new stock

We just dropped off a bunch of awesome new bennykelly styles at Pretty Penny today....

Ever wanted to curl up in your blanket and not go out on a cold morning?  Well, we have found a way for you to stylishly wear all the coziness of a blanket with our new cowl neck tees & tanks!  Each of our comfy creations is handmade from recycled t-shirts, recycled fleece blankets and other reused fabrics.  Best of all they are great for layering with sweaters and jackets.  Head over to Pretty Penny to cozy-up for yourself before they are all gone!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="437" caption="we are love the plaid on the tanks!"][/caption]

just listed...

we love corduroy in fall...

check out some of our new temporary tattoo multi packs after the jump!

just listed...

check out these sweet new pieces we just listed in our store...

transition.

Fall has traditionally been a time of subtle changes for benny and I and this year we wanted to reflex that more than ever in bennykelly.  So instead of working on a whole new look for fall/winter we have been planning on keeping with similar style basics, but taking those basics and tweaking them in the small surprising ways!

You will be seeing a lot of cowl necks, varying hem, stenciled leather and bold textures, which can all easily be layered and worn from early fall, into winter and even on into spring.  We will be keeping the colors muted and more natural, as we will be more heavily favoring cool tones over warm ones.  As for our stencil designs, benny will be bringing us more navajo and nature inspired patterns as well as sweet new sea critter stencils!

just made...

shades of yellow are very slowly taking over our obsession with shades of blue...

made with 100% recycled fabrics and stenciled with a design from our "southwestern series"!!

fabric hunting...

We use a lot of recycled fabrics when we create our bennykelly garments, mainly because it is soo sustainable.  But we also do it because it makes each piece even more unique and individual!  Well our fabric bins have been running low, so kelly and I decided to hit up our favorite place to score used/leftover fabrics, SCRAP.

If you don't know SCRAP, listen up because you have been missing out!  SCRAP is the Scrounger's Center for Reusable Art Parts in San Francisco, CA.  Basically a creative reuse center, store and workshop space founded in 1976. Donations of high quality, low cost, re-usable materials such as textiles, paper, jewelry findings, wood, buttons and plastics are collected from businesses, institutions and individuals then sorted, displayed and distributed by SCRAP for artists, educational and community groups. Free materials and art activities are provided through their community outreach service.

We have been to a few creative reuse centers or depot but none have ever come close to the prices and selection that SCRAP supports.  Just look at all the fabric (we guess about 10 yards) and the sweet vintage pin cushion we got today for only $5!!  But what we love the best is that your purchase at SCRAP is technically a donation to a non-profit.  You are helping perpetuate a sustainable community while getting goodies you need/want.

recycled tags!

In our efforts here to be as sustainable as possible, kelly and I have been slowly overhauling the line for maximum environmental love!  And one of the first makeovers we did was our ultimate handmade business cards. Drawing off that same idea, we decided the next step to green were more sustainable tags for all our goodies.

Now, all of our tags are handmade from handmade 100% recycled cardstock.  And the best part is that kelly and I can now proudly say that every form of paper-based product we use is made out of recycled paper!

recycled button coasters

Buttons are something kelly and I just seem to gather, from extras that come with new jackets/pants to random garage sale finds. We have always wanted to use them for some form of craftiness but could never quite figure it out.  Then yesterday it just hit us...how cool would it be to create a cup coaster out of old buttons woven together?

These coasters are the perfect gift for a friend's birthday, father's day (which is just around the corner) or just to add a little handmade touch to your home!  So start scouring for old buttons and get to craftin'! All the how tos after the jump...

TOMORROW!! TOMORROW!! TOMORROW!!!

can you tell we are excited?

Only 3 left to gather up those swappables..

we just hit up goodwill yesterday to pick up some extra goodies for the clothing swap!  we can't wait to swap and stencil with you all!

Recycled Magnets!

Now that Earth Day and Mother's Day are just around the corner we thought we should bring you some nifty ways to use recycled goods for a crafty gift!  Besides, what is more fun then gluing stuff together?

Benny and I are reluctant to throw out anything. So when we first sat down to decide what gifts to create, we really wanted to use up some of our stock piles.  Our first thought was of our growing collection of used spray tips from our spray paints.  They have a nice multicolor quality that we love and we have a ton of them!  So after a little deliberation we settled on a gift that is simple, quick and totally customizable....RECYCLED MAGNETS!

All the how tos after the jump...

Homemade Cardstock!

Kelly and I were recently brainstorming on ways to incorporate more recycled products in the overall makeup of our line, while cutting costs everywhere we can (usually these two ideas don't go hand in hand...).  In our brainstorming process we decided to do a housewide craft supply/material inventory to see what we already had.  We ran around the house gathering anything and everything that could be used to create something, which rules out very little.  Once we gathered our overwhelming pile, we soon realized we had an ungodly amount of old paper bags from all the different sorts of shopping we do.

Looking at all these bags, we just had to figure a way to use them.  One of our biggest cost here at bennykelly is cardstock.  We use it not only for all our tags and marketing fliers, but also as stencil paper.  And as of recently we've been having difficulty finding cost effective cardstock made from 100% recycled paper.  So to end our paper woos and bring more sustainability to our line, we decided to create some HOMEMADE CARDSTOCK!!

Make your own cardstock...all the how tos after the jump!

trade recycled plastic for leather...

As you know we love textiles and reusing anything we can, so when a friend suggested that we try substituting leather with recycled fused plastic we were intrigued.  We then learned that this "substitution" was a textile fabric you could easily make at home and we just fell in love!!

This fabric you can create is extremely versatile, being relatively strong (dependent on the # of plastic layers you fuse) and weather resistant.  You can take a sewing machine to it with no problem and we have even been contemplating making a full blow rain coat!  So in the true spirit of how we learned, here are the how tos to make this fantastically versatile homemade fabric...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="483" caption="here is a sweet 100% recycled envelope we created with this lovely fabric!"][/caption]

tutorial after the jump...