Perhaps it’s just the blogs I read but it seems like more people than ever are thinking of making gifts this Christmas.

There are lots of suggestions out there for making biscuits, cakes or jams, or knitting or crocheting something pretty — but if you’re after a truly frugal Christmas, all those ingredients & yarns add up: what about things which you can make by reusing/recycling/upcycling things from around the home?

Here are my favourite ideas for simple & frugal upcycled Christmas presents:

1. Hankies

Handkerchiefs are easy to make from any soft old cotton fabric – bedding or clothing for example. They’re simple but always useful – and help the recipient cut down on their disposable tissue usage too.

Don’t feel they have to be boring white – I made the ones in the picture out of an old pink gingham shirt – and consider monogramming/embroidering them to make them extra special.

(Use 100% cotton fabric where possible and 100% cotton yarn too so that they can handle being washed at a hot temperature if needs be.)
Continue Reading →

We’ve had two similar requests over the last couple of days so I thought I’d post them together.

First up, Alan wants bottle caps:

I make beautiful replicas of fine art (e.g. Matisse, Warhol) and logos from bottle caps: See my site at www.bottlecapartwork.com

Also, If you have caps, please email me at bottlecapartwork@gmail.com and I can get you some money for your trouble to send them to me. Paypal available.

And Laura’s colleague Vicky wants wine corks:

On of my colleagues is looking for wine corks (real or synthetic) to use for her wedding. Have a look at her blog post here: http://adessi1010.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-corker.html and if you’re interested in sending some of your corks please feel free to contact me via the comments or on email laura.coyne@adessi.co.uk

Contact the relevant person if you’ve got some to send along!

Following my post at the start of the month about Jan turning pop bottles into flowers, Jennifer Houck got in touch about some art she’s made out of old rubbish.

I have made quite a few things out of plastic bottles and caps. Our recycler only comes once a month, and will not take bottle caps. So with overflowing amounts of caps and bottles, I decided to see what I could do with this surplus.

This picture she says is playing with colour and texture of the original bottles but in other photos she sent, she painted the bottoms of clear bottles with marble-effect paint – which I think highlighted the cool, and often pretty shapes, of the bases themselves.

She’s also made these really fun figures out of old bottles – using the curved shape of the bottles to full advantage on the bug’s wings and chicken’s tail – and papier mache from old magazines. I like them a lot and am very tempted to give it a go myself.

• How can I reuse or recycle … plastic bottle tops?
• How can I reuse or recycle … the bumpy bottom of pop bottles?
• How can I reuse or recycle … beer bottle caps?

(Are you, or anyone you know, making art by reusing/recycling random old stuff? If so, let me know and I’ll feature it here.)