Jeans Recycling Project: Tic-tac-toe

For months now I have been hoarding jeans as I mentioned in my earring hanger I posted a few days ago....well, one little project wasn't going to use up all the jeans I had so I decided to try and make another project. I was slightly dismayed when I discovered I was able to make this and the earring holder (and mess up once on the earring holder) from one pair of jeans...I did wind up using a second pair of jeans to make the game board as I wanted contrasting colours...plus hubby's leg is bigger than mine so it made for a more spacious game board! haha

So...here goes..here is what you'll need:

• textile glue
• scissors for cutting the jeans
• 1-2 pairs of jeans
• packing peanuts or stuffing
• Washi tape
• Twine or ribbon

1. First, you will take a piece of the jeans and cut it so it is in a rectangle. I then folded it "hamburger" style and cut it in half, now I have two pieces, on one side of each piece it is sealed with the original seam. 
2. Using the textile glue, glue two of the open sides together, leaving one side open. 
3. Repeat steps one and two until you have 10 game pieces.
4. Once the sides are dry begin stuffing with packing peanuts or stuffing. Once it seems full add some glue to the final seam and glue shut.
   
5. Using some of the scrap pieces put X on five of the pieces and O on the other five. Let dry.
6. Using the full leg of jeans that is left cut off a nice large rectangular section (see photos for ideas). On one seam, cut it down the middle so you can now open the leg and have one large rectangular piece.
7. Using washi tape create the "pound" board in the middle making 9 nice size squares.
   
8. To finish off the board trim with washi tape. Add accents as you wish to make it a little stylish.
   
9. To create a storage bag cut off more of the leg. Turn it inside out, with textile glue make a seam by glue the "right sides" together. Let dry. Turn right side out.
   
10. At the top, fold over by about a quarter to half and in and snip just a tiny cut, repeat all the way around the top of the bag you are creating and lace with twine or ribbon. Put your board and game pieces inside and now you have a cute little travel game.
11. 

This is such a cute little game and has brought us lots of fun on these nice days when we walk or bike to the park and can layout having a little picnic. 

What do you do with your old jeans when they are too worn to wear anymore?

Make sure you check out the other projects I've posted during this A to Z Challenge...and check out the other bloggers too at Blogging A to Z!

How to Make Book Page Bottles

So, we have a book we love, for me it's the last book in the George RR Martin Series Fire and Ice....ya know "Game of Thrones". So, this book has been across the US and back; been in the hands of many different people. Well, needless to say this book as seen better days. Pages were quite literally falling out of it!!! I kept trying to tape them back in, but hubby finally bought all the books on the iPad so we'd always have them so we have this poor little falling apart book & nothing to do with it...however, in my meager attempts to not waste ANYTHING I decided to do some book page crafts! I know, some of you are about to faint right now, but remember, this book was just going to be recycled so I decided to turn it into some fun crafts so we could always have little bits of it around the house! I've done several different book page crafts with this book but I'm just going to feature one here today and that is the Book Page bottles I made! They are so cute, and so easy!!! So, here we go...

Supplies:
-one-two glass bottles (I used two old coke bottles)
-a bottle of matte mod podge
-an old book
-ribbon/other adornments if you want

Process:

1. Tear out a few pages from your book, cut those into 1-1.5" strips. You can cut them or tear them. I chose to cut mine, but I wasn't too picky about how even they were. 
2. Working in sections put a thin layer of mod podge and lay down a strip of the book. It should be about the length of the bottle if it's longer or shorter you can fix that later, don't worry! Work your way around the bottle doing this. Let it dry for about two hours.
3. Then, working around the bottle again, coat with mod podge and lay book pages going the opposite way or in whatever direction you'd like. This is a piece of art so make what you want!! I sort of laid mine every which way. You can see that here: 
   
4. Make sure everything is smoothed out. Let dry at least another two hours.
5. Coat with a final coating of mod podge. Let dry at least 1-2 hours. 
6. Add some cute ribbon to go with your decor & maybe a flower or I found these cute Styrofoam spring picks at the dollar store & they really add a splash of color to my spring mantle!! Here is the finished product: 
   

These are super cute and very easy to make. Plus, they make good use of a book that was about to be trashed! I turned it into a fabulous treasure!! If you make some email me pictures here!