Upcycling for Prez! – 5 Tips for upcycling

Another four year term has begun for the Obama-meister. Sure, I could sit here for hours… days… and shove my opinion about the election (and the government in general) through the computer screen and into your brain to oppress your personal and individual thought process, but, I’d MUCH rather chat about UPCYCLING. Soooo, let’s see what we can show you today. How about some upcycling basics!? Yes?GOOD! Glad to have you on board.

5 TIPS FOR UPCYCLING

1. Everything is valuable in upcycling. Don’t overlook the supposed trash that you may pass by everyday. Upcycling is such a great way to recycle all of your junk. Look for items that you can deconstruct. Broken household items are a great way to recoup those crazy inflated costs that we pay to buy the product from big box stores. Its kind of like re-gifting… to yourself.

2. Everyone likes to receive quality home-made gifts that someone put serious thought and effort too. Upcycling is a great way to use your creativity to brighten someone’s day. Hats and mittens can be made from anything. Try cutting up a hoodie and turning it into a stuffed animal. In fact, that may be our next tutorial. WITH photos this time. I’ll cross my fingers that my camera isnt going to give me fits. If it does… it’ll be turned into an upcycled MASTERPIECE!

3. Milk jugs and plastic bags can be used for all kinds of things. You can sew them, melt them, use them as containers, cut them up and make neat patches. They’re also great for weaving. Remember even trash has upcycling value!

4. Bubble wrap. Bubble wrap. Bubble wrap.

5. Furniture is another great thing to use when upcycling. You could take an old wooden chair and use it in your garden as a flower pot. Turn that old clock into a birdhouse. Furniture can be modified by adding or changing an aspect of the piece of furniture or deconstructed so that the parts may be used for something else. I love when I find a piece or junk that I can deconstruct and use in several projects.

Thanks for checking us out and don’t forget: BEAUTY IS EVERYWHERE! Keep those eyes peeled for all of those upcycle goodies! Come back again and join us for a fun upcycling tutorial!

-SS

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are back! Sorry for the slight delay in posting. We had some technical malfunctions… and some mental malfunctions. My camera was acting a fool… or maybe it was me… and I was unable to get my photos of all of our new projects onto my computer. Super bummer since I really wanted to share them with you. Alas, do not fret! I have scrounged up some not-so-hot photos of some projects that we had finished previously. So, without further ado, I’ll toss a few up just to show what we’ve been up to.

‘Vintage Americana’ – Inspired by the upcoming election… not really. Timely, nonetheless. This particular Glitz Swag was created from vintage jewelry parts and pieces from my Grandmother’s personal stash, left behind for my mother or myself to find something to do with. I think she’d like it.

‘Winter Wonderland’ – Just in time for winter to blast us, this necklace is fashioned with reclaimed parts from zippers to bubble wrap. This turned out a little better than I thought. I hope this reminds you of something  joyful like, Frosty the Snowman, and not the salty, slushy, pothole-ridden roads of Michigan.

‘Spyder Web Purse’ – This fun handbag was made from the book ‘Spyder Web’ by Tom Grace, a belt, a furnace filter and two place mats. Talk about fun hunting for items around the house! Super fun to make, I’m having a blast with the book2bag thing. Perhaps that could be another tutorial! AH HA! I shall begin working on it ASAP!

Feel free to comment. We just didn’t want you to think we forgot about you!

Sleepless Crafting

Well guys... here I am on Sunday night (actually monday early morning) in the office and I am waiting on some things to dry. I went in to bed earlier this evening and I just couldn't stop tossing and turning, so I got out of bed and came in here to see if I could get anything going.

Looking through these bins at first I was a bit overwhelmed because I am still finding my feet in this whole thing. I have made some pieces, but only on my own about a year ago, not as a fellow Salvaged Swag creator.

I chose the first thing that caught my eye and just went for it.

I think I will be calling this piece "Key to the Sea" but I have to get approval from the others of course.

I kept scrounging and came up with another I am stumped on. I know what I want, but I don't know the best way to go about doing it!

With Ellie playing in my ear, Harvey at my feet I look at this table and wonder what I am doing awake at quarter to 3 in the morning getting frustrated at this one piece.

