Friday, November 13, 2009

D.I.Y. traveller

Thanks for all the encouraging comments on the Christmas ornaments. I was happy with how they turned out, and the reactions I've been getting, especially as I charged into the project without being terribly confident about my embroidery skills. I'm certainly going to make some more soon.

This week I went to Sydney for a conference. I'm usually a fairly efficient packer but I was still in a bit of a daze from a busy bauble-making weekend. So the night before was a bit scattered. While wandering from room to room trying to figure out which clothes to take, I managed to put together my recycled luggage tag. I used a clear plastic piece cut from a dishwashing liquid bottle, and a patterned plastic piece that came with some hairclips. It didn't take too long - the most time-consuming part was punching holes around the edges with an awl. A hole punch would have been quicker, but mine was not strong enough to go through the plastic.
smudged
The really cute luggage tag my sister gave me broke a few trips ago, and in the time that I've been thinking about making this I've seen several that I could have bought at clearance prices. So making this didn't really save more than a dollar or two. But it was satisfying to make something from materials that were destined for landfill or the recycling bin (I'm not sure the hairclip piece was even recyclable). It may not last quite as long as a good quality commercial one, but it won't be hard to make another one. It survived this trip unscathed, anyway, which is a good start.

4 comments:

2paw said...

Very clever label idea!!!

AMCSviatko said...

Please don't tell me you put your street address on it? Theives can check out addresses on airport carousels and target those addresses as they figure no one's there.

Best to put a work address, a PO Box, a frequent flier number, or just a mobile phone number.

On a more positive note, I witnessed the buying of multiple of your ornaments last night at Craft ACT's Christmas Smash :-)

m1k1 said...

I like this. As indeed I did your baubles, even though Xmas and I do not see eye to eye.

Curse you TSS. Another thing for me to be paranoid about! But I will take it on board, as it were, and change all my tags to have just my mobile phone number.

Donna Lee said...

I never thought about putting my address on my tags being a potential problem. I'll have to change them and put a work address or something.

There is something innately satisfying in being able to make something out of disposable stuff. Good thinkin'!