The I.D.E.A. Store Blog is taking a small vacation

Summer is on its way (after today, it might actually be here)! The I.D.E.A. Store by CUSF blog will be taking a little bit of a vacation for the summer. No need to worry followers and avid fans of the blog, we will be returning soon. In celebration of this vacation, we will be revisiting some of our favorite I.D.E.A’s that have been posted on our blog:

The first project is this awesome and creative straw chandelier. All you need is wire and a handful (or 120) drinking straws. Once you have these you can start creating! You can find this idea and instructions at Design*Sponge.

The next idea is this awesome Happy Birthday Cake Topper! The ideas for this can be endless, you can use any trophy topper, any color, and any decorations you want. Also, why stop at Happy Birthday, you can create a Wedding, Christmas, or any other holiday topper you want!

A personal favorite of mine is this pencil/art supply holder. All you need is different cardboard tube holders cut to different sizes. After this is complete, you can fill it up with paintbrushes, pencils, pens, and any other art materials you have.

Finally, using plastic bags you can create these stylish and trendy bags. You can find complete instructions on instructables.com

Happy creating and have a great summer!

An I.D.E.A. for an alternative (Birthday) Party!

Piles of wrapping paper, plates, plastic silverware, napkins, decorations, expensive craft projects, and balloons. It seems that birthday parties, or any type of party for that matter, are getting more extravagant and more expensive. Why not take an alternative approach to your birthday celebrations?

You can make your Birthday Party GREEN this year at the I.D.E.A. Store! With your party you can enjoy a creative-reuse project, a festive atmosphere, and exclusive use of the “Green Room” for 2 hours! The best part is the I.D.E.A. party will be tailored to you, your guests, your interests, and your needs. We’ll work with you to create a party and project that fits you and your guests!

BASIC PARTY – starting at $85

· 2 hours in the “Green Room” for up to 10 guests

· Materials and help with a facilitated creative re-use project

· EVERYBODY takes their project home!

(If your part is for kids age 6-12, we require 2

adults to attend to help make sure everyone is having a successful time on their project.)

Call us at 217-352-7878 or email caroljo@the-idea-store.org

Testing Your Creativity

This week we are highlighting glass objects and after looking around the store, we found that our store has way too many glass test tubes! So here are a couple ideas to change boring scientific test tubes into something creative:

The first idea is to turn your test tube rack into a spice rack! After collecting your test tube rack, all you need are labels and spices to fill them up. The rack that you see to your right was created by Dean & Deluca and only costs about 165 dollars. Try making your own and save a few dollars.

The nice thing about a test tube is you can fill it up with almost anything. You can fill them up with beads, glitter, fabric, rocks, or even seeds! To see a seed wedding favor, click here.

This test tube flower vase was found on Design*Sponge! You can either keep the test tubes in their test tube rack or you can use a piece of wood for the base (seen to the left.) Just fill the test tubes up with water and place any type of flowers you want in it!

The last idea is a LED lamp made out of test tubes! It may take a little bit more effort and some electrical engineering, but it should be worth your time! For full instructions, click here!

Creative Reuse is Beginning to Bloom

Springtime can either be a favorite season among many or the most hated of them all. If you’re like me, springtime is the season of runny noses and itchy eyes. If you would like to get away from the real flowers and move onto creative reuse flowers, here are a couple of ideas:

The first type of flowers can be made out of paper. The example you see to the left was found on Familyfun.go.com. The flowers shown are made out of card stock and made to look like lilies. The nice thing about these flowers, you can change what type of flower, color, and type of paper you would like to use!

The next type of flower that you can make is out of fabric. The example shown is supposed to be used for a bridal bouquet, but you can easily change that by placing these flowers in a vase or a stylish bowl. The flowers that are shown on instructables.com are little bit more complicated, but it should be worth the time you put in.

Creative reuse flowers can also be made out of coffee filters! They might not look exactly like flowers, but they will sure add color to whatever room you place them in! All you need is to paint on the coffee filters with watercolors and cut them in whatever way you would like to. For full instructions, click here.

Earth Day: April 22!

Earth day was created after Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, learned about the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969. He wanted to host a “national teach-in on the environment” and that idea soon came to life on April 22^nd, 1970. That day “20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast to coast rallies.” Thanks to Earth Day, it led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Act.

1990: Earth Day went global thanks to a group of environmental leaders who asked Denis Hayes to organize another campaign. This campaign reached 200 million people in 141 countries and spread the awareness of environmental issues on an international level.

2000: During this year, Earth Day focused on global warming and pushed for clean energy.

2010: This year, Earth Day celebrated their 40^th anniversary!

(http://www.earthday.org/)

Now, in 2011, we invite you to take in part in Earth day by participating in any of these acts of green:

• Recycle
• Eat Smart
• Have a picnic
• Eat Local
• Plant a tree
• Use reusable shopping bags
• Reduce carbon footprint
• Create new objects out of old materials
• Plus many more!

What do you plan on doing this Earth Day?