Madame Theresa’s Handy Craft & Recycle Tips

I apologize for being a lazy blogateer.  Madame Theresa got caught up in the end of winter and beginning of spring, it seems…  it’s not like The Madame fell off the wagon and played RipVanWinkle someplace…LOL!!!! It’s more like a scene from Poltergeist:

“Carol Anne…. I’m in HERE, Carol Anne…”

None the less, I am here now.  And here’s what I have been busy working on.

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An update from the last post eons ago:

Georgie won the blog candy drawing; the 2 precious li’l peat pot buckets.   As I remember, we were going to post pictures on here, and never did learn how…..now that I have a couple new  websites, I’m sure I will be buying a camera and learning to post pics soon. 

 Georgie requested that we donate them to a nursing home or other good cause where they would be appreciated locally, so that’s what we did.  We discussed having a blog auction and donating the procedes to the animal shelter- maybe that’s what we’ll do next time!  Anyway, thanks Georgie, for your suggestion.

There are several new and exciting things to tell you about. I am now a dealer in paper art supplies- everything you could possibly want for your scrapbook, cardmaking, rubberatamping, or other paper hobbies is now available, by mail, through me!  I am an independant demonstrator for Stampin’ Up.  See our online catalog (through my link on the right hand sidebar.) Online ordering is coming soon, but meanwhile, look at the online catty and contact me if you’d like to order.  Or, if you’d like to order a real life catalog, they are $10.00 and come with a cardstock sample ring of all the 54+ colors we sell. 

I also have several paper art supply items not sold through Stampin’Up, that I sell when I teach bookmaking and 3D paper art projects. That list consists of:

Paper coasters, blank, ivory, 4″ square, in 3 thicknesses

Baker’s twine on tag cards,15 yards each of all 4 colors

Antique wooden bobbins from old textile mills, aprox. 10″long, 1/2″dia. with a 1″ head on them, to be used to creativly store ribbon odds and ends on. Looks cool in a basket.

Dusting brushes- similar to the ones Judikins sells, but these have green plastic handles.  Cheap enough to have 1 for each ink family.

Blank carnival tickets- these are COOL! Print up or rubberstamp your own carnival tickets, fortune cookie sayings or anything on these vintage treasures!  Colors: hot pink, denim blue, stenopad green, orange (think Halloween here) yellow, and white.  These are all single tickets, not double. Complete rolls of aprox 1,500-2,000 on a roll.

Blank white CD literature folders used to make 5″ X 5″ pocketed memory scrapbooks.

Soon we will be adding button jars- perfect to use in crafts or sewing projects, they are sweet little decorated jars of beautiful buttons in color families!

Call or email me for more info on the above misc. art items I sell privately, if you want more information. These are unique paper art supplies that I have on hand, ready for cash n carry 7 days a week.

My second independent demonstrator-ship is for Homemade Gourmet, a dry mix food company specializing in hosting gatherings where making 4 Meals in 4 Minutes is demonstrated.

The ability to make tasty appetizers, entrees and deserts , and make them FAST, is now possible with the aid of these wonderful food pantry staples. 

Gatherings where we make 4 Meals in 4 Minutes, and taste these fabulous dishes, is just a phone call away!  If the thought of HOMEMADE food appeals to you and having a “gathering” isn’t quite your style, I have workshops where 4-6 people come out, and using our food pantry products, make 8 family-sized main dish entrees for themselves to take home and keep in the freezer.  Most  entrees serve 6 or 8 people easily.  All pantry products and groceries and baking pans or cook-in bags are included in the low price.  This is the same concept that the “Gourmet to Go” stores in the larger city malls use-  “it’s their kitchen-their mess” …. LOL!    Come mess up MY kitchen.  Call me for details. 

  Or click on the link to the right.  You can browse the catalog and order from my website if you wish. There’s even a preferred customer feature where you can enroll for free in our home delivery subscription to get monthly bundles delivered to your door at 20% off retail,  and you pay by credit card! Or you can opt for just 4 times a year if you want. See the website for details.

That about wraps it up- now that it appears that I might have all the eggs in one basket, maybe updates won’t be so hard to keep up with.

Until later,  chow.

If you are not local, please contact me with your name and address so I can mail you the two precious, handcrafted by me, peat pot party favors!!!! email becsflowers@aol.com and put georgieporgie in the subject please! They’ll be in today’s mail to you. If you are local, send me your delivery address. Thanks and congratulations! Look for other contests periodically!

YOU know the kind! The ones with the rotten, splitting, UGLY as SIN webbing that you hide from Aunt Agnes (and possibly Becs… LOL) when they come visit????

