Recycle Electronic Parts

[Craftlets]

A lot of people throw away old TVs, VCR,s, DVD players, radios etc. Electronics have a lot of parts that can be recycled into beautiful jewelry and embellishments.

Grab a screwdriver and take the tossed electronic apart and you'll find all kinds of small pieces that can be soldered for jewelry, or glued into scrapbook pages and on homemade journals for "futuristic" themes.


One thing I like to do is take the ribbons off computer motherboards, punch holes down the sides using a hole puncher, and crochet a lovely edging with beads and buttons crocheted in random areas around the edging. This makes beautiful bracelets, bookmarks (if flat beads are used or none at all) and groovy anklets if the ribbon has vibrant and bright coloros.


I also love to use the lil glass and plastic pieces off the boards to make mini M&M's and candies for my dollhouse.

[swirlyarts]

Cool - I scavenge the keys off old keyboards that my hubby throws away but I've not thought to use the insides. Pity we've just go rid of the old ones to the tip!

[two hoots]

I've been thinking of making some geeky charm braclets out of that sort of thing, you find lots of computer bits at boot sales. I've also got a broken vcr at home I could break up.

[Craftlets]

Swirly I use keyboard keys to make messages for scrapbooks. I pop them off, use a soldering iron to cut the ridge off so they are almost flat, then put them between wax paper and iron on highest setting to flatten them more.

You have to be careful so that the numbers do not melt off, but once you get the hang of it you have flat odd shaped black tiles for cards, scrapbooks and embellishments by dirring a hole in it. Brads can fit them, or you can thread ribbon through the holes.

The ones I accidently melt the numbers off, I just paint pretty shapes and then seal.

Two Hoots, the heads in your VCR are perfect for making paper weights. I did that once with a VCR my mom tossed. They are heavy enough to be perfect for weights. Just cover with polymer clay, and watch the edges, they are sharp.

One thing I have that I haven't figured out how to use yet is an old stove. I want to use the metal for yard art, but so far have not found the right tool to cut it into the shapes I want. I want to make a rooster to stand in the yard, and also some flower pot holders that will stand up in the yard.

[Beadsage]

You're not Bender out of Futurama are you?;)

[two hoots]

Ta for the vcr tip ! the only thing I can think of to cut up your stove is really heavy duty metal snippers but get some big gloves or even gauntlets to protect your arms and safety googles !! we don't want any injuries !!

[resmi]

Hmmm.., I never thought of that. I have just 2 VCR, 4 Keyboards and 2 MB needed to be tossed out. Looks like i will have some extra work this weekend.

Thanks for the tip guys...

[Davidmush]

people throw away old TVs, VCR,s, DVD

Do they utilize this stuff somehow?