Quick Crafty Bathroom Caddie!

I just wanted to share this cute and quick craft I came up with after realizing my bathroom didn't have enough storage space for all my little hygienic odds 'n ends. These caddies are made out of those little plastic/vinyl zipper bags that blankets and sheets come in. 

The DIY bathroom caddies are big enough to hold all my extra make up, two hair brushes, band aids, ibuprofen, bandages, My Little Pony tissues, medication, and much more. Because one of the bags had a hook on it already, all I had to do was throw all the items in it and hang it up. I also slapped a cute sticker on the front of it to make it more interesting to look at!

The larger caddie took a little bit of extra fandangling on account of it lacking any kind of handle or hook to hang it from. All I did was cut four slits in the top of the bag, just big enough to fish some old scrap ribbon through and tie in knots. To keep the slits from tearing I hot glued some strips of fabric over the cuts.  The little flowers glued on top aren't really functional, they're there more for flair. After that, it was just a matter of tying the ribbon handles into bows around the towel rack. Easily adjustable and simple to take down if need be!

My favorite thing about my caddies is that they're see through vinyl, which gives me easy access to my supplies without the need to rifle around.

There are so many different uses for vinyl blanket bags.They often have multiple pockets and dividers already incorporated, which further helps in keeping things organized. Some of them even have handles. These bags can also be pretty durable and withstand years of wear and tear- I've used them to hold craft items like beads and markers in the past. My marker bag, for example, served me loyally through high school... Yes, I was the weird girl randomly toting around a gigantic bag of markers. 

Next time you get a new comforter blanket, or maybe even some curtains, consider all the awesome stuff you could put in those bags instead of tossing them out to let them unjustly rot in a landfill forever. It's especially wasteful considering some places sell them as organizers for upwards of $12 a bag! Doing a search about blanket bags will yield a plethora of things to do with your bags. There are some really great ideas! 

Other uses for comforter bags:

• Sturdy gift bags for birthdays & holidays
• Store your kid's small toys- like legos and action figures
• Christmas ornament storage bags
• Keeping garden seeds fresh for longer
• A travel bag or first aid kit for vacations
• Protecting clothing or linens from smoke/bugs/dander/ect
• So, so many more things. Seriously. They're super handy.

What kind of uses can YOU come up with?

Recycled T-Shirt Pillows

Good news everyone! You no longer have to sleep in a bed full of rock pillows, because your savior has arrived. Let me introduce you to a passion of mine......Pillow Making.

I've been making pillows for my friends and family for a while, but for my big public reveal I needed pillows with a twist.

These pillows are special because most of the fabrics came right out of my clothes wardrobe. I was cleaning out my closet and was faced with a terrifying dilemma- how could I simply get rid of  all these radical t-shirts and stuff?! The answer was clear, I needed to make them into pillows.

After successfully making a few and seeing the enormously positive reception they received, I went crazy and made like another set of 20 recycled t-shirt pillows from stuff in my closet and things I scavenged.  Here are the results, all for sale.

Presenting... The Pillows

"Betty Boop" Pocket Pillow #1

This was the first pillow I made from a rather large nursing scrub I found at the thrift store. The pink sides are made from some scrapped polyester I also found at the same store, what luck. If you'd ask Betty Boop, I think she'd say these fabrics were totally a match made in heaven.

Also, check out the sweet built-in pocket on the front of the pillow. The uses for them are endless- my mom suggested you could use it as a place to put your tissues on Lifetime Movie Night. I thought it would be better off used as a cellphone keeper...  try over sleeping your next nap when the phone alarm is ringing right next to your head!

This pillow weighs 1.4 pounds.

Height: 18.5"   
Width: 2.5"
Length: 15"

SOLD

"UFC Fight Night" Skull Pillow

Side view of the UFC pillow.
The back is made from the rest of the
shirt, which is a plain brown color.

