's what I've done with them instead of throwing them away: 1. After cleaning thoroughly, fold the net opening out- and downward. 2. Keep folding down, as if rolling down a sock. 3. When fold till the end, turn it up-side-down and we'll get what looks like an apple. I learned to do this from my sister who brought the craft home from her preschool one day years ago. It is extremely easy and fun to do, and they are now in my 6 year-old niece's toy fruit basket :-) (which she would then create a story around whilst playing).

Bin liners / bin bags are one of the most ridiculous household products sold to consumers: something that you buy just to throw away! I can't agree with that, especially when it is absolutely unnecessary. Some people wonder how I survive not buying a single bin liner, yet not taking the plastic bags given by vendors to use as rubbish bags. The answer is: easy! We get plastic bags from packaging alone, and most of them can't be avoided; for instance, bread wrapper bags. We'll try to use up any wrapper bags our food comes in: bread, oat, flour, rice, etc, as long as they are not too fragile or easily torn. We still get the odd plastic bags whenever we can't avoid it, but the key is to moderate and reduce consumption as much as we can. Life isn't what consumerism tell us to have, we don't have to buy bin liners just because the label says that it is for the bin. We can create our own lifestyle without depending on what's sold in the shops :-)

Before I learned how to make mince pies, we used to buy them from the shops, and have kept the packaging boxes which I knew will come in handy one day. The red colour and the festive patterned borders on the box can be used for making any Christmas decor. So we thought we'd make a Christmas wreath out of them. I cut the boxes into short 4-5-cm strips and stick them in a random crisscross pattern to make a circle, with cellophane tapes. I've also used some left over old sequins (taken off from an old bag), an old red ribbon, and a "Happy Christmas" wording cut out from an old Christmas card. Easy peasy.

All these preparation for Christmas just reminded me of the very first handmade Christmas tree I made back in 1988, when I was still a college student living with 6 other college mates in a rented property. I was staying in the house all by myself as all my friends have gone home for the holiday and I really wanted to have a tree so I decided to make one (that was all that I could afford to do). I made mine out of some used mounting boards but you can try with any big cardboard box. Unfortunately there isn't any photograph taken (there was no digital camera so we had to really be careful not to waste our films on non assignment related stuff) but I've drawn some diagrams to show the process. 1. Cut the board into 4 equal shapes like this: 2. Mark 3 places where you will put support in for the tree (x, y, z points shown below), measure the width and cut 3 circles with radius the same as x, y, and z respectively. Cut a 2mm thick slot into the boards as shown below: Do not cut the...

2 years ago I made my own Christmas tree out of used A4 and A3 paper, but it can't be reused as it was glued to a fixed shape. So last year I made a 2-D foldable one from old cardboard box so that I can store it in my Christmas box for future use. However, when I dug it out a few days ago, the edges were rather bent due to the space constraint and the extreme humidity here in the tropics. It's still usable, I guess. But then the stack of old CDs on my shelf caught my eyes and gave me an idea: perhaps I could do something with them and make a Christmas tree that can be reassembled completely. How to make a Christmas tree out of old CDs? I started drawing out plans and decided that a 3-sided pyramid-like tree is possible. But I may need more CDs than what I already have so I asked for help on FreeCycle KL Yahoo Group . Within days I managed to get more CDs contributed by some of the kind members. (Big thanks to them!) CD Christmas tree - The basic framework ...

Greeting cards are one of the biggest consumerism scams to get people to keep spending and "saving" time on writing sincere messages to their friends and family. Yes the cards can be so pretty that you can easily be tempted into buying some and send it to someone. But the clutter it creates is beyond imagination. I don't encourage anyone to send me cards, nor do I buy any greeting cards to give to anyone. But, as and when I can, I will try to make some cards using used and/or old material (not the type you make from ready-made trimmings and decoration/stickers you buy from the shops). I have just made 8 Christmas cards (one of them already sealed in the envelope) to send to our family and friends - exactly 8 families. They are all made according to whatever I can find in my craft box: old felt I collected from God-knows-where, pretty pictures cut out from old magazines, old greeting cards, old mince pies boxes, tissue wrapping paper saved from packaging, sequins...

If you are a man who doesn't like taking bags when going out then you are likely to put your wallet and/or cash in your trouser pockets, and you are more likely to become a victim of the pickpockets, especially when the pockets are not zipped or buttoned. My husband is one of these men so when he experienced a few pickpocket incidences recently, we decided to make his pockets more secure. Here's how we did it: 1. I cut a nylon woven strap (which I'd kept from some old neck tag and I knew it would come in handy one day!) into 8-cm-length strips and hem both ends by melting them over the blue flame of a candle. (Note: just barely touching the flame will do, too close to the flame will burn the strap.) 2. Folding the strips to half in the middle, I sewed one strip tightly onto the base of each pocket to make a loop: 3. He then tied his wallet to a removable hook with an old ribbon. This way he can hook his wallet to the pocket loop; and if his pocket's ever picked...