I wish I had gotten a picture of this, but the whole thing happened so fast! At a craft show and outdoor festival this past weekend, I was gabbing with my pal Liz when a man came running through the park wearing a suit and mask made of garbage. He was moving quickly through the crowd shouting things like, “I am made of your trash!” There was barely time to tell Liz to turn around before he disappeared into the crowd, much less time for a photo.

This fellow’s suit was covered in things like beer bottlecaps, wine corks, and paper waste. I think I even spotted some empty beer cans on there. Nick just recently talked about all the waste that goes along with an outdoor music festival, and a large, outdoor craft fair is pretty similar. Maybe it was the craft show setting, but it got me thinking about all of the things we toss in our day to day and all of the cool projects I’ve seen for reusing those materials rather than sending them off to the landfill.

Here are just a few projects for turning trash into craft!

Get Boozy
There are tons of ways to keep not just those empties out of the bin but the corks and caps, too! You can turn wine corks into a corkboard or transform the bottles themselves into nifty torch lamps.

No need to toss your old bottlecaps, either! There are a ton of ways to reuse beer bottlecaps. With a glass cutter and some patience, you can turn glass bottles useful again. If you don’t have time to do something so elaborate, empty beer or wine bottles make sweet little bud vases. Use ‘em as-is if they have a pretty label or decoupage them with paper from the recycle bin or fabric scraps!

Speaking of waste paper…

Paper Chase
I have a love/hate relationship with bills. OK, when it comes to the bills themselves my feelings are pretty straightforward. There is a special spot in my heart, though, for those beautiful security envelopes! Have you ever peeked inside of one? They’re almost all different, and each one has a great pattern printed on the inside! Just tear them open and get crafting! If you need some inspiration, you can see the security envelope that I turned into a label for some home made sugar scrub.

I don’t think it even has to end there! You could totally do a project like Matt’s planner made from trash and use the blank backs of junk mail for the pages.

A Case for Glass
Empty glass jars are super-versatile for all kinds of craft projects! Just use a little Goo Gone to remove the labels, and you’re ready to go!
You can use glass etcy to add fun designs to empty jam and jelly jars to make a set of unique juice glasses.

You can also save up empty jars and fill them with vegan cookie mix for great holiday gifts. Reclaimed jars are also perfect for that sugar scrub I talked about earlier.

Just like beer and wine bottles, empty glass jars make great vases. You could also decoupage them with scrap paper (maybe pieces of security envelope?) or fabric scraps and use them or storing things like pencils or paint brushes. They’d be great for storing things like beans and grains, too.

In part 2, we’ll look at even more ideas for turning trash into craft!

I’m sure I’ve just scratched the surface when it comes to projects for empty beer and wine bottles, paper trash, and glass jars. Do you guys have any DIY projects you’ve put together from those sorts of trash? We’d love to hear about them! Share away in the comments!

Image Credits:
Wine Bottle Torch Lamp by Gerardot and Co.
Meditation Scrub Label by Becky Striepe
Creative Commons Glass Jars photo by Max Power