Recycled Hubcap Creatures

I just came across these awesome "hubcap creatures" today (via Superuse). The recycled "creatures," designed by Ptolemy, are made from old hubcaps and other found metal. Every hubcap has been found along the side of the road, so every creature has his own real battle scars from his or her former life spinning around under someone's vehicle.

So, naturally, it got me wondering what else people have done with recycled hubcaps. Here's a cool clock by Starlinginc on Etsy:

I love it...the green would look great in my studio! Hmm, may have to put this on my mental wish list...

Turn T-shirts into Baby Sleepers

Today I came across this awesome blog called "This Mama Makes Stuff." This tutorial really caught my eye...super awesome baby sleepers made from recycled band t-shirts!



These would make a great hand made baby shower gift as well!

(Check out a previous post for how to make a nursing cover and crocheted bunny blankie, both great baby gifts as well!)

New Blog: "IDMommy"

I realized that I've been posting on quite a few mom-related subjects here on my Junk Mail Gems blog. While I've been able to tie them into the "green" subject matter my Junk Mail Gems fans enjoy reading, I thought that I had enough of these posts and enough new post ideas to start another new blog...



So, today I'd like to officially introduce the latest addition to my family of blogs, "IDMommy: Life at the intersection of DESIGN and MOTHERHOOD." Here I will post on topics related to motherhood, through my unique perspective as a designer and an entrepreneur.

There will be DIY project tutorials. There will be reviews of kids' products that I've tried and would like to try. There will be recipes & kids' crafts. And I'm excited to be soon starting up a rotation of interviews with fellow "MOMtrepreneurs." Learn from other moms and business owners, share your own opinions and advice, and hopefully find some things that will make your life easier in the process!

If you're a Junk Mail Gems fan, a mom, a designer, or an entrepreneur, you may find this new blog of interest as well, which is why I'm giving it a little plug here! So, check it out and become a follower if you'd like to stay up to date on my latest posts! Or, if you're a Facebook user, I invite you to become a Facebook fan and receive updates on new postings that way as well!

(I'll even give you a little sneak preview...tomorrow I'll be posting a tutorial on how to make 3 extremely useful kid/baby items out of left-over ribbon!)

"Green" Your Kids' Lunches!

(I apologize if you have already seen this post in my other new Industrial Design Mommy blog, but I felt it fit well with Junk Mail Gems as well so I'm posting it again here!)

Today is St. Patty's day, and while I don't have anything to post related to shamrocks or green beer, I am going another route and posting something that is "green" in another sense of the word...



What do you think this contraption is? A scalp massager? A rocket launcher? Nope...it's a plastic bag dryer! Designed by Gary Poolman, this product concept is the winner of Axion Polymer's green product design competition. It is designed to help dry plastic sandwich bags after they've been washed, so they can be re-used. While Axion is optimistic about this product reaching a potential market of 6 million, I'm not quite so sure that many people would go through the trouble of washing bags that are designed to be used once and tossed away. I do sometimes re-use ziploc bags for dry snack foods when I'm re-filling them with the same thing, which works well when you're toting around dry cereal or goldfish crackers for your kids. I could see myself maybe using this to dry the bags that I use in my vacuum sealer...those at least are durable enough and designed to be washed and re-used.

Of course, you can always just not use the plastic bags and make or purchase your own re-useable food storage solutions.

Here's a tutorial for making your own super cute fabric, re-useable lunch bag by Purlbee:


Snack Taxi makes some really cute reuseable pouches for snacks and sandwiches:


Or, you can go all out with this cool waste-free lunch kit from Kids Konserve:


When I was little I remember feeling like an outcast using my insulated lunch bags and boxes, even though they had my favorite character Garfield on them...just because everyone else used those throw-away paper bags. I think this lunch kit is pretty sweet though...I'm curious how kids feel about using things like this today, being that "going green" is so "in" these days! I'll definitely be revisiting some of these products once my boys get old enough to go to school and bring lunches!

Spring has Sprung!

Okay, so it's not officially spring until this Sunday. But, when the temperatures reach a record-breaking mid-60's here in Minneapolis, spring has sprung in my mind!



Here's a spring-y idea for you that a friend of mine recently shared via Facebook by Bonsai Aphrodite: How to make little seed pots out of toilet paper rolls!