How to Make a Keyboard Into a Wallet

Inside every keyboard is the perfect material for a wallet: a flexible yet durable circuit sheet with intriguing metallic designs and colors. Using scissors and packing tape, you can make a futuristic wallet that fits in your pocket and includes slots for bills and coins. Now that's change you can believe in. Sierra writer Wendy Becktold writes about her experience completing this project: 

"With the help of a screwdriver, I easily dismantled my coffee-soaked keyboard and removed its 'QWERTY leather,' an act of creative destruction that felt satisfying and slightly subversive. After all, we're trained to be passive consumers — to get rid of things, not reinvent them.  As for all those leftover keyboard pieces, I glued magnets to the backs of the letters and numbers and stuck them on my fridge. Now I can spell words like "RECY<L3."

If the creative-destruction bit doesn't make you want to try this project, consider this sobering fact: Americans generated 3 million tons of e-waste in 2008, only 14% of which was recycled. Extending the life of your keyboard's innards is a small but thought-provoking way to take a stand.

Construction time: 1 hour. Instructions here.