Sonia Lucano’s Top 3 Eco-Friendly Crafts

Did you resolve to jazz up your home décor this year? And to save money, and to do your part to help the environment? If you think it’ll be difficult to keep so many resolutions, try remaking, restyling, and reusing items that you already own for unique, beautiful, and affordable results.

Designer and photographer Sonia Lucano—author of Remake, Restyle, Reuse: Easy Ways to Transform Everyday Basics into Inspired Design (Watson Guptill, October 2009)—has so many great ideas for turning everyday objects like plates, wine glasses, and dish towels into stylish home décor. Whether it’s glass engraving, embroidery, fabric dyeing, stenciling, and painting—Sonia’s book covers these basic techniques and more. Don’t be afraid use your crafty skills to transform your plain Jane odds and ends into museum quality pieces.

Here are Sonia’s top three remakes to get your creativity going:

1) Etched wine glasses: Using a glass etching tool, simple stencils, and tracing paper, inscribe simple wine glasses with your monogram, an image, or wine-related words and phrases. Try “in vino veritas,” or use “rosso” and “bianco” to differentiate your glasses for red and white wine.

2) Painted dishware: Liven up any meal with hand-painted porcelain plates and bowls. Stencil or free-hand a design onto tracing paper first, and be sure to choose a bold color and clean white plates for maximum impact.

3) Embroidered hand towels: Brighten up your bathroom by embroidering simple, colorful designs on plain hand towels—try seashells and waves if your bathroom has a beach theme, or the classic “his” and “hers.” Crisp and pretty, these towels make great and easy hostess gifts too.

Categories: Crafts-General |

Tags: crafts, dishware, embroidering, etching, green, Remake Restyle Reuse, Sonia Lucano, watson-guptill

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