I am flat gonna have to learn how to take pictures AND post them, pretty soon.  This is one of those “recycle projects” that you’re gonna have to close your eyes to “see” it, but take my word, they are so dang cute!!!

You do need a basic knowledge of weaving, or how to weave, though.  If you are unsure or unable to fully understand these directions, do not attempt this project.  It is a simple over-under (in and out, left to right, etc)  procedure, but this level of recycling may not be your bag.  If it is not something you want to do, save your junky lawn chairs for me, please!  LOL!  I just ask that you please, drive up to the house before you chunk ‘em out in the yard… I don’t do “ditch trash” because of my dislike of things that slither when its 65+ outside…. LOL!!!

Prepare:

Strip all the old webbing/weaving straps  off the chair frame. If the old webbing was held to the frame with screws, save back 8 or so, screws, and chuck the extra  screws and washers into your recycled screw jar for another project another day. Wash and dry your metal frame, and use aluminum polish on it if you want the frame to shine like brand new again. 

Construct:

Next, you want to get about 5 -6 yard length of a  pretty, miniature print, fabric.  I like old chintz dishes, so I lean toward tiny floral patterns on a white or light yellow background… something that looks shabby chic.  The famous EVILY box store, IF you are lucky to have one with a fabric department still in it,  will have the perfect fabric for this project on their $1.00 a yard table.  You do NOT need expensive fabric like quilt fabric, because you are going to rip the fabric into 1″ wide strips   and connect end to end, making a slit like a buttonhole in each end of the first strip,  and one in each end of the second strip, and connecting them ( like you would loop together rubber bands when you were a kid, making  a rubberband chain).  Do this end to end with a little over half your strips. (28-30 strips) roll into a ball that we will call “ball A”.  Do the same with the remaining strips that we will call “ball B”, and put that one to the side for now.

You now have a ball of fabric in one continous 1″ wide strip.  Do not worry about the frayed strips, it adds to the charm of the look.  starting at the top of the metal chair, tie on to one of the top corners of the frame.  Bring the fabric strip straight down to the back seat piece of metal frame. wind the fabric around the back bar and then procede forward, toward you, to the front seat frame piece. Wrap the fabric strip around the frame and head to the back seat bar, and again, wrap around, the up to the top bar, wrap, etc and do this until you have a frame FULL of up and down strips on the frame , in an EVEN number of strips, anywhere from 30 to 40.  Tie off the fabric strip at the top bar edge.

Now you are ready for the left/right ~  right/left weaving. depends if you are left or right handed I guess…LOL!

Starting at either the left or right hand side of the top back of your chair frame, tie on again with your “B” ball of fabric strip material.  It may be difficult to get the ball in and out of the strips, going sideways, so if you want to unwind part of the ball and take it apart at one of the joinings and just join more strips as you need them, feel free to work like that with the shorter strips.  weave over and under, in a downward fashion, till you get clear to the bottom  where the back set frame piece is.  You can tie off on the same side you tied onto at, after completing the back of your lawn chair.

Now it is time to weave the seat. tie on at the frame at the back, and weave over and under until you get clear to the front of your seat.  I forgot to tell you, when you get close to the end of the seat back and now the seat bottom, you might want to make yourself a weaving needle out of a large 2″ office paper clip. (You tie the end of the fabric to the clip and use it like a needle.)  Tie off when you reach the front end of the bottom seat. 

The screws you retained from stripping off the old webbing, can be used, if you desire, to attatch the knots you began and ended with, to the frame and can be inserted in the same holes in the frame if you so desire.  Its not neccessary, but you can use them again if you want to. 

Using plain fabric on lawn chairs like this gives a charming “garden” look to your patio or porch.  However, the  fabric from any regular fabric store  is NOT “UV safe”.  This means that the sunlight can fade and rot the fabric pretty fast in the summer sun. So, store the chairs inside or in the garage until you need or use them.   There are fabrics that ARE UV safe, available where awning and patio furniture  is recovered or made or you can buy it on the internet.  But it is expensive,  and you’d be better off buying new chairs if that were the case.   This is a fun, cheap way to recycle the old chair frames with a neat “cottage look”.  And it’s a look that looks cool enough to use indoors as extra seating if you need it!  

If this is your first attempt to weave a chair, practice the weave technique with an old sheet you tear into strips, before you invest any real money into fabric at the store. 

If you know how to crochet, with intermediate/advanced skills,  you can even crochet the strips of fabric onto the frame  for a neat look too!

Happy weaving from the merry recycler. Hope your team won the bowl!

Those cool, clear, plastic jars with the lid that flips open on one side,  to spoon it on, or the side that opens to sprinkle it on are great containers to recycle! 

