Trashy Crafter Shop Review And Discount!!

Our website is www.TrashyCrafter.com

our etsy shop is www.Etsy.com/shop/trashycrafter

About two weeks ago Kim from Trashy Crafter contacted me to tell me about her awesome bracelets made from recycled books and to ask me if I wanted to do a review for them, how could I resist, I love book jewelry and I had never heard or seen anything like it plus the bracelets are gorgeous. The beads you see on the picture above are made from pages of books that were going to be thrown away, but instead were made in to bracelets; how awesome is that. Kim doesn't only make bracelets she also makes necklaces and earrings. She was nice enough to send me the story of how and what inspired her to start her shop; she also sent me some awesome pictures of the process of making these awesome jewelry. 

Trashy Crafter's Shop Story!

Trashy Crafter creates handmade recycled book jewelry from damaged and outdated children’s books, novels, sheet music and maps.  It all started 5 years ago when my Mom Helen and I were at a local thrift store, we noticed them throwing away 100’s of damaged and outdated books, it was heart breaking, so we gathered as many as we could, took them home and tried to think of how to recycle them so they could be enjoyed rather than go sit in a landfill.  It took some time to think of it, but I remembered in my 3^rd grade class my teacher Mrs. Bryant taught us how to roll paper beads from magazines.  For some reason that really stuck in my head, even though it was 20 something years later, I decided to give it a try, and that was how Trashy Crafter was born.  

Mom and I started rolling the paper beads together at night at our kitchen table, and today it has evolved into a wonderful small business we take so much pride in.  We take damaged books and turn them into beautiful one of a kind handmade, recycled book jewelry people can treasure forever, you always have a book you loved as a child that your Mom, Teacher, Grandma, Sister or Librarian read to you, or perhaps one you read in high school or college.  Trashy Crafter can take the damaged books and make them into bracelets, necklaces, earrings and lanyards that you can wear each day and have a precious memory right with you, we say “Don't Just Read It, Wear It”. And to us, it’s the best of both worlds, helping the environment by recycling something beautiful that was just going to be thrown in the trash, and giving people the gift of wearing their most treasured memories from books they love, we'd say it’s a win win!

 

The Trashy Crafter team is made of me (Kim) my Mom Helen, my boyfriend of 8 years Dave and a few friends that help me from time to time.  We love Trashy Crafter, and to be honest it has become something bigger than us, the number of stories we get from folks who wear our jewelry is so touching. We've had people contact us to make custom jewelry for librarians or teachers who are retiring, Mom’s who are pregnant and expecting their first child, anniversary gifts for wives, birthday gifts for daughters or Moms, and have had so many people tell us that this is the perfect gift for someone that has everything, it’s so meaningful and unique!

 Within out Etsy shop at any given time we have about 50 or more books turned into jewelry, you can simply search for a title of a book you would like in our shop search bar, if we don’t have it, no need to fear, just send us a message, we do 100’s of custom orders a year.  Custom orders are fantastic if you have a certain book you would like turned into jewelry, we can use the book you own or can order a heavily used copy on Amazon.com and use that to make it. 

For the past few years we had done such a wonderful job of using all of the book pages and turning them into beads, but I always felt so horrible for throwing away the hard covers of books (often times they have such beautiful illustrations on them), so finally it hit me, why not turn them into stud earrings!  The recycled book cover stud earrings are our newest item, and let me tell you they are wonderful!  They are very light weight, colorful, fun, one of a kind (made from the actual book covers of books) and it’s a great conversation starter.  I have been wearing mine for the past 3 months testing them out, and have gotten so many compliments, I wear them every day! 

We also recently started a damaged children book donation program, as well as a broken jewelry program.  If you are a Teacher, Mom or Librarian that has damaged children's book that have been highly loved by your kids, but are no longer able to be read because they are ripped, missing page or scribbled in you can ship them to us and will recycle them into paper bead jewelry.  We have a list of books we are in need of, and if any of those are titles you have, you can ship them to us, and when you can get us 15 used book we give you a free trashy crafter bracelet set!  We also collect broken beaded necklaces and bracelets from folks around the world to reuse in our jewelry.  If you are at all interested you can send us an email at trashycrafter@gmail.com

My Thoughts:

I received my bracelet a couple of days ago and I absolutely LOVED it! The bracelet I chose is made from a Wizard of Oz book that was recycled! The bracelet is beautiful, I love everything about it and the fact that is made from books that were going to be thrown away makes it even more special. I love what Kim and her mother decided to do it’s truly an amazing thing! Kim being the amazing person she is has been kind enough to give all my followers 15% off your purchase for a whole month starting today! Just use the code "booklover" at check out at her Trashy Crafter Etsy Shop . I really hope all my followers take advantage of this awesome discount for this beautiful jewelry! 

-SandraTheBookWorm