Brooke made this quilt from her husbands old dress shirts. Now I don’t think it is any stretch of the imagination to cut up dress shirts for quilting fabric, but what Brooke did that I really love is she made the quilt in such a way that it is obvious it came from dress shirts. She made sure to leave “a pocket here, a placket there.” She pieced together spare scraps of the shirt fabric to make the quilt binding....
Random.org picked a number from the eligible comments (remember that you have to enter your email address into the box that asks for it when you comment–it won’t be made public, and how else can I email you to tell you that you’ve won?), and the owner of the winning comment is: Congratulations, Stephanie! I’ll forward your email address to Artterro, so be on the lookout for a message about claiming your prize....
You are loved. You are enough. You are so very bright. You are so very beautiful. Aren’t these the kinds of messages that you want your loved ones to believe, and the kinds of messages that you’d like to believe about yourself? They’re the kinds of messages I know that I need to hear, and the kinds of messages that I want my daughters to hear, as well. With Betsy Greer’s newest craftivism project, You are So Very Beautiful, you can give these kinds of messages to anyone who might need them, even though they’re total strangers to you....
Yes, this really could be the summer that you finally build a treehouse for yourself your kid! Did you know, though, that you can’t just throw that thing up there and hope for the best? Nope, my Friends! Trees have feelings, too! Like, legitimately. Also, they have diseases that they can get if you stress them and put big mean holes in them. And as much as you don’t want to hurt your favorite tree, you SUPER don’t want to hurt your favorite tree so much that it dies and you have to cut it down next summer and demolish the treehouse that you just spent so much time building this summer....
Could you live in an old school bus? Check out these awesome bus conversions for upcycling a junked vehicle into a living space. As I’ve heard from numerous builders in recent years, “green building” has largely just become “building”: incorporating efficiency features, renewable energy systems, and natural lighting and air flow elements just make sense. But if you were to watch the building of a green home, it probably doesn’t look a whole different from most new construction....
That struggle is why I’m super excited about Plastic Free, a new book from Beth Terry of My Plastic Free Life. The book is all about kicking the plastic habit in all aspects of your life, and crafting is no exception. We’re all about finding ways to get plastic out of our lives here at Crafting a Green World, so we’re super proud that one of our former writers–Karen Lee–is quoted in the book....
Lots of children’s books teach valuable lessons, and The Old Green Chair shows kids the joy and the value of upcycling. I’ll tell you the truth: the folks at Balboa Press had me from the start. This is directly from the publicist’s email to me about The Old Green Chair: As a new mom, I have a lot of children’s books on my shelf, but none of them speak to my crafty soul the way that this one does....
The concept of volume can be overwhelmingly abstract, if you’re a kid having to learn it through worksheets. All those little three-dimensional diagrams with their tidy measurements–could it be any less relevant to real life? This cool math game is a building challenge that will get the kids using their minds and their bodies as they first construct their own large structure out of newspaper, then measure it and calculate its volume....
Although there are loads of different kinds of granolas available in the grocery stores, homemade granola is simple to make, and once you’ve tasted it fresh from the oven you’ll never go back to store-bought. And although there are loads of specific granola recipes available, I always come back to my own improvisational recipe. It allows me to use all my favorite ingredients, or just what I happen to have on hand, and it always comes out perfectly....
Remember how I’ve got a random, 1950s-era glass bottle dump in the back of my woods? Well, with the fun of hiking out into the woods every now and then to scavenge glass bottles comes the burden of having to figure out what to do with them! We’ve decoupaged them, turned them into vases, painted them with chalkboard paint or color washes, put candles in them, and countless other things, but one of my children’s favorite projects to do with these vintage bottles is the age-old craft of sand art....
Start by printing a template from the computer or if you are artistic, you can draw any Halloween related image yourself. Take your image and center it on your construction paper. Glue the template down with a little dab of glue so it will stay in place. Next, Use a thick sewing needle or an embroidery needle, trace along the template and poke the needle along the line. Make sure the holes are clearly poked and not too close together....
Not all DIY furniture projects require paint Make DIY drawer liners from reclaimed paper of your choice! Most store-bought drawer liners are made from toxic PVC. Not exactly what you want touching your utensils or clothing, right? Instead of spending money on something less than ideal, you can make DIY drawer liners from any paper you want, and it’s less toxic than the store-bought stuff. Are the bottom of your drawers begging for a makeover?...
Etching cream is one of the simplest ways to get started with DIY glass etching, and you can even make custom stencils to fancy things up! DIY glass etching is such a fun way to add a little bit of love to plain, thrifted glassware or jazz up some glasses from your own kitchen. You can etch any design you like onto your glass, and custom etched glasses make a pretty snazzy handmade holiday gift, too!...
20 DIY School Supplies 1. Altoids tin emergency kit. A high school or college kid will appreciated having all the necessities right at hand–ponytail rings, chapstick, Life Savers… you know. Necessities! 2. cereal box folder. I know that those cheap folders cost just pennies, but this DIY version is eco-friendly… and it costs nothing. 3. cookie box spiral notebook. Substitute the packaging for your kid’s favorite treat, and they’ll have no trouble remembering to write down their assignments and due dates!...
My husband takes the train to work, and when the temperatures drop below freezing, that is not always the most pleasant walk. Not only is the cold tough on your body, but have you noticed that it’s hard to catch your breath when the air is chilly? Enter the neckwarmer! He can push it down, and it looks like a scarf, but on his walk he can pull it up around his face to warm the air a bit as he breathes and make his walk a bit nicer....
Can you believe it’s 2011 already? Just last week, January seemed so far away. One of the things I love about the first of the year is that you get a chance to look back on a year’s worth of work and accomplishments. So, why not take a peek at the fabulous fabrics we rounded up in 2010? January Vintage Finds from The Tin Thimble Organic Cotton and Recycled Quilt Batting Geo Grand Collection from Daisy Janie...
Now that digital fabric printing services like Spoonflower offer organic cotton, amazing new eco-friendly fabric designers are popping up left and right! Jasonda, owner of Dotty Logic and a freelance graphic designer, saw digital printing as an opportunity to see her “designs on something a little more tangible and expressive than a computer screen.” Jasonda talks a bit about her brand new Beachcomber collection: All of her designs are on GOTS certified organic cotton and are digitally printed with non-toxic inks....
I love hitting up thrift stores and estate sales to scour for the best vintage finds, but sometimes it’s nice when someone does the work for you. That’s where vintage sellers like JoonE come in! Joon digs through the ugly prints and tacky patterns to find those hidden, vintage gems that are perfect for crafting! Joon explains why eco-friendly materials are important to her: A stay at home mother of four, Joon launched her eco-friendly business in 1995....
Leslie here at Crafting A Green World has talked to us about non-toxic dyeing using natural materials. This collection is a larger scale equivalent of Leslie using her landlady’s plums to cook up some pretty fabric. The collection is carried by Z&S Fabrics and Strawberry Patches, and the latter of which has some background information about the collection that is not found on Andover’s website. The gist is that the fabric is initially bleached with sunlight, then block printed by hand with natural dyes....
They offer two items that really caught my attention, though, because I hadn’t seen them anywhere else: organic cotton gauze, and organic cotton / nettle blend fabric. The first is organic cotton gauze, a.k.a. netting. They say that it’s great for gardening, with an almost throwaway comment that it’s “great as a craft material or dressing up prop!” Indeed, I’ve always associated gauze with doctoring more than with sewing, but since they’re selling it in the fabric section instead of bath and body, I thought I’d figure out what crafters could use it for....
