Repurposed Items From Around Your House

One of my favorite things about working with polymer clay is that you can reuse everything … or should I say give your old things a new purpose, in other words: repurposed items you’ve already used!  What kind of items can you reuse: everything.  Well…okay, maybe not everything … but you certainly can reuse a LOT of things that you probably haven’t thought of, or may have thought of but haven’t taken the time to do so.

You can reuse or repurpose items like your shipping label backs, pickle jars, peanut butter jars, Carmex jars, cat food containers, and anything that is glass, metal, or heavy plastic.  You probably already know this, but your question now becomes … but what do I do with them?  Here’s a few examples & projects that you can do with things you already have in your house.

SHIPPING LABELS:

So you are probably wondering what in the world you can reuse the backs of your shipping labels for … good question and it’s probably not what you would think.  I reuse shipping labels in a lot of ways.  The most common is that I cut them down and place my blends from my work table on them.  Then I can stack them (they take up less space this way) as I already know what I made to use that day.

I also use the backs of my shipping labels to do my actually claying on.  I make my designs, Parkers, and figurines on them while they are on my work surface.  Why?  Because by doing this, I can easily spin them to see all sides of my work.  It’s quick and it’s easy.  Then I just pick it up, place it on a tile, and bake it, right on the label.  The oven doesn’t get hot enough to have the paper burn, so there’s not even a risk of fire.

You can also use your shipping labels backs as a surface for antiquing, applying acrylic paints, burnishing foils, and so much more.  The nice thing is that because one side is “slippery” paints, liquid clay, etc wipes off really easily.  Or do what I do, when you’re done, use it to start your fire in the living room!

GLASS JARS:

This is my favorite.  I love baby food jars and empty cat food jars.  Why?  They are so easy to decorate and they turn out cute every time!  The jar at the right is a large baby food jar that I made to hold buttons … not just any buttons, but flower shaped or themed buttons.  My primary use for baby jars is to hold my craft supplies in.  The baby food jars were gifts from very generous friends who saved all their baby food jars for me when their children were young.  You can also use these jars to make tea light holders, decorate the tops only and fill with candy, the choice really is yours.  There are more than ten ways you can repurpose items like baby jars & pickle jars to make something beautiful.

CARMEX JARS & ALTOID TINS:

Naturally, one of my other favorites is to take Carmex lids and to cover them with beautiful designs.  I have covered many Carmex & Altoid tins.  Mostly because they make really great personalized gifts.  The Altoid tins make great pill cases, sewing cases, or classes to carry around your kit to fix your glasses when the screw pops out (that happens constantly to me).

So next time you want to throw away that item in your hand, see if you can give that a new life and make those repurposed items spectacular masterpieces!

Thanks for joining me today,
Happy Claying,