I didn't want to leave the boys out of all this pillow fun, so here's one of my attempts at a pillow built for a man. Doesn't it just ooze masculinity? If the skulls weren't tough enough, it has the UFC logo on it and even says "FIGHT NIGHT" right on the pillow. You could probably get Chuck Liddell to punch this pillow and it wouldn't even fall apart. It would probably just be very severely dented.
The sides are made out of soft black fleece. This was a fairly new t-shirt to begin with, so it's still very soft as well. I think that makes this pillow a pretty deadly mix of cuddly and badass.

 This pillows weighs 1.8 pounds.

 Height: 17.5"

Width: 4"

Length: 15.5"

                      

SOLD

Ladies- if you think this pillows seems a little sexist, I just have to say this pillow could quite possibly be made for you as well. The shirt used to belong to my mom, after all.

Embellished "Pink Cafe" Pillow

Another pillow made from a thrift shop shirt. This was a medium lady's dress top. The print depicts this quaint little cafe scene which wraps around the entire pillow. On the front side it has these shiny little sequins sewed on... definitely wouldn't suggest sleeping on this side unless you want a cafe imprinted onto your face! (Actually, that sounds kind of cool.)

I almost didn't have enough of the shirt's fabric to finish this pillow, so I had to patchwork the sides together so that they'd fit. As an unintentional but cool result, this pillow transformed from a square shape to kinda round! It's definitely unique, to say the least.

Shiny Shiny, shiny bits of sequin.

Height: 17.5 "

Width: 4.5"

Length: 17"

This pillow weighs 1.4 pounds.

SOLD

 

"Zoo York City" Pillow

This is definitely one of my personal favorite pillows that I've made thus far. The print is just full of skulls, grime and other cool things. Too bad the t-shirt was a Boys XL or I would so be wearing it right now.

Besides being cool and covered and skulls, it's very soft,  fluffy and comfy..  it would probably make a good neck pillow, too... If someone doesn't get this pillow soon I'm totally going to keep it for myself, seriously. 


Height: 9"
Width: 2.5"
Length: 20"

This pillow weighs 12.2 ounces.

Sold

 

"Bubba Gump Shrimp Co" (Charleston) pillow

I don't know anyone who hasn't seen Forest Gump yet... and if you haven't, I guess you're just gonna have to miss out on this cultural reference because I'm not explaining it. There is a Bubba Gump restaurant right here in Charleston, but I got this awesome shirt from the neighborhood thrift store instead. I enjoy utilizing "localized" things in my pillows because of their rarity... Charleston is the only place in the world you could buy a shirt like this, unless you cheat and order it off of Ebay or something. So in a sense, this pillow carries a little bit of history and travel mileage with it.

The sides are made of brown felt and the print is on a cotton tee.










Height: 15"        
Width: 3"
Length: 14"


This pillow weighs 12.2 oz.

   

Sold

"Wild Cat" pillow

This is definitely one of the "big cats" of my pillow collection, even larger than a standard sleeping pillow. I know the print has a tiger on it, but I was just dying to use this cheetah/leopard fabric, which is soft and kind of fuzzy like a real wild cat's fur. The sides are plain black and the print was taken from an old workout t-shirt.. its the eye of the tiger, get it?

Height:  17"
Width: 3"
Length: 21"

This pillow weighs 1.6 pounds.

SOLD

 

Everybody knows that kissing an Irish person will probably just lead to eventually fighting them. At least, that's the motto I've lived my life by. Either way, I still think this little green Irish pillow is pretty charming. The sides are made from a very shiny and soft polyester ribbon I got from Wal-Mart's remnants section. The print was from my mom's closet again... If you haven't noticed, we come from a long line of angry, short potato eaters. 


This pillow weighs 8.6 ounces.

