Recycled or upcycled?

THERE'S A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF THINGS TO RECYCLE OR UPCYCLE!!

I spent an entire day, recently, surfing the web to see how much people are doing to recycle or upcycle mundane things into something entirely different and exciting. I started off wondering WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RECYCLED AND UPCYCLED??

Recycling involves processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials

Upcycling involves processing new materials into new products, or the re-use of a product with crippled functionality for alternative purposes

A while back, I recycled a plastic bottle into beads for making a necklace, earrings, etc. I cut strips from the clear plastic bottle, colored onto them with permanent sharpie markers, rolled them and "shrunk" them with a heat gun. You can take a look at the end result below.....

 

  

I now have a few bags full of used/empty soda bottles to use to make more of these beads.

So...here I've taken a used material and made it into a new product...RECYCLING? I think so.

Currently, I've been looking around my house for items that are no  longer used, and trying to figure out what I could possibly make with them.

See one of my finished products below...and another I'm still working on to come up with a great idea...

The pic above shows design pieces from an old Spirograph. I absolutely loved creating designs with the Spirograph I had when I was a kid (back in the dark ages!). These pieces came from a travel version of Spirograph which I had purchased for my kids back in 1991. Had to have something to keep them from whacking & whining while we were on long car trips!

I glued on acrylic gemstones over some or all of the holes in each Spirograph piece, then added a jump ring and a chain. Voila! I believe I've just upcycled something! 

I reused a product with "crippled" functionality into an alternative purpose...or is it that I processed a new (well, slightly used) material into a new product??

I guess I can consider this Upcycling??

Below, I show a few items that I plan to...hmmm...REcycle or UPcycle???...

These are keyboard keys from an old childs keyboard. (Hence, the bright primary colors!) I popped them off  with a flathead screwdriver (not very difficult to do) and here they sit, waiting for inspiration! They all have a long-ish stem on the back(that's how they attached to the keyboard), so I guess I'll have to cut those off somehow, in order to use them for jewelry or SOMETHING!  Being the lazy type(sometimes), I'm trying to figure out a way to use them without having to cut off that stem. Hmmm....the wheels are turning....

Found under the keyboard cover....

A type of control "thingy" for the keyboard, complete with capacitors and resistors(I remember those terms from helping my son make a robot of sorts about 10 years ago); 3 sheets of lightweight plastic with white diagrams printed on them; a soft, rubbery piece of plastic which was the top layer under the hard plastic cover of the keyboard. Hmmm....how might these be re or upcycled?

I'M WORKING ON IT!

I found a wonderful site showing many, many ideas for things others have recycled or upcycled. It's definitely worth checking out...

http://www.recycledcrafts.com  
Go to the Crafts Gossip area of the site and there are pages and pages of ideas!

Most of the day I spent surfing was at that site. I think you'll be amazed at the creativity out there in cyberspace!!

I'm still a tiny bit unclear about the re vs up cycle meanings. But...I believe I'm a step closer...

HOW ABOUT YOU??

Can Can. Or CAN I?

Sometimes I think I'm a baaaad person! I throw away soda cans! For shame! I need to live a "greener" life. So...I was wondering what I could do with those cans. I figured there had to be SOMETHING I could make from them. Research, research!

So, I have cans, bottle caps (well, ok, BEER bottle caps), and pop-tabs from the can.

I found a pretty cool project on the Instructables website.  See below for the steps(without written instructions-I have faith that you'll be able to figure it out) I took to create....well, you'll see my creation at the end.

I call this creation CANNY Squares to Go!

 

 

 

It's a Canny Square Purse!!!

So...............four "Canny"(Granny) Squares, crocheted together made this great purse! I used the plain (silver) side of the cut-out squares to show on the outside of the purse. It could be done the other way around, too. The third pic shows the inside of the purse (I made a lining which attaches with velcro). Looks a little like a WIDE MOUTH frog, don't ya think? The second pic shows the lining pulled out a bit to show the printed sides of the cut-out squares-on the inside, so not seen by anybody but the purse owner-maybe a "secret" compartment??

If it can hold all of my junque(a fancy word for JUNK), it's a GO!!

If you don't know how to crochet, perhaps there's a way to knot the squares of tin together with yarn or jute. Give it a try. 

There may be other things to make...trivets, anyone?

How about an idea for using all of those bottle caps (beer or otherwise!). 

Check out this talented seller on Etsy, who made the magnets below. 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JEllieCaps

Bottle Cap Magnets:

                                             How about those pop tabs from cans?

           Check out this creative person on Instructables.com(who made the item below)

             http://www.instructables.com/id/Pop-Tab-Bracelets/

                      A cool bracelet made from pop-tabs and elastic!

I've got some work to do!! Imagine how many cans I can save from the landfill if I make all of these?!

I'm curious how many of you (my visitors) have tried any of the above projects. Please leave a comment and let me know. I'd love to hear of any other ideas you have for re- or up-cycling tin cans, bottle caps or pop tabs.

I' M NO LONGER WONDERING WHAT TO DO WITH CANS IN LIEU OF TOSSING THEM! (Although...I AM wondering how many more ideas are out there)