For starters, the Kraft Cheese container has a shrink-wrapped label on it that is easily removed by sticking a sharp knife, or other sharp object, under the shrink wrap label and making a slit to peel it off by.  No messy soaking in hot water or having to use a solvent (like Ronson lighter fluid) to get the sticky label  gunk off with, because there IS no “gunk”!

And with the lid off,  it has a nice wide opening, as wide as the container, for filling easily.  I have 2 or 3 or 6 of these…LOL! And this is what I put in them.

I keep flour in one.  This comes in handy when I grease a cake pan and need just a “shake” or two,  of flour,  in the cake pan.  It’s handier to get to than my flour canister that I keep put away under my cabinet.  I keep it to the right of the oven in a cupboard with the salt and spices, etc. ( Then I cover my cake pan with some Saran Wrap and shake a couple times. This really makes flouring a cake pan easy!)

The next container has a mixture of sugar and cinnamon for toast and/or cereal, like oatmeal.  Stored in same spice cabinet.  Everybody likes cinnamon sugar!   I use 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 2 TABLESPOONS  (the bigger ones of the two)  of cinnamon.  Shake well and taste.  You may want more or less cinnamon for your taste.  This is one of those recipes that you just have to make it according to your own taste.  (Cinnamon toast  was the second main food group my little brother lived off of when he was in college.  His first main food group was “fried eggs”. He could fry eggs and make soup and cinnamon toast.  Pathetic!!!)

The 3rd cheese container at our house is used for a NON food item, and carefully labeled as POISON and stored away from where small kids can get to it.  It is filled with snow-melt granules and usually kept in my automobile’s winter emergency kit.  It is handy to have if I am away from home and encounter a patch of ice like in a parking lot or sidewalk, where walking might be a problem.  I don’t really get outside if it is slick, but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.  Mark has prosthetic legs and can’t tell by “feel” if its slick or just wet out until its too late,  so having snow-melt in a manageable container is just perfect.  Be SURE to label it with a magic marker, and keep the container in a zip lock freezer baggie to protect the contents from humidity (so it doesn’t turn into a rock hard mess) and to also help protect your trunk or wherever you store your winter travel kit. Also, labeling it POISON, and writing the Poison Control Center’s 1-800 phone number on it wouldn’t be a bad idea either.  

These cheese containers are probably the second most recycled container goin’ on at our house.  If you don’t eat a lot of parmesan cheese, ask your friends and neighbors to save their empty containers for ya!  If you can think of any other uses for the containers, be sure to share them with us in the comment section.

The drawing for the 2 artisticly decorated peat pot party favors (boy that’s a mouthfull….) is Monday. I will draw a name out of a hat, from all the names of people who leave a comment on my blog.  I originally said it would be on comments left on Wednesday’s post, but decided to count it on any post until Monday. 

Thank you for reading- now go make yourself some cinnamon toast! 

Till tomorrow, remember:  I LOVE white trash….

(It’s easier to paint, saving me a bundle!!!!)

When I first heard the word,”blog” a little over 3 years ago, I didn’t give it much thought.  The owner of one of my favorite rubber stamp companies took his online catalog and site off from where I once knew it, and switched everything over to his “blog”.  I was about as interested as a 3 year old at a turnip festival, and about as savvy, too!

Well, not much has changed. I have *somewhat*  graduated from the turnip festival, although slowly, and have moved past the stage of “blog” rhyming with “nog” stage, where I was on the constant lookout for a winter beverage booth at a Scandinavian Festival. ~SKOL!~ LOL!

It was only last night (and 30 minutes,)  when I learned how to put my blog in a category.  Don’t test me on it now… I’m not sure that it won’t take me 30 more minutes to go back and change it!

Anyhow, the blog category that I have chosen is “House and Garden”.  I picked that over “art”, because not everything  that I recycle or craft, is made into ”art” .  

I didn’t feel like “environment” was right either, because although a lot of what I create is made from recycled goodies, sometimes my techniques aren’t “all that green”.   Sometimes I’m doin’ good to apply  “poison stuff” outdoors or at least “well ventilated”…

And last, sometimes I like to write about recipes and household stuff unrelated to anything!  So, that’s where I came up with the decision to put this blog under “House & Garden”.

What do you all think? Should I leave this under “House & Garden” or do you think another category is better suited? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. 

 In fact, let’s make this worth your while to comment.   I will pick a random number, out of a hat,  next Monday, according to how many people leave comments on this blog entry.  That lucky person will win 2 of my decorated garden party peat pots!  ( I will arrange delivery after the contest.   Contest only for residents of the continental USA, sorry…)

So, get with it- let me know what category I should be listed under.  Please write “stay here” (for house & garden) or list the category that  you think would be more appropriate for what I write about. 

