April 9th 2015

Recycle & Renew
Shirley Allen

The lady who will change your views and habits on reusing, re-cycling and re-vamping items. It is said that Shirley Allen can make something out of just about anything! Another popular speaker around Northamptonshire.

Shirley is a big fan of charity shops and sources most of her materials there. What is a piece of nonsense to most people, for example, an animal shaped men's slipper, becomes a gravel filled doorstop, a couple of napkins - a cushion cover, a set of matching (or unmatched) crockery - a unique cupcake stand. This was a plate with a sugar bowl stuck on top, with a smaller plate an egg cup and a saucer on top of those. Odd cups, decorative jam jars (some painted inside with gloss paint), marmite jars become candle holders. She had an endless supply of ideas using pillow cases, old flat irons, buttons to decorate T shirts and photo frames, as well as dominoes, jigsaw pieces etc to decorate also. As with anyone interested in education, she never throws anything away and has boxes for everything at her fingertips! A very entertaining talk with someone whose enthusiasm spills over to her listeners whether we would do any of these ideas ourselves or not.

Competition - A re-vamped item
There was a variety of entries for this subject, including map edged photo frame, window box from wooden wine box, mosaic, fabric covered coat hangers, canal towpath rejuvenated from car tyres, gravel and resin, recovered pencil tin and many more ideas as seen in the following photos.

 
Competition Entries