Being environmentally friendly is important to me. It is actually very selfish of me, as I want my posterity to enjoy mother earth as long as possible. Therefore on one of my very first creativity prompts I have shown you how to turn your trash into treasure.

This week I am revisiting this idea and I am going to show you how you can upcycle an empty yogurt container, just before it hits the recycle bin, and make a beautiful surprise mini album with it. If you are not a big fan of mini albums in boxes, you can stop half way through and make a lovely pencil (or brushes…) holder from it.

So if you are interested in turning your trash into treasure too, keep on reading.

Tools & Supply

• Patterned paper.
• Cardstock.
• String.
• Paper flower.
• Button.
• Ribbon.
• Paper trimmer.
• Ruler.
• Scissors.
• Circle cutter.
• Long reach hole punch.
• Diamond Glaze.
• Glue dots.
• Strong tape adhesive.
• Mod Podge + foam applicator.

How To

[The fabulous music is by Josh Woodward from his album: “Not Quite Connected”]

Step By Step Instructions

1. Measure the lid’s diameter with a ruler.
2. Cut a circle from your patterned paper in the same diameter.
3. Adhere the patterned paper circle to the lid with Mod-Podge and seal with another generous layer of Mod-Podge on top. Let dry completely.
4. Cut a bunch of patterned papers to the same height as your container and a 1″ width. [mine are 4″ by 1″]
5. Adhere the strips to the container – one by one – using Mod Podge. To eliminate air bubbles, rub each stripe with your finger. It’s messy, but important to secure your paper strips to the plastic container.
6. Seal your strips of paper with another generous layer of Mod Podge and put aside until it dries completely.
7. Measure the diameter of the bottom of your container to figure out the smallest size of a circle that can fit into your container.
8. Cut as many cardstock circles as the number of pages you wish to have in your mini-album. The circles vary in size whilst the smallest has the same diameter as the container’s bottom and the largest has the same size as the container’s lid.
9. To find the center of the cardstock circles, cut some more circles from scrap paper, at the same size as your cardstock ones. Fold each scrap paper circle once vertically and once horizontally and mark the point of conjunction. This point is exactly at the center.
10. Use the scrap circles as a template and punch a hole at the center of each cardstock circle.
11. Cut a long strip of strong decorative string and fold in half.
12. Make a knot at the fold (with the two long string edges coming out of it).
13. Weave both edges of the string through the circles. Secure each circle with a knot and add another knot between each circle, at about 1″, as a spacer.
14. Punch a hole at the center of the lid and apply Diamond Glaze (or any other strong liquid adhesive) to the inside of the lid.
15. Thread the ends of the string through the hole and make sure the top cardstock circle gets stuck well to the inside of the lid.
16. To finish off the lid, thread the ends of the string through the paper flower and the button and secure in a knot. Dab some diamond Glaze on the knot to make sure it stays put.
17. Cut a piece of ribbon that circumscribes the top of your container. Apply a strong tape adhesive to the back of the ribbon and adhere to the top edge of your container. Repeat on the bottom of your container. This will finish off the edges.
18. For a more cohesive look, add a second strip of ribbon (about 1½ times the circumference of your container) and then adhere to the edges with glue dots, while pleating the ribbon at each 1″. Secure each pleat with a glue dot.

Variation – You can skip steps 1-3 & 7-16 and make a quick and easy pencil holder instead…

How Ideas Become Creativity Prompts…

A page torn from my bedside journal: