Wondering what to do with the cookie tins that are cluttering your corners?

Here are a few fun ideas:

Cookie Tin Organizer

Organized Cookie Tin

Cookie Tin Banjo

Click here for a Banjo how-to.

Cookie Tin Lamp

Cookie Tin Lamps

Find these lamps and more at Crystal Lake Emporium

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A RecycleChicken Facebook fan wishing to avoid the landfill asked today what to do with an old T.V. that doesn’t work.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

• Fish Tank (you’ve seen this before, I’m sure)
• Retro Ambiance Diffuser
• Combine with an Altoids to turn it into a web configurable dashboard (geeks only)
• Mod lighting fixture
• Take to a local e-waste recycler (may cost you a small fee)

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There are the Beatles and there are Beetles. The Beatles are a beloved band from the 60′s/70′s and Beetles are a beloved car from the same period.  You recycle the Beatles every time you listen to them on the radio, an old LP or your iPod.

You can recycle a Beetle in a variety of ways. Here are some fun and creative ideas.

If the body is rusty and you want a quick fix, try this fuzzy option, this patchwork beetle, this green as can be beetle, or … how about this conversion that even the Big Bad Wolf couldn’t blow down?

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You may have a junk drawer full of them or you may have one in nearly every drawer of your house. Old key chains and key fobs from hobby collecting, trade shows, promotions, etc. eventually tend to create clutter. Here are a few create ideas on what to do with them:

1. Attach one that you can write on (those rubbery kind are good) to your camera or smart phone case with your contact information just in case you lose it.
2. Attach to zippers on bags, tents, children’s jackets, etc. as decorative zipper pulls
3. Attach to your child’s soft sided lunch bag to set it apart from similar.
4. Link together or just add to the end of a pull chain for lights, ceiling fans, etc.
5. Hook one to your suitcase to distinguish it from the others … making baggage claim a bit easier. How cool would you be with the Wolverine key chain below on your bag?
6. If appropriate, remove the chain and the ring and use a children’s toy … possibly a dollhouse miniature.
7. For businesses, hook your company’s promo key fob to laptop, projector cases, trade show banner cases, etc. to ID these items when in transport or at show staging areas.

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Cardboard tubes from various packaging and paper rolls can be transformed into a trendy art gallery in just a few steps according to Apartment Therapy.

Here’s how to do it:

• Clean the rolls by removing any labels or leftover paper.
• Mark the rolls by using a ruler and pencil to mark the width of each ring will help you keep the cuts straight and level. Make different sizes to add interest and dimension.
• Cut the tubes into rings using an X-acto knife and/or scissors.
• Trace circles around the ring to mark a circle on the photo you want to frame. Cut out the circle using scissors. The circle should be just a bit wider than the outside of the ring.
• Glue photos to rings by drawing a thin bead of glue on the rim of the cardboard ring. Glue the photo circle in place. Consider gluing the photo to the front of the ring so it stands out from the wall, or to the back of the ring so you can peer in at it.
• When all the rings are done and dry, use a little white glue on the side of the rings to glue them together.
• Hang the rings on the wall by putting up a few pushpins or small nails and slipping the rings over them.

Thanks so much for the great idea Apartment Therapy.

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These cabinets belong to a Barcelona couple who dubbed their new apartment the “R3 Project”—reduce, reuse, recycle, plus some extras, respect and restore. They wanted their home to be “sustainable, fun, and practical.” Their intense eco renovation is profiled in the new April/May issue of ReadyMade, which includes a short tutorial on how to build their awesome recycled wine crate kitchen cabinets.

Here are the direstions according to re-nest.

1. Take off the backs and sides of the wooden boxes and remove all the nails.
2. Lay out the fronts in your desired design to form the layout of your cabinets as a whole. Overlap and mix different kinds of wood to meet your aesthetic specifications.
3. Once you have your layout, cut the 8mm board to the size of each door. (This adds strength.) Use these pieces to mark where to cut the pieces of the wine crates so they fit exactly.
4. Mount the crate pieces to the 8mm wooden board with nails or screws (a greener option than glue). Nail from behind the wood boards so the front stays free of hardware. Use nails that are long enough to hold but not so long that they’ll poke through the front.
5. Add knobs to any drawers. Attach hinges to each door and install, making sure to level.
6. If the wood from the boxes isn’t varnished already, we recommend adding a layer or two so fingerprints and possible cooking spills can easily be removed.

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Fobots are the work of Raleigh, North Carolina artist Amy Flynn.  Amy started making robots to fill the time between illustration jobs. Now, it’s her passion, as it combines two of her favorite pastimes; making things and shopping. She scours flea markets, basements, internet auctions, and scrapyards for cool old junk. Amy then solders and bolts the pieces together to create sturdy, one-of-a-kind sculptures, never to be duplicated.

Each Fobot is numbered, with a copper plate on its back bearing the word “FOBOT” and its individual number. They call them butt tags.

Amy Flyn would also like to issue a Warning: Fobots are not toys, they are not functional, and they will not go on a rampage while you sleep. May contain lead solder, so don’t eat them.

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Make your own bowls and glasses out of empty wine bottles using a bottle cutter.  You can also etch the glass giving your glasses additional character.  Curbly.com has a few suggestions to keep in mind while making your own custom glasses and bowls.

1. The bottle has to be perfectly round to roll on the rollers
2. Clean off all of the labels, you can cut through painted glass just fine
3. Adjust to your desired length and firmly hold the bottle while you rotate it towards yourself.
4. Do not go over the scored glass more than once. If you go over your score more than once you will create deeper cuts that could result in pathways for the glass to take off on
5. Slowly roll your scored glass above a candle heating it up. The thicker the bottle the hotter you should get it. It should be too hot to rest your finger on.
6. Instead of rolling the score with an ice cube I found a better way. Get a bucket or something that will hold ice water tall enough to cover your score vertically. When you feel the bottle is hot enough place the bottle in the ice water vertically and pop the bottle will split almost perfectly every time.

• Now you have cut your first bottle. You now have to deal with the sharp edge. I simply took my hand sander and used a little water and wet sanded the edge.
• You can etch the glass by using vinyl stencils and a sand blaster or there are also chemical etching kits that are available from most craft stores.

These great suggestions come from Curbly.com

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These easels are a great way to display pictures as well as recipe cards.  They have been created by bending the tines of vintage silver forks to make them stand upright.  It looks like the metal has been heated in order to be manipulated so that the tines serve as support legs.

RecycleChicken found thes great idea at Inherited Values

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ABC Carpet has introduced their Color Reform collection.  These rugs are made by removing all of the color from old, worn down rugs. They then re-dye the rugs to create brilliant monochromatic master pieces.

ABC Carpet sells these rugs for between $899 and $16,499.  They can be purchased from their website.

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