As always, its fun to be a junk collector!

Thanks for your time!

Here’s a tip of the day for ya!
Buy 3 or four boxes of baking soda and dump them in a plastic coffee can that you have saved from the trash! Keep the “Bucket O Soda” underneath your kitchen sink, where it will be handy to use.
After chopping hot peppers for a recipe, all of the “handwashing with soap” isn’t going to help you much…. when you go to scratch your eyelid… THAT’S when you’ll notice that!
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So…. don’t waste your time and soap. Grab a handfull of soda outta your can and moisten it under warm water, making sure you keep it IN your hand, and rub the paste between your fingers, under your fingernails, and REALLY SCRUB your palms together.
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When you’re done with all THAT, as a cool “multi task” kinda thing, rub the soda you have left in your hands around in your sink. It is an excellent scrub powder for your sink and also will help freshen drains as you rinse it all away.
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Besides being a wonderful cleaning powder and swiftly removing the burning stuff from your hands, the baking soda is natural and gentle on your hands. It smooths your skin, as it acts like a gentle abrasive polishing compound!
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Plastic containers, such as these ugly red coffee containers, are hard to recycle into anything “pretty” or “gifty”. But they are ideal when serving a utility purpose like this.
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Other uses for the “ugly” red containers:
To get rid of the coffee smell-
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Make a thick paste out of baking soda to coat the inside of the container. Let the paste coat the whole inside, when rolled around a bit with the lid on.
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Remove the lid and let the paste on the lid and container fully dry.
Put the lid back on (Do NOT wash out the dried soda paste) and store the container for 2 weeks or even longer, and this will remove the smell of coffee from the plastic.
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When you need a container for cookies or large batches of snack mix, wash out one of your containers, dry it well, and use.
(Remember to wash it out in your sink and use the soda as a “sink wash”.)

Shreaded paper looks darling in Easter baskets, gift baskets, or any container you want to use to present a fabulous gift in!
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Make your own shreaded paper, in multi colors that you can customize, with your paper shreader. Use gift tissue papers you may have leftover or saved from gifts you’ve unwrapped from the holidays, or go buy some colorful new packages at the famous over-rated box store!
My favorite colors are hot pink, lime green and turquoise- those wonderful colors from the Peter Max days of old.
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If you shread tissue paper you have recycled, smooth it out, fold it so it will go through the shreader, and feed it in! If you have a shreader that doesn’t want to turn itself on because it cant “sense” your paper, put a small stiffer paper scrap in the center and activate the shreader switch that way. Use a contrasting color so you can pick the bits out easily afterward.
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New gift tissue is already folded, but you might want to divide the pack into 2 batches and refold it so it is sized to a better width for the shreader. Length of your batch doesn’t really matter, as long as the batch you are feeding into the shreader is not too long, as to get all crooked and cock-eyed as it feeds into the machine.
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Recycled gift tissue shread has a more “crinkled up” look to it, and the new gift paper shread has a slicker, less-worn look to it. I like to reach into my bin of freshly shreaded new paper and grab handfulls to crinkle it somewhat, as this adds body to the shread and makes a nicer presentation in your gift container.
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Other papers look cool shreaded,too. Paper grocery bags make neat material. The handle-type paper bags that are printed with seasonal graphics, or just plain advertising, make interesting color combos. Be sure to cut off and discard the handles and the bottom of the sack. You may also want to trim the glued seam off and discard that too, so that all your kraft paper shread will have a uniform look to it.
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Experiment and have fun making your own shread. When your housemate, mate, or kids come in and look at you like you’re crazy, and ask what it is,exactly, that you are doing, get creative in your answer! Tell them you’ve always wondered what it would be like to be a hamster! Or tell them you’re stocking up on confetti for the next Macy’s parade. Or just tell them that lettuce is just too dang high at the store and you figured this would be an excellent way for them to get more fiber in their diet. LOL!
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Remember, till next time; “If you can’t craft it, cook it, eat it, or boink it, you may as well throw it away.”

Hello, mass pilgrims.  I have created a blog in the hope that I will one day be computer literate enough to use it. 

Actually, I like to make stuff and reuse stuff, and I am interested in a whole lot of unique crafty- artsy techniques that I’d like to share with the world. 

Recycling is a hot topic with me, and a few of my projects use recycled materials in their construction. 

I also teach a variety of paper art workshops that I will write more about later… and look  forward to adding more here as we go.

Thank you.