Reuse Reuse Reuse

I’m always looking for ways to repurpose items to put them to good use. I had an empty wall area above my fireplace, and didn’t have much money to go out and buy a nice picture, so I took some old records I had lying around and pinned up the covers.



Some more repurposed items above my fireplace are the three mason jars sitting on the mantle. I use these three mason jars to showcase different cards or post cards that I received or collected. For an extra little touch, I even tied some twine around the top of the jars.



I was looking for a pot to put my plant in, and instead of buying a new one, I used a can from my recycling bin. I was originally going to paint the can (I’ve seen some painted ones online that look really cute) but ended up liking the shiny silver look.



These are just a few items in my apartment that I have reused to add a decorative touch, I’d love to hear about your ideas of what you’ve reused. Send me your pics with a brief description to Kelly@veganadvantage.ca to have them showcased in another reuse reuse reuse blog post!

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DIY Cork Board

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DIY: Cork Board

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DIY: Mod Podge Picture on Canvas

I saw a few examples online of people taking photos and ‘mod-podging’ them onto a canvas. Instead of using a photograph, I wanted to see if it would work with a band poster (thick paper). It turned out great! Here’s how I did it:

STEP 1- Make mod podge.

STEP 2- Cover entire canvas with the mod podge and place your poster on top. Allow to dry.

STEP 3- Cover entire poster with mod podge. Allow to dry.

Step 4- If you desire, dab on acrylic paint around the edges of the poster to help the edges stick down better.

*I tried to smooth out as many bumps and ridges in the poster as possible while it was still wet. However, I like the way it turned out with a few ridges.

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DIY: Stenciling on a picture

You can easily bring an old picture back to life by painting on a word or quote. I found this particular picture, frame and all, at a thrift shop, and thought it would look great with a quote written on it.

The quote I chose to paint on was “Make Your Own Luck,” inspired by skateboarder, Rob Dyrdek’s brand.

Because I’m thrifty, I did not go out and buy stencils. I went on http://online.rapidresizer.com/, typed in my quote, and it generated a stencil for me.

Once I printed it out, I cut out the letters using an exacto knife. If you want to use scissors, I recommend printing very large letters, as it’s hard to cut out small letters.

I then taped my stencil onto my picture, grabbed some white paint, and painted in the letters. Here’s the final result!

Because I used a paper stencil, the paint bled around the edges, creating a messier result (which I like). If you want cleaner letters, I suggest printing your stencils on thicker paper, or buying stencils from the store.

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Book Review: Vegan Food Gifts

I went to the library today, not really knowing what I was looking for. I figured punching in “Vegan” on the library’s browser would be a good start. Instead of looking through the book titles on the computer, I decided to write down the code of the first vegan book I saw, and head down to that section.

There was a variety of vegan and vegetarian cookbooks, but one book in particular caught my eye. I pulled out the book “Vegan Food Gifts,” by Joni Marie Newman, and sat down at a table to look it over.

Not only does this book give you yummy-looking vegan recipes including banana nut bread, tofu jerky, and s’more brownies, but it also gives you DIY packaging methods so you can give someone a vegan food gift!

 “Besides turning the world vegan (no small task!), I also plan on furthering the DIY gift movement,” Newman wrote in the book’s introduction. “When you make gifts yourself, you save the animals, you save the planet, and you say no to corporate greed, all in one fell swoop!”

The book has a grading system that lets you know the level of difficulty, cost, and speed/quantity of the project. Most projects are easy, inexpensive (under $5), and quick to do, and Newman also included pages of paper cut-outs (tags, recipe cards) to use with your DIY packaging.

The book is laid out very neatly, with a lot of large pictures to give you an idea of what the recipe looks like, and how you can gift wrap it. If you want to do a some vegan cooking, want some DIY craft inspiration, and want to give someone the gift of vegan treats, I’d suggest taking a look at this book.

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