Do you paint the paper first, or cut the fringe first? We tried it both ways.

Instead of using crepe paper or tissue paper for the decorative fringe, we went deeper into creative reuse territory and tore pages from outdated phone books, the white pages. The newsprint texture was just right — it absorbed the paint colors and didn’t take too long to dry — and the rows of phone numbers added an interesting dimension to our fringe.

Here, you can join the party:

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Oh, you know, we just had this lying around.

1. Clean out your drawers. We happen to have whole cooler’s worth (literally, it’s a very vintage Miller High Life cooler, probably from the 60′s. Alas, tis not for sale.) of markers, but you may have to do some digging. You’ll need a good amount. I always think of that Friends episode where Monica is throwing a party, has the goers use her markers, and then instructs them to “make sure the cap clicks when you put it back on.” Oh, Monica, you would lose it if you saw this cooler. Anyhoot, if you got a bunch of markers lying around, you’re good to go.

2. Sort and bundle them by pigment. You don’t have to use the same brand of markers, just make sure they all belong to the same color family. By the way, water-based markers are key here, don’t include permanent ones. The important thing about this project is the dilution/saturation of color depends on 1) the actual color, 2) how much water you use, and 3) the number of markers per color you use. For instance, I needed a BUNCH of yellow markers with very little water to get a really bright, saturated yellow, compared to the amount of markers/water I needed to get a nice blue (fewer markers but a lot of water). Your best bet is to start off with a small amount of water, say just submerging the tips of the markers, and then add water as you go. It’s easier to dilute something with water, instead of adding ink (keep this in mind if you don’t have many markers to work with). You want to aim for an opaqueness of liquid. After all, this is really watercolor paint we’re working with, so it actually won’t paint opaque.

Use clear containers for maximum visibility.

3. Let ‘em soak. This could be a matter of minutes or a matter of days, your choice. I even soaked the same bundle of markers twice.

4. Goooo crazy! I put the paint in spritzer bottles I found at the Dollar Store (ok, not totally reusing here, but I was in a pinch). The possibilities seem endless now. I took some plain white paper and gingerly spritzed it with different colors. Had I thought all this in time for Valentine’s Day, I could have made cards with my own dyed paper! You can also go more traditional routes and just use the paint with paintbrushes, or use a finger as a paint brush, whatever. Keep in mind it’s still water-based, so it should clean up easily. I’m sure there are ways this can be used that haven’t occurred to me yet. If you got ideas, please share them!

That's orange and green on the left; blue and pink on the right.

And speaking of sharing ideas, what should be done with all the marker carcasses? Again, we’re trying not to throw things away. This pile of caps looks cool, surely, something can be done. If we come up with something, we’ll let you know. If YOU come up with it, let us know! Who knows…maybe there’ll be a bubble keg in it for you. Til next time, happy reusing everyone!

I see a MacGyver challenge in here somewhere...

I’m also pretty sure that everyone likes a pinata.

This pinata is really easy to make. We are going to be there to guide you through it and keep you from gluing your fingers together. You can make a traditional burro (like I did here) or you can make something else–a letter, a number, a series of letters or numbers. You could make a shape or a snake or maybe get really festive and make something Presidential. It’s up to you!

We know you will come up with something good.

We will provide the supplies. All you need to bring is something to put inside the pinata (or not, whatever!). Oh, and you have to be a member of WonderRoot. It’s $10 a month or $60 a year. You can sign up here or you can sign up in person! And don’t be afraid to get official and become a member–it will bring good things into your life, like more workshops and access to the Arts Center Open Access Studio Program, access to all WonderRoot arts education opportunities, discounts at Park Grounds Coffee, Sam Flax Art and Supply, Binders Art and Supply and more!

It’s from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM at WonderRoot, on Memorial Drive. Be there or be sadly-pinataless!

P.S. Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook and Twitter! Or email us at creativereuse@wonderroot.org

First up, the Midway Pub in the East Atlanta Village is hosting A Valentine’s Day Artists and Crafters Market similar to the holiday one they threw back in December. There will be makers of all sorts hocking their one-of-a-kind wares, including us, and the event is to raise funds for the East Atlanta Community Association, which is currently trying to establish a recycling program in the neighborhood. Talk about worthy causes! It’s free to attend and will be held Saturday, February 11th, from 12-5pm, in/near/around the patio of the Midway, rain or shine.