Height: 13"   
Width: 2"
Length: 15.5"

SOLD

 

"Betty Boop" Pocket Pillow #2

This is the second pillow I made from that giant thrift store scrub. For your convenience, it also has a built in pocket. The difference between this pillow and the first one is that it's slightly smaller and that it uses the Betty Boop fabric on all sides instead of utilizing the polyester. I can proudly say that there were very few scraps of the nurse scrub left after I made it into pillows...awesome.


Height: 15.5"

Width: 4"

Length: 14.5"

This pillow weighs 1 pound.

Sold

"Drink Cheerwine" Pillow

Cheerwine, the weird cherry-flavored cousin of Coke and Pepsi! This would be perfect for someone who is a fan of Cheerwine... I gotta say, their fans are never lukewarm, they are always so die hard about their favorite drink. The sides are made of a bandana like red and white fabric, and the back is plain white.


Height: 12.5" 
Width: 3"
Length: 17"

This pillow weighs 13.4 ounces.

SOLD

"Wicked Witch" Pillow

 Okay, I have to come clean. This pillow was not made out of a recycled t-shirt. The print came from some absolutely wicked fleece that I found in the craft section of Wal-Mart... what a good find, if you ask me! If you love retro things, this pillow will definitely be right up your ally. The sides are made out of green and yellow striped fabric, it kind of reminds me of the striped socks on the witch that gets the house dropped on her in Oz. Consider it in memoriam.

Height: 14"    
Width: 2"
Length: 16"

This pillow weighs 13 ounces.

SOLD

"Burt and Ernie BFF's" pillow

"You're my best friend." - Queen

This is probably another one my favorites! This pillow is humungous, probably one of the largest one I've made so far, so it's perfect for sharing with your friends. To make it even better, I used an awesome junior's Sesame Street t-shirt as the print. Ironically the print seemed really small when it was on the shirt, so small I had to include the arm caps in with the print (check the top corners), but once it was transformed into a pillow it seems so huge! The sides are a purple fabric and the back is this really nice textured plaid fabric. I really like how it feels as the surface of a pillow, very comfy.




Height: 20"
Width: 4"
Length: 17"

This pillow weighs 1.6 pounds.

SOLD

"Little Miss Sunshine" Pillow

Another great throwback (throw pillow?) from childhood. Little Miss Sunshine and the rest of the Roger Hargreaves' "Mr. Men and Little Miss" sereies were definitely books that were read to me a lot as a kid. This is a super cute pillow, another one I can boast used almost the entire junior's t-shirt. For some reason, juniors shirts fabric make for the softest and squishest of my pillows. Us girls have good taste in fibers, I guess!

Height: 15"   
Width: 3"
Length: 18"

This pillow weighs 14 ounces.

SOLD

"Homage to AnvilTee's" Pillow

This pillow is so awesomely meta.  According to its tag, this thrift store t-shirt is made out of "66% recycled material" to begin with... So now that I've recycled it again, how has that percentage changed? Maybe someone savvy at math can figure that one out. In the mean time, I love being able to re purpose something that had such a great purpose to begin with. That's what this whole t-shirt pillow series has been about! Like the pillow says.. "I am part of the solution."

Sierra Club and AnvilRecycled Tees teamed up to spread their message
about waste reduction, and I'm now doing my piece by breathing
life back into something that was close to the edge of obscurity.
Everything goes full circle.

Height: 13"
Width: 2.5"
Length: 15.5"


This pillow weighs 14 ounces.

Sold

 

"Lego Batman" Pillow

The corner that was "chewed up" in the sewing machine.

Ahhhh what an adorable print! Personally I LOVE the Lego Batman game, it's insanely fun. However, I think the Joker was playing some sort of cruel joke on me while I was making this pillow because it gave me so much trouble! One of the corners got severely damaged during construction and in result the fabric got all chewed up in the sewing machine. There were a lot of holes, I managed to patch them up but the perfectionist in me will always be a little bit mad at this pillow.
Because of these issues, the price has been reduced accordingly.

