Friday, June 29, 2012

Grandma's upcycled melon seed necklace

One of the things I learned from my grandma: creating a melon seed necklace. It might be one of my first experiences with re/upcycling. In fact, it is a very easy thing to do, with a very nice result, which I like to share with you: 

  1. Buy a Galia melon
  2. Cut it in pieces 
  3. Remove the seeds
  4. Wash them in water
  5. Dry the melon seeds on a paper towel
  6. Use thread and a needle to tack them up to a beautiful natural necklace.
  7. Enjoy! (and don't forget to eat your melon)
Note: add some other natural colored beats, if one melon doesn't give you enough seeds for a long necklace! 

Monday, June 18, 2012

Hoera on Love2Upcycle

To my own surprise, my DIY greeting card kit (from upcycled cardboard) got featured on the Love2Upcycle blog. I'd like to thank the Love2Upcycle Etsy team for their interest and the nice blog post!

I wrote a tutorial about upcycling cardboard about these greeting cards a while ago. Happy upcycling!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Yellowed embroidery pattern

I was looking up some thread in one of my 'treasury' boxes (I keep my crafting materials in a couple of  boxes in an empty bedroom), and came across an old embroidery pattern that I ones used in my teenage years, that was completely yellowed. This pattern consisted of all kinds of tiny patterns of leaves, letters, numbers and fruitbaskets.










In the past weeks I created some tiny cross-stitch art-works myself (of a heart and a boat), but I didn't have the courage yet to start stitching letters and numbers myself. This pattern was exactly what I had been looking for on the internet, and now I found it in my own home: a long forgotten treasure. I created some initial tags the day after, embroidering letters on tetrapak tags, which (I can image) are perfect for a wedding or a baby shower.