Also, this month’s workshop, inspired by Kerry’s last post and our deep-seated desires, will have us making mini pinatas! We love pinatas so much, we don’t need a special occasion or holiday to make one. (Really: is it Thursday? Let’s make a pinata!) The brillant part about this workshop is that we’ll be making these adorable treasure-holders out of things you’d normally throw out (or, hopefully, at least put in the recycle bin): cereal boxes, telephone books, and half-used markers. Want to see how we do it? Or rather, want to make a pinata for making a pinata’s sake? Come by, then! Even better, bring your leftover Valentine’s candy as your filler! The workshop will be held Saturday, February 18th, 2-4pm at the WonderRoot Arts Center. The cost is $10** if you’re not a WonderRoot member already, and, if you mention Creative Reuse when you sign up, we’ll give you take home supplies! But you should probably be a member already, if you know what’s good for you.

**$10 is the cost for one month of WonderRoot membership (or $60/yearly) which is required for workshop attendance. Go to http://www.wonderroot.org/membership.htm to sign up. Your membership includes access to the Arts Center Open Access Studio Program, access to all WonderRoot arts education opportunities, discounts at Park Grounds Coffee, Sam Flax Art and Supply, Binders Art and Supply and more! (Youth under 18 are free; other membership opportunities and discounts for families are also available at wonderroot.org.)

Hope we can see some of you this month at one or both of these events. If not, happy reusing until then!

I’d never heard of this blog before, but after reading the mini pinata post, I found that she actually has a few posts about pinatas!

The thing I like about this project is that it isn’t paper mache. I’m not usually in the mood for paper mache because it’s super messy and pretty involved, and for this project I needed to be able to pack things up quickly and hide all the evidence so he wouldn’t notice!

The tutorial for the mini pinatas calls for a cereal box for the structure. If you want to make your burro much bigger, like I did, you can just use an old cardboard box (I found one in the hallway of my building, and I guess saved my neighbor the trouble of walking down to the dumpster).

nearly done before I remembered to take pictures...

She also suggests using crepe paper (in folds, not rolls) but I couldn’t find it last-minute, so I used tissue paper and it was fine. Hopefully, to make this really a creative reuse project, you can find some old tissue paper left over from the holidays or lying around in your basement/attic/junk closet/under your bed.

Here is my finished product… I added some evil eyes and fangs, just because:

the burro hanging in my apartment!

Oh, and since you probably won’t want to destroy this pinata right after making it, you can put a little hidden door in the bottom. I cut this before I taped everything together, and after it was done, I was able to stash some gifts inside. The fringe hides it from view.

the secret door

I’m thinking about making some more pinatas but in different shapes and maybe incorporating some other reuse elements. If I do, I’ll post pictures. And if YOU make a pinata, tell us about it! Send us a picture at creativereuse@wonderroot.org!

As always, find us on Facebook and Twitter!

One thing we discussed is getting more involved in outreach programs, visiting populations that could really benefit from learning how to make things, let alone making things from reused materials. A story that stuck out in my mind, from an article I read just before the holidays, was a woman in Maryland who is teaching prisoners how to knit. (I know, I know: violent offenders with knitting needles?! What?! But it’s not really so uncommon. When visiting Alcatraz, I strolled by a cell with yarn and needles on the small desk, and, sure enough, inmates knitted on Alcatraz!)

So I’m just going to strongly encourage you to read the full article here, because it will make your day so much better. Seriously, I got teary eyed reading it. It tells the story of Lynn Zwerling, who started a knitting group in her retirement and, like us, realized the benefits of crafting and creating need to be shown to those who don’t have access to them. It took her five years of steadfast determination until the Pre-Release Unit in Jessup, Maryland gave her access to teach the class, and, after two years, she has taught over 100 prisoners to knit, with more on a waiting list! I swear, if Oprah were still around, she’d be all over this.

If that didn’t make you all warm and fuzzy–the image of a woman in her sixties doggedly pursing wardens just so she can teach criminals to knit–just wait till you read it from the prisoners’ perspective. Inmates mention how at first they were reluctant to learn knitting, of all things, but really got into it once they realized how focused and zen-like it made them. Also, in these knitting sessions, they were being treated like normal human beings, not being shouted at all the time about where to go and when to go. And the best part? They knitted dolls for children displaced by domestic situations and hats for kids in inner-city schools that many of the inmates attended themselves. It’s like a full circle of people just trying to be better people, all through knitting.

