Hey Bernice!

I guess you could call this Part II of Upcycling: Transforming garbage. I have ‘a thing’ about throwing things away that can be used for something else – it drives my husband crazy.

All around our house you’ll find items I have saved from the trash that are being stored until I get around to doing something with them.

A few months ago I posted about a collection of household garbage I had transformed into useful home storage items (see post: Upcycling – transforming garbage).

Below are examples of the baby formula tin becoming a cooking utensil holder, and the bulk washing detergent bucket turned into toy box….

Here’s another option you can add to that list, the egg carton muffin box.

This one is a piece of cake (or should I say muffin – haha). Anyone (even those that shout from the rooftop that they haven’t a creative bone in their body) can achieve this one.

All you need is:

– An egg carton (one that doesn’t have packaging/printing all over the sides, or where you can peel off the packaging/sticker)
– Some colourful paper (I used wrapping paper)
– Craft glue
– Scissors
– A ruler

1. Where you can, peel off the sticker/packaging… otherwise you might have to stick the coloured paper over the sides as well.

2. Measure the size of the top of the egg carton and cut a piece of paper to stick on the top.

3. Use the craft glue to evenly cover the top of the egg carton and place the paper on top.

4. Press down firmly to ensure that all parts of the paper will stick to the carton

5. Leave to dry

Once covered you can place mini cupcakes or muffins in the egg carton. You will need a small muffin tin so they they will fit. In this egg-sample (the puns are getting a little annoying now aren’t they?). I made my delicious banana, date and bran muffins

So there you have it, one of the simplest transformations you will ever encounter – go on, give it a try.

While we’re on the topic of transforming garbage, I thought I would share with you a great idea I stumbled across. The entrepreneur behind this new product probably had the same addiction to reusing garbage that I have!

They are stickers that can be placed on different pieces of garbage to turn them into toys for kids! The company is called Box Play for Kids, here are some brilliant examples from their website:

The Juice carton truck…

The egg carton zoo…

The shoe box fridge…

That’s more than enough garbage-talk from me…. see you next time.

Cheers,

Bernice