Things To Save For Future Craft Projects

Plastic Bottles and Caps of all sizes and shapes

Toilet Paper Tubes (empty)

Paper Towel Tubes (empty)

Newspaper and Free Ads (printed on news rag paper)

Used, Empty Stick-Type Ball Point Pens

Scrap Colored Paper

Gift Wrap and Ribbons (open your presents carefully)

Cereal Boxes, Other Clean Food Boxes made with thin cardboard

Card Stock (print can be painted over)

Cardboard Boxes and Pieces of Cardboard (of all types and thicknesses)

Empty Tissue Boxes

Empty Cardboard Tape Roll Circles (from masking tape, duck tape, transparent tape)

Plastic Containers and Lids ( good for more than leftovers)

Empty Round Salt Containers

Empty, Clean Bread Bags

Plastic Shopping Bags (grocery bag type)

Beads From Broken Necklaces or Old Beaded Jewelry You Don't Mind Sacrificing for Craft Decorating

Old Post Earrings  With Jewel or Decorative Type Front for Flower Centers (something you tired of or lost one)

Decorative Buttons From Clothes Too Old and Beat Up To Give To Charity (or find them at thrift stores, cheap)

Any Shiny, Sparkly Do Dads You Come Across (large, small, all)

Old White T-shirts (for container gardening-you'll see how we use them later to make watering plants easier - a plastic bottle craft)

Old T-shirts of any color (a few layers of rectangles or squares sewn together to make good hot pads to go under a hot glue tray to protect your table)

Empty Pill Bottles (remove and tear up the labels before throwing them away)

Baby Food Containers with Lids (clean well and dry)

Heavy Duty Envelopes (manila envelopes are great) For Saving Colored Paper Scraps

Sturdy Boxes with Lids from office supplies (the type that plastic sheet protectors come in)

Shoe Boxes

Sturdy Gift Boxes with Lids

Thread Spools (including the plastic thread cone cores from Serger Thread - great base for Christmas Tree crafts)

Old Paint Brushes (clean ones) - they make good glue brushes

Old Baking Sheets (great tray for hot glue guns and other things we're going to do)

Old Cutting Mats From your Kitchen (scratches okay - great for heavy duty stencils, just clean them up well with detergent and a little bleach to kill any germs on them)

Small Sticks and Twigs From your Yard

Pinecones

Acorns

Walnut Shell Halves

Styrofoam Egg Cartons

Cardboard Egg Cartons

Broken Egg Shells (remove the membrane inside)

Whole Egg Shells (use a straight pin to make a 1/8" hole in each end of an egg and blow the egg out for scrambled eggs, being careful to break shell pieces outward, run hot water through the egg shell to clean the inside or soak in soapy water, then place in an empty cardboard egg carton to dry and store)

Plastic Cookie Package Inserts (clean and dry)

Any Old Frames You Have or Can Pick Up at Thrift Stores

Rubber Bands, Paper Clips, Bread Bag Clips, Twist Ties

Coffee Cans

Pictures of Flowers, Food, Print with Interesting or Colorful Type, etc., from Glossy Magazine Pages (great for decoupage)

Anything that gives you a great idea for crafty, creative up-cycling, instead of trashing!

Drying Your Own Corn Husks and Silk For Corn Husk Angels

 “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”  Albert Einstein



 

 

I'll be making some Corn Husk Angel Ornaments later, so instead of buying corn husks at the grocery store I decided to save and dry my own husks and corn silk (for the Angel hair) to use later. I thought I'd share how to go about it so you can save yours too for this project. I'll be adding the Angel Ornaments later in a separate blog. Please be patient as I create my first blog. I'm learning as I go!

First buy some fresh corn on the cob, then tear off the thickest and toughest outside husks and discard or set aside for compost, if you're lucky enough to have an organic garden. I live in an apartment so I haven't got a garden (yet). Now cut off any discolored silk with a sharp knife on your cutting mat or cutting board. Or use a pair good kitchen scissors.

 

 

Now pull off the next tough layer of husks and discard. Gently and carefully pull off the thinner layers of husks and the silk, putting them in separate piles on your cutting mat or cutting board.

 

 



 

Cut off the tough core ends of the husks and try to lay out the silk so that the strands are all going in the same direction. Put the husks and silk in separate boxes on paper towels.

 

 

Turn the husks once a day, moving the bottom ones to the top and mixing them up for even drying. This picture was taken after less than one day of drying and even though the humidity is a little high right now they are already starting to dry nicely. Don't worry about the curling.  We'll take care of that later when we're ready to make the Angel Ornaments.

 

After the husks and silk are completely dry, just store in a plastic zip bag and save for crafting later. If your husks and silk are not completely dry, they may mold in the plastic bag, so when you think they are completely dry, give them a couple more days or put in the oven on baking sheets on baker's parchment and dry with your oven on it's lowest possible setting, with the oven door propped open a little to allow steam to escape. After about 3 hours, take them out, cool completely, and then bag them up to craft with later.

 

And of coarse you can always buy dried corn husks for your corn husk crafts, if you don't want to dry your own or just want a lot of them faster!

 

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