Height: 17"

Width: 2.5"

Length: 14"

This pillow weighs 15.3 ounces. 

Sold

 

"Orange Cheetohs" Pillow

Anyone hungry for some Cheetohs? This pillow is pretty delicious. It would be the perfect pillow to rest your head on while laying on the couch, watching tv and munching on your favorite cheese flavored snack. The sides are made out of soft yellow fleece and the print is from a standard cotton t-shirt.

Height: 13"
Width: 3"
Length: 15.5"

This pillow weighs 14 ounces. 

Sold

 

 

"300 Movie" Pillow

Another really tough pillow featuring prints from the movie Frank Miller inspired movie 300.  Historical Roman and Greek stories are totally all the rage right now... This would be perfect for a Spartacus or Rome fan too, I bet. The sides are made from a sturdy black fabric and the front and back of a men's cotton t-shirt makes the body of this pillow.
 
Height: 17.5"
Width: 3"
Length: 14"

This pillow weighs 13.6 ounces.

SOLD

"Spoletto 2003" Pillow

This was one last really interesting find from the thrift store. It's a Spoletto shirt from 2003. If you didn't know, Spoletto is an annual arts festival that happens right here in Charleston. The print is so unusual. After spending a lot of time looking at it during the construction process, I've really come to appreciate its meaning more. To me, this is a picture of a woman that is expressing pure joy and uninhibited freedom while enjoying the warmth of a nice meal and good company. How can life be better than that?

The back of the pillow is a tan brown color and the sides are
made from the same cheetah fabric as the "Wild Cat" pillow.

Height: 17""    

Width: 3"

Length: 18"

This pillow weighs 15 ounces.

SOLD

 

 

Final Words

These pillows are soft, fluffy, and full of love. I also must admit that they are sturdy as hell- they are definitely meant to last after much wear and tear. I have made a few of these pillows over the years for my friends and family, and I think that they were all surprised how long their pillows have endured.

 Most were afraid to wash them in the machine, but I actually encourage you to run your pillow through the washer and dryer when you receive it. Not saying I have "Dirty Pillows" or something, but running it through your machines will get it all  squishy and tenderized for your lounging. They kind of change form over time anyways, depending on how the person uses it. Sometimes the pillow becomes very flat and compressed, and other times they get all lumpy and malleable. The choice will be yours!

BTW, You may notice that some of them have adorable price tags attached. These price tags are mostly for when I'm presenting my stuff at shows and craft fairs.  By default, I will take the tag off of your pillow before I send it. However, if you want to keep the fancy tag on, please specify in your Paypal order and I'll happily comply.

Recycled Gift Boxes Tutorial

Happy holidays everyone! 'Tis the season for craft shows. I caught a re-run of She's Crafty the other day and saw the cutest recycled "gift box" idea that I couldn't help but add my own spin to. It's a super easy and quick project that can involve almost 100% recycled materials. Check it out..

1. Gather the Supplies

How to make simple recycled gift boxes.

To start out, you'll need to collect a few paper towel rolls. She's Crafty suggests you use toilet paper rolls but, I don't know...personally I wouldn't want candy dispensed from a cardboard tube that's been stewing in a bathroom for a week. So, I chose just to use paper towel rolls and cut them to size (I also had a ton of these lying around, not as many toilet paper rolls.) Since it's the holidays, I challenge you to use a nearly spent roll of wrapping paper to make some boxes as well! Not only will the cardboard tube inside yield tons of sturdy boxes, but the remaining wrapping paper will be more than enough to cover all of them, too.

You will also need some double stick tape. I think that double stick tape is a lot better for paper crafts that would otherwise warp if they were slathered with any kind of liquid glues. However, if you're in a money crunch or can't find any double stick tape (try Wal-Mart or a craft store like Michaels) a glue stick would probably work okay.

