One person's trash is another person's treasure

Living in the Bay Area all my life, recycling and taking care of the environment has always been taught to me. I thought it was strange when I would travel to a family member's house out of the area and they didn't have a recycling bin! Of course, I want to continue that trend, and implement recycling or what some may call "up-cycling" in many areas of my life. I did a quick project that took me about 2 hours total by using some trash and making it into something I loved. 

I had this old framed piece of art that my dad bought me when I was around 10 years old. I hung it up as art for a while, but after a couple of moves it ended up in garage collecting dust. When we were cleaning out the garage I thought about throwing it away, but soon realized I could up-cycle it.

I had been wanting to make a collage from my time last spring at the Disney College Program in Walt Disney World. Being a photographer I love capturing special and everyday moments. I selected some of my favorite photos, which I'll talk more about later, and sent them to Walgreens to be printed. I always like to save when I can, so I waited for Walgreens to have a sale on picture prints, so I spent around $3 for all my photos. (They tend to do these sales pretty often, and you can ask for emails to let you know when they have a sale).

What you need:
-Old frame and old picture that comes with it
-Pictures you want for your collage
-Tape or glue
-Scissors

I opened up the frame, cleaned the gunk out and start placing the photos where ever I wanted. I used the old photo of the light bulb as a template for my photos to be taped on. The beauty of a collage is that it doesn't need to be perfect, so do what you want! Snip away and shape what you like. Here's a before and after picture. Once you're done assembling, wipe the glass on the inside and outside. That way there aren't dust specs everywhere.

Now that I have it hanging on my wall, I'm able to enjoy the memories that were captured.  It also feels good to put use to trash, and make it into a beautiful treasure.