We can only dream of implementing programs this stellar and successful, but we’re going to try. If you know of a group of people that could benefit and prosper from learning a craft, let us know. We’re here to help!

Maybe this brings up thoughts of a New Years resolution (learn how to knit? how to embroider? We can help!) or maybe you’ve just been so busy that you haven’t had time to sit and create for the sake of creating! Either way, come hang out with us! Bring old projects you want to revive, new ones you want to start, etc. We will be prepared to revisit past workshops (functional origami, yo-yos, and the aforementioned knitting and embroidering) if you missed one!

In the meantime, what types of workshops would you want to attend this year? What have you been wanting to learn? We want to know! Leave your ideas in the comments or email us at creativereuse@wonderroot.org.

As always, follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Also, don’t forget about our upcoming workshop this Saturday December 10th, 2-4pm. We’ll be delving into the art of furoshiki, or fabric wrapping. It’s so super easy and wonderful, you’ll never want to use tape and paper again. And, to boot, it’s more environmentally friendly! Bring your parcels, or, if you’re a last-minute shopper like the rest of us, we’ll have stuff you can practice with and instructions to take home with you. So, in other words, no excuses. Time to make some awesome happen. Hope to see you!

Location: Ambient Plus Studio, 585 Wells St. SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30312. While it may be a little out of the way for some of us, it’s well worth the trip. This is a huge photography studio that is taken over by artists, crafters, a DJ and several great food vendors for 2 days. “Sunny West Coast Vibe Meets Urban Industrial in Atlanta’s only full daylight studio” reads the Ambient web site.

We just call it ICE, but the official name of this event is INDIE CRAFT EXPERIENCE HOLIDAY SHOPPING SPECTACULAR 2011. And spectacular, it is.

What can you buy at ICE? Gifts, of course, but this is one of those times you’ll find just as much to buy for yourself as you will for those on your holiday gift list. And we like to think of these artists and crafters as “our people,” because a number of them incorporate “found objects,” aka reused materials, into their work. Here’s an example, one of the “Recycled and Repurposed Creations by StressTheSeams.”

Do these letters look familiar to you?

These hairpins (below) were made by Julie Dye using Japanese paper.

Exquisite and playful use of Japanese paper

Obviously I can’t show you everything you’ll find at ICE, but if you want to see more tantalizing examples, follow this link to the artists of ICE. Clothing, jewelry, hand-crafted soaps, books, toys, tote bags, trinkets, adornments, whatever you’re looking for, you’ll love the selection at ICE, including many one-of-a-kind items.

And … after you select your purchases, bring them over to the WonderRoot Creative Reuse wrapping station. We’re wrapping with fabric this year, a new experience for many of you, so come try it! It’s a do-it-yourself wrapping station, but don’t worry, we’ll be there to help you select a fabric, cut it to size, and artfully wrap those packages. We’ll be making yarn pom-poms and other fanciful embellishments for your packages, too. So come see us … at ICE!

For the first shirt, I was kind of nervous about making mistakes that would be in a really obvious place, so I just did a split stitch around the sleeves. Once I started, I realized that I could just follow the stitching that was already on the shirt, so it was actually kind of a straight line!

Split stitch around the sleeves

This only took about fifteen minutes or so.

I decided to do something different on the other shirt. I really like tiny details, so I put French knots around the neckline. It was even easier than doing the split stitch! The only thing that was kind of tricky was making sure that the knots were spaced evenly. I could have just taken a ball-point pen and drawn dots where the knots would be, but I tend to not pre-plan or take precautions when doing projects. (That’s not necessarily something I’m proud of, by the way.)

I like French knots so much because they’re fast, easy, and you can use them for lots of things. They could be arranged in a polka dot pattern to be more of a textured polka dot, or they could be scattered over a shirt in a confetti-ish way, or you could add them on to a shirt that already has a pattern and add to it. For instance, if you had something floral, you could put the French knots into the centers of the flowers.

Very versatile.

We had an awesome embroidery workshop a few months ago, which is where I picked up my skills, if you could even call them that. If you’re just starting to get into embroidery, I recommend checking out the website Sublime Stitching. That’s where I went to refresh my memory. They also have lots of patterns and project ideas.

More embroidery adventures are on the way! In the meantime, follow us on Facebook and Twitter and email us your projects at creativereuse@wonderroot.org.