Posts

Soap carving for kids Rainbow bubble snakes Create an egg carton caterpillar Make a sandy handprint keepsake Recycle tin cans into a fun game Create sand art in recycled containers DIY popsicle stick bracelets Turn an old tennis racket into a butterfly net Recycle a water bottle into bubble fun Make a kid’s walking stick Tin can wind chime Create a summer memory jar Recycle a two liter bottle into a wind spinner DIY bubble solution Upcycle a plastic bag into a kite Make your own plaster of paris figurines Wine cork boats (use recycled paper instead of new paper) Five natural crafts to make using seashells CD sun catcher Create a fabulous pinata Crafts for kids under one year: sensory play 13 easy sewing projects just for kids DIY bug barn from a mason jar Make a DIY mosaic Create decoupaged building blocks Fruit and vegetable stamping Build newspaper structures Chocolate and peanut butter playdough (that’s edible) Make your own fingerpaint with kitchen ingredients Recycled cardboard pendants Make recycled crayons DIY modeling beeswax Toilet paper roll binoculars Make bird feeders from natural and recycled materials Have fun with tie dye Create recycled cardboard animals Make “natural paintbrushes” 21 cool math games from natural and recycled materials Cardboard tube coiled snakes DIY chalkboard toys Which summer craft do you want to try first?...

Recycled paper. I used junk mail envelopes. Hot glue/hot glue gun Crayons A black permanent marker School glue. If you can, use eco-glue. How To Do It: Cut two circles out of your recycled paper. I used pinking shears to give the larger circle a little pizazz. Color the smaller circle red. Then, glue it with eco-glue to the larger circle. Once everything is dry, go around the outside of the smaller circle with a blue crayon....

The key to successfully greening your business, in my opinion, is to go easy on yourself. If you try to do everything all at once, you’re just going to get overwhelmed and burn out. Try not to focus on what you aren’t doing, and give yourself a high five for each step that you take. Maybe this month you start collecting your recycling and next month you worry about sourcing sustainable marketing materials....

It is amazingly easy to make a small run of your own fabric labels. I have found 5 great tutorials for making fabric labels. A few material substitutions and any of these tutorials can help you make eco-friendly fabric labels. With each tutorial I will give material recommendations and tips for making them greener. [Top Image courtesy of Laurraine, Patchwork Pottery] [Bottom Image courtesy of Karyn, Make Something]

At the most random moments you can find me writing in a journal. I carry one with me wherever I go (most of the time it stays tucked in my purse). Why? Well, I never know when I’m going to be inspired. As a writer, and as a crafter, ideas pop in my head constantly. There are too many times where I’ve thought, “Oh, I need to remember that idea!...

The Indie Craft Experience is one of my favorite craft shows in the country. Their holiday craft market was here in Atlanta over the weekend, and I got a chance to scope out some of the awesome green crafters there! The Indie Craft Experience (ICE) throws two craft shows a year here in Atlanta: a summer and a holiday market, and they’re by far my favorite craft market in town. Christy Petterson and Shannon Mulkey have worked hard since launching ICE in 2005 to put Atlanta on the crafty map!...

Paper accounts for over 40% of the trash we produce here in the U.S. That is a crazy amount of waste! Rather than tossing junk mail, newspaper, or any other paper scraps into the trash or recycle bin, you might consider giving those materials a brand new life with one of these fun tutorials: These awesome projects just scratch the surface….we’d love to hear about your recycled paper craft adventures in the comments....

Garden mint is aggressive! Personally, I appreciate mint because it’s one of the few plants that I can’t kill, but there’s only so much dried mint, mint pesto, and frozen fresh mint that a gal can handle in the kitchen. Fortunately, there are also a ton of crafty uses for mint, ways to add it into your bath and beauty routine, and medicinal aspects to it, so much that once the cupboard and freezer are full, you still have plenty to do with all that hardy mint growing in your garden all summer....

For the small-time crafter, the one thing that can almost always be improved upon is the business card. And without a lot of extra cash to throw around for swag, it can be tempting to wimp out on cheap, boring, run-of-the-mill cards- trust me, I know. But we’re in a creative business, our business cards need to have flair! They still need to be done on the cheap, and if we can highlight our eco-friendly practices in the process, it’s all for the better....