But isn't that what being creative is though? A huge part of it at least? Getting stumped trying to accomplish your task and having to be clever and artistic enough to get over the obstacle?

Maybe I am overly tired and all this is crazy talk to you. Maybe you just read something that has never made more sense.

All I know is that I wish they would invent instant dry glue because this whole 'waiting' game is really getting in the way of my creativity.


Alright this is when I bid thee goodbye, reader. I have things to clean up here in the office and pieces to put up for final drying. I will make sure to post images of these mind-wrenchers soon, promise.

As always, thanks for reading and following us.

-Young Grasshopper.

‘Storage Wars’-Salvaged Swag Style!

Hello again Everyone!

Just wanted to tell a little story about the excitement that ensued this past weekend. I’m sure some of you have heard of the hit t.v. show “Storage Wars” on A&E. If not, let me give you a brief synopsis.

Picture it… Sicily… 1948… whoops, slipped into an episode of “The Golden Girls”. R.I.P Estelle ‘Sophia Petrillo’ Getty! We will forever miss your snarky comebacks to those howler monkey room-mates of yours.

But, I digress. A&E’s “Storage Wars” is about a mass of people that go to storage locker auctions and bid on lockers that are delinquent or abandoned. So, to recoup any costs or losses, the storage facility auctions off the items in the locker to the highest bidder. Sometimes there are some very rare and valuable items in these lockers. Paintings, coins, guns, etc. Sometimes there are dead mice, strange oozes and odious odors. That’s the allure for some people. It’s a gamblers dream! Everyone has their reasons. We want to upcycle!

I’ve watched this show since the beginning and never really got the bug to actually go to an auction. Until this weekend. Let me tell you what, that was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. It was JUST like the show. The auctioneers, the bantering, the bidding wars over craptastic lockers because some yahoos couldn’t let their egos stop. <sigh> It was fantastic.

When we (my son, my girl, myself)  first arrived, I walked inside the office of the storage facility and spoke to the very nice lady sitting at the desk. I signed in and she told me how many auctions were going to happen and the legalities of the entire scenario. For instance, in Michigan, legally the owner of the storage locker has until the auctioneer says,  ”SOLD!”, to pay what they owe on the unit. With that in mind, we started with a scheduled seven lockers and ended up with only three. Unfortunately, two of the lockers had been ‘cleaned out’ before the auction and left with only trash in them. The value of each of the lockers was too low so they combined them together as one. That brings us down to two lockers. Not much to choose from.

After our little Q&A session the lady said to go ahead and wait outside until the auctioneer show. Well, it was raining so we opted to sit in the car for a little bit. We rocked out to some ‘Black Keys’ on the radio and watched for others to arrive. Soon, a hearty looking woman in a plastic purple poncho and a leisurely gentleman make their way down the driveway and plant in front of the office door.  Now, these people looked like pros. I mean, she had a PONCHO! As we got out of the car to join them, I decided to throw caution to the wind and approach them in a polite and jovial manner. “How about this weather?” Lame. Turns out, though, that they were very nice, and extremely friendly.  They just started doing this themselves, only having four or so under their belt. More people ambled down along with the auctioneer. He was a grim, elderly-looking fellow. After he gained the attention of everyone, he told us the rules.

1. No entering the locker or touching anything inside.

2. Cash Only.

3. 48 hours to clean it out.

4. NO ON SITE DISPOSAL.

5. Must be cleaned out completely or fined.

No problems here. I’ve seen the show, I know how this works! On we all go to the first locker(s). They unlock the unit and lift the door. Basically two garbage bags and a half full tubbie of bottles. The locker they paired with it was about the same. No thanks.

The auctioneer opens at $125, “CANIGETAonetwentyfivecomeongivemeonetwentyfivetwentyfivegimmefivetwentyonetwentyfivegimme…..” After a mini-bid war it’s “SOLD!” for fifty bucks. Can you believe some fella actually paid $50 for them? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure I suppose. The next locker wasn’t much better. However, that GEM of a plastic, purple, poncho-wearing lady told us that there was another auction right up the road in an hour. This one is supposed to have seven as well!

