Making soft toys? Find free stuffing.

Does this look familiar to you?



They are the fibres removed from corns I have been eating.



They have dried up as I have kept them for a few weeks now. They still look good, doesn't smell and feel soft like cotton fillings for your pillows. If you keep enough, you can use them to stuff soft toys with.

Need pin cushion before you start? Need colour scheme to work on? I have that all covered, of course. Just click on the links for free tutorials.

You can also check out LiveJournal for some ideas of the kind of toys you would like to create. Just remember that the smaller your soft toy is, the more scrap fabrics you can use.

So, can you make a living making soft toys? Mariska did with her cute Fluffels...

and she is sweet enough to provide free tutorial on her blog for creating a Duck.

If you work on it, your profit is most likely higher since you use waste fibre from corn and scrap fabrics, right? Should you hide the fact that you are using waste material? Of course not! After all it may be the reason why they want to buy your toys.

There are people out there who just want to be owners of eco friendly creations.

Have you heard of Neighborhood Fruit?

Have you heard of Neighborhood Fruit? It helps people find and share fruits in USA growing wild or in your backyard.  All you need to do is register the information at the following link:

http://neighborhoodfruit.com/about

That way when the trees are fruiting, they will be picked up by those who are interested instead of leaving them to rot on the trees when there is a bumper crop.  If this application is available around the world, it would make life better for those living in poverty. 

Fruits can be eaten fresh, cooked, squeezed out for juices or drinks or baked in cakes. Find ways to use them on Pinterest and see if a business can be developed:
http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=fruit&rs=ac&len=5

For example, do you know that you can use some fruits for making dye?


Find more of such free tutorial from Pinterest:
http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=fruit%20dye

It is common to see restaurant food served in banana leaves.  These can be collected to be sold if you know where you can find them: 

Even some product from Ikea are made from banana fiber?

Someone I know in Malaysia manufacture paper out of banana tree stump

Others I found by doing a search for "find free fruit in your area":
"Falling Fruit," pinpoints all sorts of tasty trees in public parks, lining city streets and even hanging over fences from the U.K. to New Zealand.
http://fallingfruit.org/

Wild Edibles

http://wildmanstevebrill.com/

You see, you can even make a living sharing information about Wild Edible Plants in Columbia, SC

http://www.theforagingfamily.com/

Cardbaord from boxes fun

When I was a kid, I loved playing with cardboard boxes. I used to put my younger sister in the box and dragged her around the hall by holding on to one of its lids. We have used them to rear stray kittens and puppies we found in the neighbourhood.

Till today, these heavy or lightweight cardboard containers in whatever material, forms or shapes are still giving me fun as I explore ways to make use of them in my craft work. Here are some stuff I have created using cardboards:

1) Beads for making jewellery for my daughter to play with.

2) Photo frame and jewellery holder.


Add interest to your frame by wrapping the strips at all sides with leftover gift wrapping paper. If you want to give it away as a present, wrapped the sides with wrapping paper to represent the event it is for. Example, if it is a Christmas present, wrapped them using wrapping paper with Christmas theme.



Don't give up on cardboard that are stained. Each time your children paint, have them clean off excess paint on their brushes onto the stained cardboard you have used in your creation.

3) Happy Teacher's Day Card using cardboard from a birthday cake box.


I made it practical by gluing to the top of the card a cardboard sweet container to form a holder for pen or handmade plastic flower. I wrapped the sweet container using plastic bags cut into strips to fit its size.

This handmade plastic flower can also be used to decorate the photo frame.



Following are some free tutorial I have discovered off the web for you to try out:

Cardboard Crafts

Cardboard Box Castle

Cardboard Castle

Bulletin Board

Plastic Bags? Before you throw check this out.

My daughter kept loosing her water bottle and its holder in school. It is likely that everyone is using similarly looking ones that she finds it so difficult to locate her own once it is misplaced. Over a weekend, instead of going out to buy her another water bottle holder, I decided to create one for her.

So, will I be upset if she loose it again? Not likely going to happen again because it is too personalized to be mistaken for others and I did enjoy pleating the plastic bags I have on hand to create them. I love creating 2-1 solutions. Don't you?



Flowers I created from plastic bags to decorate the children's lanterns for the lantern festival.



Plastics bags are the best material to use to create things for children. Click on the following link if you need more inspirations:

Be Inspired To Reuse Your Plastic

Not inspired yet? Maybe this free tutorial, "How to knit a plastic bag", posted by Mike at Pie and Coffee will.

Now you know how easy it is to use plastic bags in your creation, let's see what else you can create with them.

Sandals crocheted from twisted-shopping-bag yarn

Want to work on something more ambitious? Check out Shaun Muscolo's wedding gown knitted from white plastic shopping bags.

Not your forte? Then read this idea and see what Rajiv Badlani is up to in his efforts to turn plastic bags into something useful and prevent them from choking animals and marine life.

Solution to plastic litters in the Philippines

According to a report by Greenpeace, Philippines is the third worst plastic polluter of oceans.

However, there is hope for change through a trash management programme developed by nonprofit, Mother Earth Foundation. The city council of San Fernando allows the poor to make a living by picking through trash from every house daily and bring it all to sell at one of its 35 waste warehouses throughout the city.

Through this new system, more than 75 percent of waste gets composted or recycled and it costs the city council about 80 percent less to manage waste, as trash trucks are no longer required to collect waste from every house.

To boost plastic recycling, Dutch designer, Dave Hakkens, provides free tutorial at Precious Plastic so that one can learn t build a machine that can shred up plastic waste so that the material can be used to make useful artifacts.



More money can be made from a finished product than from recycling, if the poor adopt this idea.

Holes in clothes? Good for framing.

Way before my marriage, I used to crochet baby clothings for my friends, nieces and nephews. Sadly, when I have my own kids, I never got around to creating for them. However, two of the pieces that I have handmade were returned to me so that my children could appreciate them too.

Now that they have outgrown them, I wonder what I should do with them. Unraveling them to create something new would be such a waste as they were created for my first born nephew and niece who are now in their twenties.




I recall one of my former teachers kept a "My Baby's First Year" book where she kept records of her only daughter. She has even kept her baby hair and a tooth. She brought it to school as she would like one of my classmates to calligraph the notes she has written in pencil on it. She would like to present it as a 21st birthday present to her daughter. Isn't that a grand thought? I think I should keep these pieces and maybe frame them up as keepsake.

And talking about calligraphy and framing; I read in the newspaper recently that Calligraphy art teacher, Husain Omar, framed his work with songket fabric. So, incorporating this idea, a little write up about the keepsake can be useful if there is a stain or hole on the material that you intend to keep. If Calligraphy is not your forte, print out a photo of the child wearing that piece and place it over the unsightly spot. If I can find my mom's old clothings, maybe I can use the fabric as bases for family photos and have them framed. Imagine what an ice breaker it will be for visitors if I can find a photo of her wearing the base... oops, I mean the clothes.

I noticed that most of my Malay friends who have children tend to enjoy sewing for them. So, if this idea of framing keepsakes with some notes appeals to them, they will be pleased to know that this Calligraphy art teacher plans to conduct free Calligraphy classes in Jawi. Husain Omar can be reached at 012-344-0066 for details. Check with him to see if it is an offense to use Jawi this way!

Want this project handmade all the way? Following are some free tutorials I have discovered:

"How To Make Picture Frames" from FrameCo provides pictures of tools you need and ways to save on the material you will be using.

How to Picture Frame, A Nine Step Tutorial from Framing4Yourself.