Another New Idea

While I was working on the super order I have (to the soothing background of the original Star Wars saga), I had another idea. I had asked on the Etsy forums not too long ago if anyone could think of any way that I could reuse (instead of throw away) all of the things from my days as a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant. I mentioned that I had a ton of plastic bags and old catalogs and I thought I could use them to package my stuff, but was worried if it would be too tacky to use things covered with Mary Kay trademarks when I'm trying to show I support handmade and build my own brand. (For the record, I have long since ceased selling Mary Kay products, not to say that there's anything wrong with Mary Kay products.)

The most useful idea people could relay to me was to shred the catalogs and use them as box filler (as opposed to just crumpling up the pages, which was my first thought). Great idea! But no one really had anything to say about how I could get some use out of the hot pink plastic bags.

This morning, I remembered reading once about cutting up plastic grocery bags and crocheting something like a tote or purse or something. I am so doing that! I have a ton of these bags! I have eighty five little ones and somewhere close to fifty large ones. Since they're thicker than regular grocery bags, I can cut them into fairly thin strips. I cut up twenty little ones today and strung them together to see how it might work. I think it might work! I'm psyched about this idea to use those bags without the branding conflict.

I don't know when I'll have time to make my plastic 'yarn,' let alone make something out of it, but there it is. Now I have a use for all those bags! I'll get some pictures and maybe make a tutorial on the craft blog in case other people are like me and are inundated with plastic bags (be they grocery or otherwise) and reluctant to throw them out (and keep forgetting to take them to the grocery store where they have recycling bins). Eventually, I'll make crochet use out of all those grocery bags too. The ones with holes in them that we can't use for cat business tend to just pile up. No more! I have a plan! A tote bag, a purse, a hat, a plan!!