A License Plate to Dustpan DIY Recycled Tutorial - Time to Clean Up!

In New Jersey if you do not turn in your old license plates you face huge fines and can even lose your driver's license,

(so, don't ask me where I got this one - I actually have about 10 in a backyard shed which I am hoping the police don't stumble upon, if one of my neighbors - jealous of my crafty nature - turn me in)

but if you live in a state that is not quite so greedy about getting these back and happen to have one that you are not using why not turn it into a handy little dustpan!

You will need:

1. a license plate

(please do not steal this from your neighbor or mother-in-law)

2. an old handle- I removed this one from an old frying pan that I ditched due to teflon and have been trying to recycle
3. 11 1/4" of weatherstripping
4. new bolts for your handle- complete with washers and nuts
5. a drill, some clamps and a marking pen

1. determine the size of the 'fold' for your plate based on your handle and clamp your plate to the edge of your work table upside down
2. gently and firmly bend your plate - working your way a little bit at a time across the plate- slight bends; you will probably need to bend across the plate 3 or 4 passes - if you have a rubber mallet - it could come in handy here

(note - I have a rubber mallet and spent more time looking for it than making this dustpan and of course, it only turned up the next day when I didn't need it anymore)

3. measure and mark your handle holes
4. if you are using large bolts- drill a starter hole with a small drill bit and then drill your larger hole with the correct size bit
5. remove your clamps and bolt on your handle


6. cut your weatherstripping to size
7. peel off the sticky paper from the one side of the stripping and press the edge of your license plate on top of it
8. make any final adjustments to your license plate fold and you are done!

And for some amazing recycled license plate creations you can buy now check out this total gorgeousness on Etsy:


1. Journey license plate word block by Recycled Art Company
2. Recycled license plate monogram necklace by Wearwolf
3. Quebec license plate photo album by Tagliatela
4. Say What? license plate belt buckle by Vintage In Retrospect
5. New England Girl license plate bracelet by Etcetrix
6. License plate frame by RandiTan

What Your Food Labels are Not Telling You and the real cookie monster makes her escape

There was a great post recently on Daily Green on 9 food label lies and I thought it was important enough to repeat a few here in case anyone missed it.

Wisdom is power people.

1. Made With Whole Grains

I had been craving some tuna melts last week and was in the grocers searching for the english muffins and seeing the package labeled whole grains I grabbed that one not checking to see that unbleached wheat flour is the main ingredient; whole wheat flour is the third flour on the list indicating very little whole grains are in these muffins, I mean, how many types of flour does Thomas's need for these things anyway?

Daily Green say that some products that trumpet their whole grain credentials (like Keebler's Zesta saltine crackers) use caramel to mimic the brown color of whole grains. Ugh!

2. Ingredient Lists - now the first ingredient (the main ingredient you would think) on the cake mix box is flour, but since the last 4 ingredients are different types of sugar- sugar is actually the main ingredient and 1/3 of the box contents- this is a real disappointment!

3. Serving Size - the 20 oz. bottle of soda is 100 calories per serving - this is the size bottle that fits in your car cup holder - but if you look closely the bottle contains 2.5 servings - so drinking the entire bottle is 250 calories!

4. Made With Real Fruit - If the label says real fruit it must be good for us and our kids, right? Betty Crocker's Strawberry Splash Fruit Gushers say they're made with real fruit, but the only thing approximating fruit is pear concentrate (sugar) with Red No. 40 for "strawberry" color. Overall, the gushers are half sugar (which means they are candy).

5. 0 Trans Fats - While some companies reformulated their products to reduce the use of risky fats, many just replaced trans fats with saturated fats. They are just as bad, but get to wear the label "0 trans fats!"

6. Free Range Eggs - This is not something the FDA monitors. There are free range chicken labels for poultry which means they get at least 5 minutes of sun a day - yes, 5 minutes - lucky chickens - but no such monitoring for eggs. So free range or cage free on your eggs is unregulated and pretty much worthless.

And, even though I know we can't believe anything almost anything we read these days this car was in front of me on the way to Pennsylvania last weekend.

At first I thought it was Kathie Lee Gifford ...

but, as we got closer I saw that the plastic license plate holder read - I'm a Girl Scout Leader.

Suddenly, I realized I had stumbled upon the leader of the troop that secretly makes the gazillions of cookies all the other girl scouts are out selling!

I started hollering at her out my window that I knew who she was, that she wasn't fooling me with her cookie labels - that those girls had better get at least 5 minutes of sunshine a day!

I tried to keep up with her and follow her back to the cookie factory, but she lost me by making some high speed scout-type maneuvers.

(plus I didn't want to spill my coffee and hubby and I were distractedly arguing about how to work the camera phone- yes, we are one of those couples)

I don't have anymore girl scout cookies in the house, but if you still have any - check the labels - and don't believe any of that free-range, cage-free crap they are trying to sell you! The truth lies in Pennsylvania.

Take 10 Tuesday - More Stuff You Don't Want to Miss

1. Some great podcasts from the ladies of Spring Inspiration on Time Management

2. Brenda's last post over at Papernstitch - Originality in the Culture of Copying

3. That 1% at Sherry Truitt's wonderfully intuitive blog.

4. Covering the Added Costs of Credit Card Processing at CraftMBA


5. The 5 Step Plan for Just About Everyone & Everything by Seth

6. The Creative Process of her new Zine over at iHanna's

7. GreenPost's Friendship is Better post on blogging content

8. ExtremeCraft found this great video on the making of Fail Hard

9. How Much Money Do You Need to Quit Your Job over at Itty Biz

10. Skip to My Lou's recipe card generator for all you crafty cooks

GIVEAWAY - Beantown Handmade Big Bloom DOG COLLAR - CLOSED

AND THE WINNER IS: PamWares!

Chosen by random.org
True Random Number Generator

Min: 1
Max: 62
Result:
14

Beantown Handmade is the wonderful shop of Anne and Michael in Nebraska and their beloved Bean.

They make the highest quality handmade pet apparel and accessories.

Anne and Michael design apparel for dogs, not people clothes for dogs. The dog's safety, comfort, warmth, ease of movement, and yes even their pride are Beantown's top priorities ... and then they make them cute!

At Beantown Handmade if Bean won't wear it, they won't sell it!

They even donate a portion of their proceeds to animal rescue organizations all over the country.



We are so lucky to have one of their amazing collars for this week's giveaway!

WHAT YOU GET:

One lucky winner will receive a gorgeous BIG BLOOM dog collar in your pup's size and color below!



HOW TO WIN:

Visit Beantown Handmade and let Bean know which item you like best!

For additional entries:

(5) Twitter this post
(5) Blog about this contest; linking to this post
(5) Follow my blog

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to everyone.

DRAWING:

Enter by midnight, Sunday June 6th! Good luck! CLOSED