Frugal Green Crafting

This week I am vacationing from home, and catching up on some long neglected tasks around the house. I may pop in and out of here with a few quick things, but the majority of this week's posts will be provided by some special guests. You are in for a treat!

Today's guest is Cindy of MyRecycledBags. I first came in contact with Cindy back in 2006 when I posted All those shopping bags. I lamented that I didn't know what to do with all the shopping bags. She left me a comment that said I could craft with them. Really?!

I am not much of a crafter, but love to see what others create, especially when they are using recycled materials. Cindy consistently amazes me with what she creates from vcr tape, shopping bags, old jeans, and other recycled materials. Now, to hear from her.

Hello! My name is Cindy, but you may know me as RecycleCindy from MyRecycledBags.com. I have the honor today to provide a guest post for Stephanie - here at Stop The Ride. Stephanie was one of my first blog buddies, and I was drawn to her theme - frugal, simple and debt free living.

I love frugal things and especially love green crafting. What is green crafting? Well, green crafting is crafting and creating things from either recycled, reused, or repurposed materials. It is very frugal and a wonderfully eco-friendly way to craft. I promote the use of such items as plastic bags, vcr tapes, cassette tapes, old denim jeans and bed liners as materials for new projects.

Today I want to share with you how to make plastic bag yarn or plarn as many are calling it now. Plarn is created by cutting plastic retail bags into strips. I usually cut my strips about 1 inch wide. You then take the circular loops and intertwine them to make one long double strand of yarn. You just continue adding loops to make a ball of plarn. I have a step-by-step picture tutorial found here to help you get started on it.

Using your plarn, you now can crochet or knit many different projects. You can create multi-purpose bags by crocheting plastic bags together such as this reusable grocery tote bag show here.

Maybe you need a new lunch sack, if so check out this handy lunch bag crocheted from plastic grocery bags. Click here for the free pattern.

Or maybe you need a water bottle holder. Here is the pattern.

Needless to say, there are many frugal, green craft ideas and free patterns available. So I challenge all you crafters out there - go green. Try a recycled craft idea or take some useless item you have and repurpose it into something useful. Turning trash into treasure can truly be rewarding, both for your pocketbook and for our environment.

Best wishes and happy green crafting to you all!