Inside Etsy: Store Owner Interviews: Mistle and Toe

The girls over at Mistle and Toe make all of us repurposers look good with their assortment of funky, repurposed products. Wallets made from milk and juice cartons, records turned into catch alls, t-shirts remade into necklaces, and cereal boxes that can be wore around your neck, your wrist, or dangling from your ears. On top of all their creativity, they also repurpose 5% of their proceeds toward charities.

We love having a reason to spend money, and helping charities is a good reason if ever there was one. Tell us a little bit about the charity that your shop supports and why you chose this specific charity.

As part of our mission to create a more sustainable planet filled with colorful design, we donate a percentage of every sale to charity. We donate 5% of every sale, online, in-person, or at events to charity. Since we are a design collective, we submit charities to the group and then rotate them every quarter to give everyone's passion a few months in the spotlight. So far we have supported Rebuilding Together to help fund home remodels for low-income families across the US and ACE, a non-profit dedicated to environmental and community-led change. This quarter we are proud to sponsor the scholarship foundation, Strateleade, for a sustainability leadership Masters program in Sweden. It is an international program where Tiff got her Masters of Science, and a key part of the program is international diversity, so funding is always needed to support professionals coming from developing countries.

I noticed that you’ve got a few things on clearance. Are you cleaning house so you can narrow your focus?

We do have quite a few things on clearance! We are actually cleaning house because Tiff is moving from St. Paul, MN to San Francisco, CA to start a glorious new job and a lot of her items are difficult to travel with. So we are looking to lighten her load during her transitional phase :)

Being a repurposer myself, I know how hard it is to throw things away. Do you have a huge room full of "other people’s treasures"? (One man’s junk is another person’s treasure….)

Haha, it is sooo hard to throw things away! When we roomed together, we had a whole closet of items that we could not get rid of or that we had gathered from other people's discards-- including the wrapping paper leftovers of an entire office holiday party. Sarah's father actually recently helped her make a shelf so that she could store all of her finds, but that is full and all of her finds are spilling into her living room.

Your cardboard paper beads are wonderful—so funky! What all is involved in this process?

Well thanks! We think they are wonderful as well :) The first part of the process is finding a large cereal box that you think would look great as beads. I think that Apple Jacks and Rice Krispies have really great colors. Then you cut the boxes into long thin triangles, as many as you can fit. Then you take each triangle and roll it into the bead. Sarah rolls hers around a tiny knitting needle so that there is enough space to thread ribbon through later on. Then you put mod podge at the end of the bead to secure it. Once that has dried, Sarah also glazes the beads with mod podge and then puts them together in the form of a necklace!

Are you wanting to grow this into a stand-alone business or just keep it at hobby/recreational level?

We wish we had a crystal ball... We are always evolving so who knows what the future holds? At this point, we think we will keep it a hobby level, but we really enjoy upcycling and if it really took off, we would love to design full time!