After a grunt of approval from my clan we went onward to the next auction. I was immediately met by an adorable mister yellow lab. The storage facility owner’s I assume. Everyone was there! The purple poncho lady, the leisurely man, all of them! This was going to be fun! The owner was going to play the auctioneer of this one. He wasn’t as flashy with his price calling. There was a lot of furniture, a lot of boxes. So many things piqued our interest! We bid some but didn’t win any. The lockers went anywhere from $30 – $210 a piece. Not too high considering some of the great projects we could get from one. Maybe next time!

We met a ton of nice people, experienced something new, and maybe when we scrape some money around we will try it again. I recommend everyone try it once. Who knows… maybe we’ll be the next to uncover that $10,000 oil painting!

In the mean time, I’ll just keep watching the show… living through them vicariously! HEHEHEHE!

HAPPY TREASURE HUNTING!

How to make fused bubble wrap for upcycling!

'Star Gazer Necklace'

Hey everybody! Thanks for checkin back with us. We are super excited to share this little how-to with you about this very unique way to fuse bubble wrap. When you fuse several layers of bubble wrap together it forms a hard plastic that can be used for any number of things. Bubble wrap, fused or otherwise, is amazing for upcycling. We use it in our upcycled jewelry! It has so many uses, plus, we get to reduce the waste in our world wearing fantastic upcycled accessories! ANYWHO… I’ve dragged this out long enough. Let’s get to the good stuff.

How to make fused bubble wrap for upcycling!

Materials-

• 1 roll of Parchment Paper
• a clothes  iron
• loads of bubble wrap
• 1 towel

Step 1. First we will do the fun part. WE MUST POP THE BUBBLES! Yes, that’s right. You know you want to. Nobody can resist the desire to pop all bubble wrap within grasp. For those of us that don’t have the same obsession as people like myself…  you can always find some child some where that would LOVE to pop those bubbles!!

Step 2. Next we lay down one towel on a flat level surface. This will be your “ironing board”. I used the kitchen counter, but to each his/her own! DON’T FORGET TO PLUG YOUR IRON IN!

Step 3. Now this third step is pretty important as it will affect the size of your project. Cut the size and shape you wish to have from the bubble wrap. Keep in mind you’re going to need enough bubble wrap for 8 layers of whatever size and shape you choose. Personally, we like to cut ours in 1 ft x 2 ft rectangles so that we can cut several chunks out of for different projects. This is also a very manageable size when you’re cutting out shapes later on.

Step 4. Grab the parchment paper and tear a piece big enough for the bubble wrap to lay on. The bubble wrap doesn’t stick to the parchment paper, so, this is really important if you don’t want plastic goop on your towel.

Step 5. This is where we start the fusion. Lay down two pieces of bubble wrap -one on top of the other. Try to line it up to the best of your ability. This will ensure that the layers are as equal as possible.

Step 6. Place another piece of parchment paper down.  This will complete the stack and we can head to the next step which is ironing.

Step 7. On wool setting, gently iron over the top piece of parchment paper in a sweeping motion for a few seconds. Do this until the bubble wrap has slightly melted together.

Step 8. Remove the parchment paper, place two more pieces of bubble wrap on the already fused bubble wrap, and replace the parchment paper.

Step 9. Repeat Steps 5 through 8 until all 8 pieces have been fused together. Use the finished product for all of your crafting needs!

I hope you guys enjoyed this little tutorial. Please like us on facebook and follow us on twitter to keep updated on when our next  How-To is available!

What is up cycling?

Definition of Up Cycle in US ENGLISH DICTIONARY:

VERB [WITH OBJECT]

Reuse (discarded objects or material) in such a way as to create a product of a higher quality or value than the original:

the opportunity to upcycle trash, or turn it into new products, was vast
(as adjective upcycled) upcyled furniture
Upcycling, yeah we do it! I have started this blog to document and share our up cycling -experimentations- with anyone out there willing to laugh  at the (sometimes) comedic disasters that we are here at Salvaged Swag go through during our quest. Our quest to turn everything old and forgotten into something new, creative and beautiful! So stick around!