•  PRO TIP: Cutting paper towel rolls down to size

Use a pen and mark the rolls off so that you will get three even sized boxes. You can make then any length you want, if you even decide to cut the paper towel rolls at all. It all depends on your personal taste. However, more boxes does mean more gifts!

Just a side note- this may seem like a small detail, but it made things a lot easier when it came to cutting out these paper towel rolls. Your first reaction may be to use scissors to cut out your paper towel rolls, like mine was. But don't do it. As I quickly discovered, your cut will come out all jagged and lame. Instead, try this..

Definitely use your X-acto blade (or box cutter) to chop up your paper towel rolls. Not only will the process be faster and easier, but the cut will come out much neater.

My x-acto blade laying triumphantly beside all those cut up paper towel rolls. You go girl!

2. "Wrapping" the gift boxes

 In this tutorial, I decided to use Christmas wrapping paper to decorate my boxes. However, what type of paper you choose is completely up to you. If you want to take out the holiday look of the boxes, choose a more neutral paper. If you're really adventurous you could even try using fabric or vinyl to cover the rolls.




The amount of paper you'll need to cover your paper towel rolls can be approximate. Obviously, the idea is to have enough to completely cover the cardboard with a little bit extra for the edges. Lay your paper flat out and cut it slightly longer than the length of your boxes. Then, roll the tube up in the decorative paper to get the length you'll need to cover it completely.
 Once you get a good paper size, use it as a template to cut out more of that same shape.

At this point, you'll need to start putting double stick tape on the back of your papers. Luckily, you won't need to cover the entire paper with tape. A single strip on all four sides will hold it down good enough. Pull off the sticker backs and carefully roll the cardboard tube around your paper. The tighter and smoother you can get the paper to adhere to the roll, the better your gift boxes will look.

This awesome two sided paper is left over from some presents I got to open up early! This is a great use for all that left over wrapping paper after Christmas. Try cutting up a few pieces and using them for a gift box wrapper. Don't worry if the paper is a little crunched up...The wrinkles do not show up hardly at all once the paper is applied to the cardboard tube.

• PRO TIP- Folding over the edges

You will most likely have some "extra" paper hanging over the edge of your cardboard tubes. You can either trim off this excess, or you can be fancy and fold the excess over the edges for a slightly more refined look. If you put your double stick tape close enough to the edges, you should be able to simply fold them neatly over the side of the paper towel roll.

3. Closing the ends

Folding the ends is quite simple. Start by flattening the paper roll somewhat, squashing it down so that there are two sides to your "box." Then, fold these edges inward towards each other and they will naturally create a concave shape as your gift box's closure.

4. Decorating your gift boxes

This is the fun part! There are tons of different ways you can go about decorating your gift boxes, depending on the occasion. On She's Crafty, they put some rubber stamp designs on the boxes so that they would each have a unique print. I decided to go slightly bolder with my embellishments.

I chose to add some cute ribbon to my gift boxes to spruce them up. I think the bows turned out to be a nice, simple finishing touch.

...But don't forget a candy cane on top! Alternatively, you could also a name tag, a gift card or any other little trinkets your loved ones would enjoy.

5. The Finished Results

These gift boxes are stuffed full of delicious chocolates. This is a fool proof present idea.. You just can't go wrong with candy!

These little guys will be perfect mini presents for all my co workers, as well as thoughtful handmade additions to the gifts I was already going to give to my friends and family this year.

And yes, you may have noticed the Christmas-y theme of these gift boxes, but I have to note that they can be made for any holiday or occasion. It all depends on what kind of paper and designs you chose to decorate them with. The sky is the limit.... try them for Valentine's day, birthdays, Easter, anniversaries, or just because. People love "just because" gifts! (Especially me.. send me a gift, too.)

With all my tutorials, I invite you to share your results if you make this project yourself. I want to hear all the juicy details.. How did your friends and family enjoy their recycled gifts? The biggest compliment is when they can't tell that you made it yourself. Happy Crafting!