Where can I get free products for making crafts?

You can find free products or materials for making crafts everywhere. If you look out for them, you can find them:

-in your home.

-at work.
-from your friends and neighbours.
-at restaurants, stalls or shops you often patronise.
-in public areas.

You just have to try to get your hands on them before they are discarded. I see many material you can work with in this bin. Can you spot them too?

If you are good at painting, instead of buying drawing pads, you can consider painting on empty glass bottles. This is a gift I received from a friend in Beijing. It is a painting of my husband and son on a snuff bottle. The artist who created it managed to copy the likeness from a photo I gave my friend.

I think that is a neat idea. So, if you have recently celebrated with a bottle of champagne, instead of throwing the empty bottle away, you can either do it yourself or find an artist to have your photo painted on it to commemorate the event you opened it in celebration.

What are you good at making? You can list out the tools and material you need to complete your work on a piece of paper and note beside it what other material you can consider using as substitutes. Some crafting tools can be expensive. So, use your creativity to improvise with the available tools or material that you have on hand to complete your craft.

For example, when I was learning to make wirework jewellery, I discovered that I could use as working material:

-the copper wires removed from leftover electrical cables.

I managed to use them to learn to make Roman bracelets from a book I borrowed from the library.

-the trolling stainless steel wires that my husband no longer use.

These are the tools I made use of to create jump rings…

…to create this beaded necklace.

I love using material that would otherwise be discarded in my craftwork. I call my efforts, creating abundance from the abandoned. Since I enjoy handcrafting, I am always on a look out for free crafting tutorials online. But instead of buying new material to create, I tend to use discarded material. For example, at my bike shop I have lots of punctured tubes to work with. Instead of using ribbons, here are some of the things I can create with punctured tubes.

Punctured tubes can be used to cover a hole in a chair.

Instead of buying leather, I experimented with tubes to learn leather craft.

I have also experimented with used tyres from my bike shop. My customers used to enjoy sitting on this chair I created with them while they were waiting for their bicycles to be fixed. However, the raffia strings I used to tie them together disintegrated over time. So, if you are inspired to create the same, you have to use stronger material as fastenings.

Do you like crafting with fabric? My uncle used to work for a textile wholesaler. He gave my mom lots of fabric samplers and unsold leftover fabric at the end of each roll. My mom was able to sew quilted blankets, cushion covers and floor mats with the scraps of fabric received. If you require fabric in your craftwork, see if you have friends who enjoy sewing or who are in the tailoring business. They should be willing to give you their scraps. I used to receive used zips and scraps of fabric from a friend who is a tailor. That was because I told her once that jewellery can be created even with damaged zippers.

You can also upcycle clothes you or your family members have outgrown. To upcycle means, to reuse discarded material in such a way that it creates a product of higher quality or value than the original. What you are able to create yourself will be valued. With some creativity, anything can be upcycled. If you do not want to upcycle your clothes but you are not comfortable about wearing them again because you have worn them one time too often or they have gone out of fashion, you can learn to embellish them by adding decorative details so that they look different. That will require you to take up some basic sewing skills though.

Currently, I save all crafting tutorials with potential to create with free material on my Pinterest board, “Abundance from Abandoned”. From there you can explore the free material you can use in your craft.

This video gives you an idea what you can craft with fruit foam wraps.

Once you have discovered the kind of free material you would like to work with, tell everyone you know to keep them for you. And be friendly with storekeepers of shops you often buy your stuff from as they may have lots of packaging material which you can make use of in your craft.

These are the other practical stuff that I have made over the years with free material:

I managed to create this weaving tool with my empty herb supplement bottle. Instead of yarn, I cut strips out of plastic bags to weave.

These watering pals for watering plants are made of PVC bottles and dressed up with plastic bags.

For my former kitchen.

This is how I decorate empty containers for storing my stuff.

Costumes and hair pieces I made for school concerts to reduce the cost of paying for clothes that my children may only wear once during their performance.

Bouquet cum duster that I designed and made with plastic bags which can be given out as gift.

With these creations, I was able to conduct a workshop on recycling and upcycling for some university students in UTAR during one of their extramural activities.

Musical instrument I created for my children to play with.

I designed and created this dog poo scoop with a PVC bottle and some plastic bags. I hope owners taking their dogs out for walks at the public park in the neighbourhood will learn to make them so that it will be easier for them to clean up after their pets.

This new year greeting in Malay for display at my bike shop is made of cardboard and strips of plastic bags.

Placard I made for my bike shop to inform my customers when it will closed for the festive holidays.

Before I started my bike shop, I often collect my free cardboard boxes from my regular fruit stall. These are some of the stuff I am able to create with my collection:

Mini cupboard

It was made wide enough for me to use empty tissue boxes as drawers.

You can see how I made it at the following link::

Drawers cum gift boxes

Here is a lantern I made for my children.

You can see how the box was cut and pieces assembled at the following link:

Cardboard box? Great for making a lantern.

I have been collecting empty sachets for coffee because there is a thin film of aluminium foil inside. I discovered that they can be cut and folded to create a bag like this.

You do not have use the sachets inside out if they have lovely designs on it.

