Recycled Beer Bottle Art
The beer bottle wall piece was made from an old round piece of wood (from an old chair). The bottles were left over from a barbeque party and the sun face was made from hydrolcal plaster poured into a plastic mold. David added some glass embellishments and then added grout to the whole center piece. The bottle caps were screwed into the wood and the bottles were then screwed into the caps. We have had this piece for about a year now. It’s a big conversation piece whenever we have guests over to our home. artist: David Romaxx.
Beer Bottle Art by David Romaxx
Embellishing A Black Lacy Blouse
Materials I used to embellish blouse:
Black lacy trim
Black sewing thread and sewing needle
Several years ago, I bought this blouse to wear to an anniversary party. The blouse is black satin with lacy see-through sleeves and rhinestone buttons. Although I’ve only worn it several times since that occasion, I’ve always wanted to embellish it by adding something more to it, I just couldn’t figure out what type of embellishment would look the best.
Recently, I went shopping at a fabric store and in the trims section I found a beautiful black lacy trim. The moment I saw it I knew it would be the perfect embellishment to sew onto my black blouse. I was thrilled with the results of the lace around the cuffs, so I decided to add trim to the collar as well. I just love the new look of my blouse and look forward to wearing it again.
Embellishing-Cuffs
Embellished Cuffs
Black Satin Blouse
Recycling Trash Items
One of the most important craft projects for us is to recycle as much as we can. The house is a great place to start your recycling projects. What objects do you tend to throw out the most in your trash? Is it plastic, paper, glass or metal? In our case it’s paper from all the junk mail we still receive. Since we shred all of our paper scraps we end up with a lot of confetti style shredded paper by the bag full. So we have tried a few creative ways to incorporate this shredded paper into our arts and crafts instead of the recycle trash. In a previous article we talked about using paper mache instead of plaster in your plaster-craft molds. And in future articles we will be using the different kinds paper items you could recycle at home. Not only is recycling great for our environment, but it’s also a fun way to craft with family or friends. This summer we had a very bad start to the spring season in Chicago.
Cola Bottle Flowers by Diana & David Romaxx
We lost a lot of our plants we had kept inside for the winter. One such plant was a daisy tree we had for over four years. It started out fine, but by mid-June we lost it. But around our house my husband and I are always creating something out of throw-away items. Shown are photos of two of the recycling projects we created for our yard. My husband removed the daisy tree from the large center pot and cleaned the dry roots out very thoroughly and let it dry outside for about one month. He then painted the roots purple and the trunk gold. He added two wine bottle caps to the front side of the roots and a ruby round half glass bead over each bottle cap to complete the eyes. He then added an old waterbottle and an old telephone cord. It looked like some strange creature from outer space. He put a metal rod into the base that holds the piece yet allows movement with the wind. The flowers in the planter were all made from forty recycled liters of cola and one-inch recycled dowel rods. They really added a lot of charm to our yard and we can reuse them for many, many years. Re-embellish, reinvent, recycle.
Root Man by David Romaxx
Embellished Wedding Watch
Embellished Watch Sampler
Weddings could be very stressful for the bride-to-be, not to mention all the running around there is to get all your last minute things ready for the next day. A while back, one of my girlfriends was getting married in a small chapel and wanted something old, but not the traditional items like a hanky or piece of jewelry. So I asked her if there was a special item that she had been using for a long time. She gave it some thought and told me about an old white watch she had received as a high school graduation gift from her parents, so it was very sentimental to her. I also had a similar watch at home which I used as a template to give her an idea of how I could embellish her watch for her wedding day. A few weeks ago I found the same watch I had embellished to show her. The watch pictured here has two different styles of embellishments. By the way, my friend was touched with both results, but picked the one with the fluffy tulle, rose-sequin trim on white satin. So this is just one of many ways that you can embellish and reuse an old watch.
Embellished Cream Color Jacket/Sweatshirt
Materials used in this project:
–Sweatshirt (button down front)
–Cream colored acrylic yarn
–Size J Crochet Needle
–Cream colored sewing thread
–Cloth Tape Measure
Cream Sweatshirt Jacket Front
I have a cream colored jacket that I’ve had for so many years (too many to mention), made from a sweatshirt-like fabric that I love wearing during the fall season. One of the things I love about it is that I can unbutton it when it gets too warm. Last year, I was going through a pile of clothes to donate and I came across my cream colored jacket. It was still in such great condition that I decided to do my next embellishment project with it. That same week while I looking through one of my fashion catalogs, I came across a beautiful cream colored sweater with a very pretty crocheted collar. That’s when I got the idea that I could embellish my old jacket with a pretty crocheted collar.
Cream Sweatshirt Jacket Back
The collar of my jacket was thick enough for me to sew on a crocheted trim. So I was able to use a skein of cream colored yarn that I had left over from a previous project and was able to use a crochet pattern from one of my books. I measured the length of my collar and started crocheting. I used a size J crochet needle and enjoyed crocheting the decorative trim. Once I finished the trim, I hand sewed it onto the collar with a sewing needle and matching colored thread.
Cream Sweatshirt Jacket Collar
I was very pleased with how wonderful the trim looked on the collar. I absolutely loved it – so much that I decided to crochet two more trims for the cuffs, which also turned out beautiful.
Cream Sweatshirt Jacket Cuff Trim
While looking at the overall look of the jacket, I thought something was off and that it needed something near the bottom. I noticed that the bottom edge of my jacket had a wide hem so I measured the line of hem stitching all the way around to see if I had enough yarn. It would come close, so I decided to crochet a few rows of crocheted chains to cover the hem stitching. I crocheted three rows of single chains, which when completed looked just like a braided band. I then hand sewed the band over the hem stitching. It looked fantastic and completed the look of my jacket.
I love the look that I was able to create for my jacket and how I was able to add it back into my wardrobe. I managed to not only make it a casual piece but even a piece with a little more elegance. Its amazing how a little bit of work with knitting or crocheting can give a piece of clothing a new life.