When my kids were little, they loved the music of Jack Johnson. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle was a frequent tune in the CD player of the car. This catchy song still sticks in my head today when I am organizing and decluttering. A lot of people like to do their big cleaning and organizing in the spring, but I've always been triggered to do it in the fall. There is something about the cooler weather and getting back into a routine after a hot, busy summer, that makes me want to organize my life. So that's what I have been working on over the past month or so.
Now I am very sentimental. At least that's what I call it. My husband might tell you it borders on a hoarding issue, but who's to say? So when I charge my teens with sorting through their clothes and personal items to dispose of unwanted goods, I make sure that I go through these items before they go to Goodwill. I mean, how dare they try to give away the stuffed bunny that their cousin gave to them when they were three? Okay, so I've gotten better about all this as I get older. Primarily because I just can't stand the clutter anymore. And I also have Marie Kondo's voice in the back of my head, does it spark joy? But often times I will try to find a way to repurpose an item I want to keep.
Which leads me to my latest Cricut Maker project for these two zippered pencil pouches that my oldest teen no longer wanted. They were still practically new and I like to use pencil pouches to organize items in my handbag. For years my family referred to my purse as the black hole where everything gets lost, so this is an inexpensive way to help organize. I have my checkbook, pens and some coupons in one, another for on-the-go makeup, and even another for feminine products and such. It also makes it easier when transferring to another handbag.
Instead of just using these zippered pouches as they were, I decided to personalize them a bit. I found this project for a cosmetic bag on Cricut's Design Space.
My youngest and I just watched Pride and Prejudice a few weeks ago. She fell in love with it and I fell in love with it all over again. Remember that part about me being sentimental? Yep, I couldn't help myself. Now I will remember that mother-daughter movie night every time I pull this pouch out of my purse.
I chose customize on the Design Space project and resized the quote for my pouch.
Even though the pouch is vinyl, I decided to try using heat transfer vinyl for the quote. Remember to mirror that image!!! (My friendly reminder from Ryan Gosling)
Once the I had cut and weeded the quote, I set my Cricut Easy Press Mini on low to adhere the HTV to the pouch. I used parchment paper, as I have learned to do in previous iron on projects, between the press and the vinyl. It really only took a few seconds and it was ready for a warm peel.
The second pouch has the whimsical moustache fabric, so I wanted to do something a little more simple here. I was just going to monogram a bold "J" on it, but do you know how hard it is to find a good font for a capital "J"? Maybe it's just me. Anyway, I settled on this fun font using my entire name.
Using the same process as the first, I cut and weeded the HTV; however this time I turned my Easy Press up to medium because it is a cotton fabric. Again, it only took a few seconds before I could successfully do a warm peel.
And...Ta Da!!
It was such a quick and easy project (approximately 30 minutes once I had decided on my designs) and I feel so good about being able to reuse a couple items that I really did not want to part with. I loved the way they turned out. They are going to brighten my mood every time I pull them out of my purse!
What items have you found that you could repurpose in a fun way?