Easy Easter Baskets from Recycled Grape Bags

Recycling Rioblanco grape bags easily into Easter Baskets.

I love grapes. I think I could live on them if I had to. The problem was that I had a hard time tossing the plastic bags holding the grapes which have a zipper closure at the top and room to hold other goodies.

With a few small steps, I discovered that these bags could be recycled into perfect Easter baskets.

All I did was stamp a bunny graphic onto some old tags I had lying around. I punched a hole into the front cover of the bag (only through the one layer of plastic) and threaded through some colorful yarn and tied it in a knot to secure the tag. The lucky recipient's name can then be printed on the back of the tag.

I filled the bags with Easter grass and plan to pick up some sweet treats at my next grocery run to place in the bags.

I think I will be looking for other uses for these pretty bags. They could easily hold a plastic bag filled with small plants for a spring gift. Or be filled with small pieces of cheese and crackers for a hostess gift accompanying a bottle of wine. Since they already have lovely pictures of grapes on them, this is a no brainer!

Green Creativity: Garden Art from Recyclables



Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without

At Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, the summer flower show includes lovely summer blooms as you would expect, but also some "green" ideas for recycling used items as art in your garden.

Phipps, one of America's Greenest Public Gardens, prides itself on being a leader for a more sustainable future.

Below (and above) are some photos of how items were recycled into garden art such as using bamboo, a great renewable resource, to create fabrics, as illustrated by the sculptural flower petals in the photo above.

Also, glass bottle pieces are suspended in architecural panels; cans become decorative accents, and plastic bottles are repurposed into fabrics.

Great ideas and only the beginning of reducing the amount of trash that ends up in landfills.



Creativity Tip No. 31

Jars of Summer Beauty

When you scrapbook, you end up with so much stuff you wonder what you will ever do with it -- and how you can keep yourself from buying more. Answer: Use it all up first, in creative ways of course!

I took some of my papers, trims, bits of fabric and lace and armed with some great ideas from Somerset Life magazine, used them to decorate old Mason jars which can now be used as summer vases.

Simply, you take an office tag and then glue or sew or punch items to it. Hang the tag from a strip of lace tied around the lip of the jar. (This makes both the tag and the lace removable for cleaning purposes.)

Who wouldn't want to receive a forever vase with some bright summer blooms in it? What a great hostess gift for a summer picnic. Be sure to give your recipient the jar's lid so she can use her gift for other purposes, such as storing herbs or other dry ingredients).

This technique could be used for different seasons as well, and since I might have some scrappy stuff for those holidays (!), I just may make some more.