Following on from last week’s little bottles that are awkward to clean post, we’ve had an email from Agata:

I’m really into manicures! I use lots of nail varnish and I have lots of empty bottles – any idea what to do with them?

Most nail polish bottles I’ve seen are glass so lid and brush aside can probably be recycled (I’m assuming the recycling process would clean the glass enough to get rid of the varnish residue). But obviously reuses are more fun.

So suggestions?

(By the way, we covered leftover little bits of nail varnish about two years ago.)

A question from my mum – something she mentioned on instant messenger a few weeks ago but I forgot until now ;)

The night we were chatting about it, she had just found a collection of them in a drawer during a clearout. The bottles she has are brown glass, about 6cm (2.5inches) tall but pretty narrow, with a plastic cap and a plastic thing at the top to make drips happen. Other, equally small bottles, come with a pipette instead of the drip thing.

So basically we’ve got some very small bottles that will be tricky to clean out – any suggestions?

Mum thought kids could use them for playing shop – since they’re more kid-size than adult-size – but couldn’t think of anything else. Ideas?

We’ve had another email from Lyndall, asking:

i was wondering if you knew what i could do with the foil top of milk bottles?

I remember a Blue Peter fundraising appeal from circa 1985 that involved us collecting them for charity but now charities – like Southampton’s Gift of Sight appeal – seem to collect plastic ones instead.

Since they’re just foil, they can be recycled along with other foil products – we can include it in our doorstep recycling.

But what about reuses?

(Photo by LHMike)

An OMG-how-haven’t-we-featured-that-yet!! post today: tissue paper.

I just came across a giant sheet of it as packaging in a Chinese Chequers box and as I was folding it to put in my craft drawer, I realised we hadn’t used it on the site.

So I can keep it around for future packaging purposes and combining it with a comb might win me a place in a popular music combo – but what else can I do with it?

Last week this little lady –> arrived in my email inbox.

She (I’m presuming she’s a she, from the eyelashes and pink scarf) is the work of Dutch artist Carolien Adriaansche.

Carolien makes all sorts of wonderfully cute creatures out of old rubbish – like our friend here, who has a bleach bottle body as well as her lightbulb head, and the three guys below, who are just so full of personality that it hurts :)

Carolien also uses other plastic bottles – like those thin ones that all purpose cleaner comes in – to make headless beasts.

Using the handles for their ever-quite-gormless mouths, they have drink bottle caps for eyes and ears/horns made out of rubber gloves, plastic coathangers and even toe separators. Very cute.

See more of Carolien’s work on her website – click her name, then anywhere on the pink & blue guys, then her name again and on the big “C” for the galleries.