New Blog!

Hello everyone! I know I have been away again for a while but I was going through some bad medical problems and just got done with an operation. I should hopefully be able to get back to my crafting and blogging now.

I have been working on my new blog which is hosted on my own domain now 🙂 and will link to my website: http://www.alteredupcycling.com. I am so excited about this. If y’all would still like to follow me please goto: http://www.alteredrecycling.com and subscribe to my new blog. I will make all new posts on the new blog form now on.

I am really looking forward to seeing y’all there!

Let’s Make Cards!

 

Here is a card project from my recently published book. Hope y’all enjoy it! Check out the book here.

 

We are going to be making some beautiful flowers and flower pots for our next card. The technique that we will use involves embossing paint chips and then using sand paper to rub the embossing to show the white

New Videos and Announcing my Video-Books

Hello everyone!

I am very very excited today. As y’all may know I have already worked on four e-books and they are all available on amazon or etsy. All you have to do is search for Mahe Zehra Husain on Amazon and Altered Upcycling on Etsy. Here are their names:

1. The Ultimate Guide to Upcycling
2. Crafty Cans and Perplexing Plastic
3. The Christmas Guide to Upcycling
4. The Ultimate Guide to Smash Books, Smashing and making your own Upcycled Smash Books!

Now I have started working on a series of three Video Books. Each of these video books will deal with card making using paper, metal

My Upcycled Scrapbox Desk :)

I love the scrapbox products. I have always been fascinated with doing a lot with little spaces. That is one of the reasons I love the Ikea stores. Can’t get over the fact that they can fit so much in so little space. It’s like they plan entire homes in the space I would normally think a single room with require.

I am sorry for being MIA recently but a lot has been happening. I got married for one 🙂 and very ill as well :(. It took me quite a while

Smash Books 101

I have been experimenting on how to make my own smash books and recently finished one that will chronicle all happenings 2012. I wrote a series of blog posts on my blog that y’all may have read recently.

Crafting a Green World was kind enough to have me over as a guest blogger and I did a Smash Books 101 blog post for them. For those of you who want all the information in one place head on over to their blog to see the entire post. 🙂

Making Earrings out of Soda Cans!

So by now y’all know how much I love to upcycle and use soda cans and packaging plastic in my craft projects. Today I want to share with you a jewelry project that I adore. This project is also featured in my book, The Christmas Guide to Upcycling, which has lots of cool ideas for Christmas as well as gift ideas for the entire year. Look to the right for links to the books 🙂

These earrings are made using a diet coke can. Can you tell?!

Here are complete instructions on how to make these earrings. Change the embossing design to give them a completely different look.

How to make a Smash Book the Upcycled way Part 1

I am sorry for disappearing for the past two days. I was busy ripping out the smudged photographs from my 2011 Smash Folio. I am finally done and have replaced all 130 pictures :). That is such a relief. The smudges on the pictures were really bothering me and despite telling myself again and again that the project was supposed to capture memories and did not have to be perfect, the slight smudges still bothered me and there was no way out but to replace them. So replace them I did. Now I am free to move on to my Upcycled smash folio for next year.

How do you make an Upcycled smash folio? First you identify what you love about the current smash books and set out to mimic that

Using leftovers…and turning them into Christmas Cards

Here is a card I made using leftovers or upcycled materials as I like to call them 🙂 Read on to learn how to make a similar card from scraps of paper, ribbons and soda cans!

 

 

How to plan the perfect craft staycation

I have spent all day working on the perfect schedule for my craft staycation. As mentioned in my previous blog post, the first step is to actually make a list of all the projects that you wish to make during your staycation and to estimate the amount of time they will take. I am extremely fond of all sort of papercraft. From scrapbooking and altered art to mixed media and mini books. This is why my craft

The Sizzix Big Shot is really remarkable!

I love die-cutting machines for more reasons than one! They have allowed me to take crafting to a whole new level and my projects look really professional now, but more than that they have allowed me to incorporate a lot of recycling into my projects. I especially love the Sizzix Big Shot! It is so powerful and cuts through most materials easily. I have to date been through plastic of many varieties, fabric, corrugated card, packaging board, soda cans and much much more!