Crafters repurpose vintage and everyday finds for a greener approach

Herrin

Thumble necklace made from a vintage brass locket and a small patch of linen featuring a little bluebird.

Hull Street Studio Passport covers are created with eye-catching magazine pages.

Lawn mower tires are repurposed into Duchess Craft planters.

Hull Street Studio luggage tag made from a magazine breast cancer advertisement.

Regelin

It is not unusual for Erica Regelin and Jeb Herrin to find a pile of old magazines on their doorstep. The crafty duo put nearly every page, donated by helpful neighbors, to good use. They upcycle the pages into useful items such as wallets, luggage tags and iPad covers for their company Hull Street Studio. http://hullstreetstudio.com

Many local artists are 'upcycling' used items into home decor and accessories. They use scraps of fabric, paper and even old clothing that might otherwise have been tossed out, to create something new.

Regelin started creating wallets from eye-catching magazine pages to keep busy while Herrin was deployed to Iraq. "I don't like carrying purses and wanted to create something functional and small," says Regelin. She made her first wallet and soon neighbors and friends wanted to order one, too.

Herrin has since returned home and the couple pours through magazines and books for images to use. They then laminate the pages so that the paper is durable, water resistant and just like regular fabric.

"It's cold laminate so it's more flexible, you can bend it," explains Regelin. "It's not bulky and hard. It actually conforms to the contents, and I didn't want to have something that I had to remake every week."

While Regelin comes up with most of the designs and ideas, Herrin helps with production and sales. Next up for Hull Street Studio are Nook e-reader covers and a range of rings made out of paper.

Little goes to waste. "A lot of times there are pages that you just can't use for anything," says Regelin. "But if we have great colors or even boring text we can make something."

They sell their products all over the world. "It's really exciting when you get an order from Spain or Australia," laughs Regelin. "You feel like you're someone."

Jill Colquitt of Duchess Craft has been repurposing tires as planters for many years. She was working at Fisher Tires several years ago and looking at a wall of tires waiting to be disposed of. The southerner had seen old tires used as garden planters but wanted to put her own spin on it. She created hand-cut tire planters for her Etsy Shop Duchess Craft.

Recently Colquitt has added upcycled shirts to her online store, printing onto old men's T-shirts and turning them into more shapely women's shirts. And she is collaborating on a repurposing project using old clothing and linens with Taylor Wilburn, from Kitsch aprons. "I am overprinting on vintage napkins AND fabric, and Taylor will use the fabric to make pillows and totes," says Colquitt.

"It's great to give handmade recycled gifts because you're supporting the crafter directly, reusing an unwanted item," explains Colquitt. "And the recipient really appreciates the thought."

Madonna Locke of Thumble searches for old lockets, vintage beads, swatches of old fabric and other trinkets to create jewelry and sell at http://thumble.etsy.com.

"I love giving items a new life," says Locke. "There is something special to me about using a vintage piece in a new way and wondering where it has traveled before it landed in my hands."