I prefer to crochet over making bags out of this material and will gladly give them away to anyone interested to collect. When I crochet I also consider using cut strips from plastic bags or raffia strings as yarn in my work.

Items that would otherwise be discarded can become valuable to others if it has sentimental value.  That said, have you ever thought of using fallen hair to create craft?  You can learn the process of creating hairwork by watching this video.

I like keeping empty bottles with grooves on them. They make it easier for me to cut the bottles neatly to the height I want. I use this 1L size oval shaped container to store all the brushes I used in my kitchen.  Sometimes I will also leave my knives with the brushes to drain them after washing. 

Check out how I decorate the empty containers I used for storing my stuff. The one decorated with granny squares was actually a lantern I made for my children. These 5L cooking oil bottles are great for storing my packets of coffee, onions and tubers.

Other than using them as storage containers, I also use them like a pail for soaking in water:

-my laddles to soften food stuck on them to make it easier to clean.
-my vegetables like celery, beans, tomatoes, bell peppers. I place a prestle or a cup on top to make sure that the vegetables stay in the water.

Recently, I discovered that it is a great way to keep the shape of my crochet bag.  I made it because my sister told me that, while at work, she don't like to carry her handbag out for lunch and that she is looking for a small bag big enough to hold just her keys, handphone and a packet of tissue.  The first one I made did not hold its shape well once she puts her stuff in.

I like this version better.

She can decide how much of the bottle she would like to cut off to hold her stuff. The cord I used as a handle was taken off a shopping bag.  

So, she can easily change the colour with cords she can find from her own collection of paperbags. She can even use her shoes laces.

I chose a pattern with large holes so that she can slip receipts through them as it will be easier for her to remove them to show the staff when her dishes are ready for collection.  She can also personalise it by inserting one of those drawstring bags we often received with gifts.

I hope she will consider inserting cut strips of plastic bag through the holes to match her outfit like I did for this bag I made with leftover wools.

Are aluminum drink cans better than plastic water bottles?

Are you wondering if you should buy drinks that are packed in aluminum cans or in PET bottles?

It depends on which country you are from and how the recycling rate is like for the packaging involved.  Recycling agents in Malaysia would rather take aluminium cans over plastic as one lorry load of aluminium cans earns more than one lorry load of PET bottles.

I read this article posted on July 20, 2019 by TAPP Water:

Glass vs plastic vs aluminium – what is the most sustainable choice?

This is what it reported:

% recovered for recycling in USA
Glass 80%
ALUMINIUM 45%
PLASTIC (PET) 9.5%

Though the recycling rate in reported is 80% for glass bottle, in Malaysia I am not able to find recycling agents for them.

If you read the report, "Disposable Drinking Bottles- Plastic vs. Glass vs. Aluminum" from Macquarie University in Australia website, the recycling rate is different:

Average Amount Currently Recycled reported in Australia
GLASS 50%
ALUMINIUM 50%
PLASTIC (PET) 60%

Maybe it is easier to make a decision based on your views from this report extracted from the report posted at TAPP Water:

Time to decompose
Glass bottle 1 million years*
Single use plastic 400 years
Carton Never**
Aluminium can 100-400 years

Decomposition residue
Glass bottle - Glass
Single use plastic - Microplastics
Carton - Some microplastics
Aluminium can - Metal scrap

How do you stop microplastics from polluting the environment?  Based on this, I would rather choose aluminium over PET bottles.

If you still cannot make up your own mind on it, read what "The Aluminum Association" has to say about it.

Extracted:
"Nearly 75 percent of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today.

Infinitely recyclable and highly durable, nearly 75 percent of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today. Aluminum is 100 percent recyclable and retains its properties indefinitely. Aluminum is one of the only materials in the consumer disposal stream that more than pays for the cost of its own collection."

Note: Though carton is reported not to decompose and there are microplastics residue when they decomposed, if you google "Tetrapak gets recycled into roof sheets" you can read about their efforts with with local charity in Thailand to turn recycled cartons into roofing sheets to provide emergency shelter for people in need.

See how Tetrapak  is recycled in India to benefit the public.


Tetrapak is working on raising awareness that their cartons can be recycled.  I think that children in school should be taught during their art and craft class lessons on how they can extract paper out of cartons as shown in this video.

Plastic litters are precious plastic

Take a breather from complaining about plastic bottles littering the environment and take a look at this video.



Don't you like it that you can now process plastic discards into something useful again?

And, don't worry about the cost of getting the machines you need to start because, you are going to learn to make your own with affordable basic materials at Precious Plastic.

Party's over. Now what?

When the party is over, start picking up those drink bottles to keep before they get discarded in the bin.  Find time to watch this video and decide what you want to do with your own collection of bottles.



There are definitely lots of stuff that you and your children can create so that they can have lots of fun during the weekends, even when they are spending them at home.

You can find the full "how to" instruction posted on Instructables at the following link:

10 Fun Things to do with a 2 Liter Bottle

Plastic bags? Stored in bottles.

What are you doing with all the grocery plastic bags you have been receiving?  Are they messing up your storage space? 

If they are, this is how you can store them so that it will be easier for you to re-use them.