You can use a simple pom pom-making technique to turn your fabric scraps into sweet DIY Christmas ornaments! There’s something about a pom pom that’s just so festive, isn’t there? What I love about these DIY Christmas ornaments is that you can make them from totally reclaimed materials, and they fit into the category that I call “couch crafts.” Sewing – my craft of choice – is not a couch craft....

My friend Mandy is the best gardener I know. In just a handful of raised beds, she manages to yield a super impressive garden bounty for her family. Every time I visit, she sends me home with bags full of greens or herbs or beans. She’s my go-to for garden questions, and I wanted to make her a cute DIY garden sign as a thank you for always answering my random texts about the shriveling tomatoes and sad, sad basil plants in my own amateur garden....

Supplies Ribbon Glue gun Plastic hangers Plastic vs. Wire Hangers Let’s talk for a hot minute about the types of hangers you should use for this project. You’re probably thinking we should be using wire hangers. Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about upcycling, recycling and all that those terms mean. I decided against wire hangers because those are easily recycled. Just take those hangers to your dry cleaner and they’ll happily use them over and over again....

This particular upcycled cardboard building set is as open-ended as they come. You can create the pieces in any shape you can imagine, connect them in a myriad of ways, and even paint or decorate them however you’d like. And the best part is that as long as you have a piece of corrugated cardboard in your recycling bin, you can expand on your building set forever.! Tbh, creating the set is as fun as building with it!...

I don’t have a “before photo,” so just imagine that prior to building our DIY wooden headboard, our bed was basically consisted of a mattress on top of a platform. Super classy, right? I really like the look of a giant, rustic, wooden headboard, but I don’t have access to antique barnwood or other salvaged wood, I’m not comfortable with keeping pallet wood that close to my head, even if it’s well sanded and well sealed, and I didn’t want to pay for or really even use fake but easy-to-apply laminate....

One of the most prominent tips for Etsy sellers and others in the craft and handmade communities is to make your packaging special. Your customer should feel special when opening their purchase. Many crafts people excel in this area, the rest of us lack the time or inspiration to make beautiful, handmade packaging. This week I plan to share a series on handmade eco packaging with a little twist; it is handmade by someone other than you....

Goodbye Thanksgiving. Hello Christmas! Like many of you, I did a little shopping over the weekend and I was blown away by all the holiday-craftiness I saw. One item in particular sparked a little inspiration in me. It was a glass ornament filled with curled strips of decorative paper and music sheets. Simple, yet adorable. I know that filling clear glass ornaments with recyclables is nothing new to the craft world, but I thought of three things you might not have considered!...

Even if you don’t happen to hike with magpies, I’m betting that you, too, have collected some natural keepsakes during your time in the wilderness. It seems to be instinct to spy something pretty and take it home to treasure. Up until recently, I had been keeping all of our natural keepsakes on display in jars and baskets, on shelves and in bookcases. This summer, however, I’ve made it one of my projects to turn some of the prettiest treasures–fossils, shark teeth, pretty pebbles, etc....

What You Will Need: Recycled paper. I used a book page, but you could use newspaper or sheet music, too. A stick Hot glue/hot glue gun Crayons A ruler A pencil Scissors How To Do It: With a pencil and a ruler, draw an American flag on your recycled paper. Color it! I attempted to make 50 stars and color around them, but I failed horribly, so I colored that area in entirely....

Have you ever gazed longingly at the MOO website and wished that their beautiful cards were eco-friendly, so that you could order a set guilt-free? Well, gaze no more! The folks at MOO reached out to let us know that they have a new range of ‘green’ business cards that are 100% recycled and recyclable and even manufactured using wind power. Yay! If only I’d known before the Summit, I would have included them on our Green Crafty Resources infographic....

First, in Recycled Crafts: Recycling Crafters of Etsy, she lists some of her favorite Etsy shops that use recycled materials. As commenters point out, this is quite dangerous, because it may not be physically possible to visit Etsy and not buy something. My favorite one of her finds is RePlayGround!, with the tagline “Garbage has feelings too!” RePlayGround! has a shop, but they also have instructions for DIY projects and recycling kits like the bottle lamp kit pictured here....