Meet Eleanor

Hullo all! For today's post I thought I would introduce you to my sewing machine, Eleanor!

Ta-da! Eleanor was given to my mother by my grandmother in the 80's. I would use her occasionally but she mostly lived in the garage unused until I found a Singer dealer that could tune her up. Now that shes been to the sewing "spa" she is refreshed and ready for use! Ive already created a few things with her and I started going to a sewing class on base. I'm so glad she could be fixed! I was searching for a machine for YEARS but could never settle on one. I don't like how newer machines are all plastic-y, I feel like they would crumble after a few uses! Eleanor is a tough ole bird and all metal. The only thing she really needed was a face lift. She came with an AWFUL pink and cream case and I quickly decided it had to go. Rather than chunk it (it really is a very sturdy case,) I decided to spray paint it! Here's new and improved Eleanor!

You can't tell in the picture but I also sprayed the entire thing with glitter spray. I wish I had taken a picture of her before but I couldn't find my camera. She looks so pretty now!!! Just in case you are wondering she is a Singer Merritt 2404!

Can't Sleep

For father's day my mother decided to redo my little brothers old room (he now resides in my old room) and turn it into dad's office. While this is great for him because he desperatly needs one its bad for my sleeping schedule. I'm one of those people who has to finish something no matter how long it takes, in one setting. Because of this I stayed up all day yesterday and crashed at 8 in the morning. Since I slept in till 2 I cannot go to sleep now. So in the midst of all my sleepiness I believe its time to post some more pictures.

The theme for these projects are REUSE and RECYCLE!

I sure do love my inner hippy-ness

SUNCATCHER

The first thing is a sun catcher I made! I really loved the way this turned out. This lovely will have a new place on my balcony of my apartment!

Recycled Materials:

1. Bottle Caps


2. Old CD


3. Wrapping Paper


4. Old Book Pages
   
   
   
   
   *TOP VIEW*
   
   
   
   

Bottle Cap view

Record Clock

I made this for my dad on Father's Day. He works with computers so this was a really cute concept for his new office! He had an old keyboard that he was throwing out so I took all the keys off of it. Looking back now I wished I would have kept the whole thing, who knows what could be made out of it!

RECYCLED MATERIALS

1. Record


2. Computer Keyboard


3. Book Paper
   
   
   
   
   Key Board Frame
   
   I had a TON of leftover keys so I decided to make a keyboard frame for my dad. Im a little sad that I dont have enough letters to make one for myself.
   
   
   
   
   

A Book Shelf.....

I had a shelf that was attached to a mirror which happend to break all on its own (so my siblings say,) insted of chunking it I detached the shelf. I also decided to keep the mirror since it was only slightly cracked (I know, I know, Im a pack rat.) I bought some vintage books from GoodWill a couple of monthes ago and I fell in love with the pictures. So once again my trusty friend mod podge came to my aid to help me creat this cute shelf!

Hello All!

Hello World! I decided to join the blogging community so I can post and get some feedback from fellow crafters! Since this is my first post I do believe an introduction is in order. (Not too personal though of course!)

I have always been a packrat so the idea of saving all my leftover packaging and what nots came naturally. I also am in love with thrift stores so those things combined with my treehugger-ness helped me to find my crafting niche by recycling/reusing anything I can get my hands on! It also doesn't hurt that this is a cheap alternative to regular crafting, which can get pretty pricey for a college undergrad! Like I said I am a treehugger so the though of all the packaging that would end up in the landfill makes me cringe, hence the name of the blog, "Crafter with a cause." It has always been a dream of mine to create an organization where crafters get together and create items to help the community, ex blankets for the homeless, toys for orphanages. I have always gotten tremendous joy from helping people and I truly believe it is for that purpose that I was put on this planet. I am going to try to get closer and closer to that dream but for now my cause will be reusing through the art of crafting!

I am going to try to keep crafting and updating this blog regularly but it might be hard considering my schedule is pretty hectic! (I am a nursing major so you can imagine my schedule!) I have an amazing boyfriend who was my high school sweetheart so you will frequently here me talk, er, type about him.





Enough about me, let the crafting begin!

To kick off my blog I decided to post a project I just finished for my boyfriends birthday. My boyfriend is an avid gamer so I decided to make him an old school Nintendo controller clock!




Two years ago I bought a poster that had a cardboard back to it that recently fell off. I decided to save the back and incorporate it into crafts. I cut a rectangular shape out of it for the "base" of the controller. I used my leftover felt from previous projects to create the buttons and body of the controller. I bought the clock parts from Hobby Lobby but I'm sure you could use an old clock from a thrift store as well.


All in all I'm very pleased with the project and my boyfriend absolutely loved it! I am def. going to have to make more for all my friends! Can you say birthday gift?!

Look for another ongoing project Sunday!