Looking for a fun project you can do with your kids or while relaxing by the fire? Check out this easy tutorial for making your own drink coasters from old magazines.  They are simple, colorful, useful AND recyclable.  I think they would make great Mother’s or Father’s day gifts.  Get started here.

Welcome guest author Elizabeth Smyth of Precision Paragon. Thank you Elizabeth! Shining a New Light on Old Things – Upcycled Lighting Fixtures After a holiday filled with too many cookies, a flourishing display of crisply wrapped boxes tied with ribbons and bows and twenty four hour light spectacles showing in the front yard, the new year is a welcomed time to detox from our wasteful, albeit festive, ways. In the spirit of the New Year and our intentions to do better, the trend of upcycling has been bestowed upon …

Where do old skateboards go when they die? If Matt Mercurio has anything to do with it, they receive a new life. He recreates them into colorful jewelry and unique wall art. He was an artist and skater in his younger days while growing up in Orlando,FL. Life happened and for a time he left art and skating behind him. Then in 2006, he followed his family to Portland, Oregon. The community was filled with artists and skaters, igniting a new passion for Matt. Inspired by a few …

This stunning mosaic is made from upcycled junk mail! It’s called “The Birth of Venus,” and it is one of many creations from eco-friendly artist Sandhi Schimmel Gold. She upcycles junk mail and other paper waste into this truly fine art. All of her work is “hand-painted, hand-cut, hand-applied, hand-embellished, and hand-finished.” This unique technique is all her own, and she calls it Acrylic Mosaic Fusion. All of the materials are water-based, acid-free and non-toxic. Schimmel Gold’s initial inspiration came from a portrait made from colorful glass fragments …

A robot sculpture made from an upcycled old car? You bet. You are looking at a 200lb, 6’6″ tall statue named “The Transformer,” created by Netherlands-based artist Nikola Nikolov and his studio Studio-Re-Creation. This amazing piece of art was completed in Spring of 2010, and was built by deconstructing the artist’s first car and welding it back into… well… a Transformer. In the artist’s words, “The Transformer symbolizes the relationship between man and machine. Our first car, a Lada Samara Diva, has been re-created into a powerful figure. …