It took a little practice and a lot of help from my husband but we figured out how to make them just right. Then we ran out of lights and couldn’t find anymore. Hopefully this season we can. Most of the wine bottle lamps you see at craft shows and on Etsy are made with cheap strands of mini Christmas lights…that get hot and are not eco-friendly. These lights may look pretty but you risk the bottle getting too hot, plus they suck energy....
Have you ever come across a once beautiful, now battered quilt at a yard sale? Had a half-finished quilt passed down to you from a distant relative because someone remembered that you love to sew? I’ve had both things happen, when they do, it’s a challenge to know exactly what to do with that quilt. Even if it’s not in good condition to put on your bed, you still want to respect all the work and care and love that went into the making of it....
Dyeing Easter eggs can be such a pain in the butt! Don’t want petrochemicals in your house? Then you can’t use the quick and easy food coloring. Want to make your own natural dyes from red onion peels and turmeric? Cool, but it ain’t quick and easy. This year, my kiddos and I managed to accomplish natural AND quick and easy, because Natural Earth Paint (remember when we painted with their dirt paint?...
T-shirts are made to be worn! If you’ve got a beloved T-shirt that doesn’t fit well anymore, you don’t always want to turn it into wall art or a quilt or a coaster. Sometimes you just want to upcycle your T-shirt into something ELSE that you can wear! Before you take the scissors to that pile of screen-printed jersey knit, check out this master list of T-shirt crafts that you can wear–there are T-shirt mods for your top, T-shirt mods for your bottom (ahem…), T-shirt mods for kids, but all of it is just the way that T-shirts are meant to be....
What You’ll Need Scraps of felt in varying shapes, sizes and colors. Don’t worry about them being exact shapes or very large, this project utilizes all sorts of shapes and sizes. Junk mail advertisements. I find that the magazine type paper works the best, like the grocery store ads. Sewing machine that is threaded in white. You can really choose any color you like, and even try varying the top thread and bobbin thread to get an interesting stripe effect....
There’s nothing like hopping out of the pool and into a comfy, soft, bounteous towel. But big beach towels are hard for little kids to manage, and that bleached, dyed terrycloth can be scratchy and harsh on damp, delicate skin. It’s an organic terrycloth hooded towel to the rescue! This hooded towel isn’t for babies–if you start with your own organic terrycloth fabric (like this organic natural terrycloth given to me by Organic Cotton Plus), you can sew this hooded towel with proportions perfect for big kids....
Wax in its natural state–beeswax, soy wax, whatever wax you like–is lovely, but it isn’t all the colors of the rainbow, and sometimes? Sometimes, you just want all the colors of the rainbow. And that’s okay. You CAN buy wax dyes online, or at any big-box crafts store, but you also don’t have to. For instance, I want rainbow beeswax candles without having to buy, own, and therefore store seven bottles of candle coloring....
Why spend more on a store-bought waxed thread from a big-box craft store when it’s so easy to make? If you do any other kinds of crafting with natural materials, you likely have the beeswax on hand already, meaning that your DIY waxed thread will be absolutely free, with no surplus packaging. Another bonus to making your own waxed thread is that you’re not bound by whatever is commercially available; you can wax a rainbow of embroidery flosses (as I’m doing in this tute), your favorite linen thread, or strands of yarn that you’ve spun yourself....
Inhabitat has announced the winners of their annual Spring Greening Competition where the site looks “for creative and clever designs that find new uses for old household items.” The Reader’s Choice award went to Sarah Turner, who turns soda bottles into beautiful and intricate lamps, while the Editor’s Choice went to SystemDesignStudio, who created storage shelves from discarded bike tires and furniture legs. All of the entries reused discarded items in clever and wonderful ways to create fun and fancy new household items....
Except what if the face paint that you buy in stores, manufactured cheaply and quickly and imported for quick sale, turn out to be more harmful to your children’s bodies than the risk of walking around in the dark with their vision hampered by a mask? It’s possible. Ideally, the FDA should approve face paints before their sale, but dangerous items do slip through, and, as I discussed in my post on D....
Abe’s will offer a comprehensive selection of all natural products, with the best and latest in health, beauty, food, home and consumer goods with the ease and convenience of the most modern e-commerce services. The site aims to be a place for customers to find their favorite natural brands as well as a place to discover some of the newest and unique undiscovered lines, as well as “meet” the creators of the brands and gain knowledge about the ingredients, processes and stories behind these products....
In watching this green news update from ZapRoot, I noticed they referenced our blog post entitled “my letter to my representatives protesting the consumer product safety improvement act”. This is an important topic, and we are happy to see it in the news. One of the important points the ZapRoot news flash points out is that this act will create more terrible landfill waste, because places like the goodwill, and thrift stores, will not be able to sell their “untested” products....
But now that our days of class valentines are finally behind us, it turns out that there’s a whole new world of cute Valentine’s Day paper crafting out there. There are still plenty of cards, yes–and it’s still so fun to mail a Valentine’s Day card!–but check out my list, below, of all my favorite other Valentine’s Day crafts that you can also make out of paper. Hopefully writing your name 20 times won’t be part of the challenge this year!...
I started out with this extremely rough-looking coffee table. It was wobbly, was missing a knob on the drawer, and the stain was practically leaping off of the surface– but, it was $5! What You Will Need: A piece of furniture that you would like to redo Paint – a zero VOC paint is a good option that’s a lot healthier for you and your home! You can get it in the house paint section at most local hardware stores....
This isn’t our first time covering Monika Nowaczyk’s work at Cambodia Knits. She has been changing lives since 2009, and I’m so happy to see that this project is growing and thriving. Right now, they’re expanding their line, and they launched a Kickstarter yesterday to help them do it. You can kick a few bucks their way here. Check out their video, and get giveaway details plus the Q&A below!...
Here are two ways to make your own recycled paper napkin rings for your holiday table or for everyday use. We like the idea of making recycled paper napkin rings because it encourages the use of real cloth napkins over disposable paper ones. And, when they get worn, you can recycle them and make new ones! Here’s a way to spruce up your dinner napkins and table settings without spending a bunch of cash....
What You Will Need: An old, broken mirror. In order for the magnetic board part to work, you will specifically need a mirror with a metal backing. If your mirror doesn’t have a metal back, try transforming it with chalkboard paint, magnetic paint, or even wine corks! This is what mine looked like before: A hammer 3. A piece of cloth that is large enough to cover your mirror Gloves...
To make your own chalkboard DIY toys, you’ll need: Clean recycled bottles or canisters Chalkboard paint Chalk Can you believe that’s it? It’s super simple! Check out the full tutorial for Recycled Craft Chalkboard Toys at B-Inspired Mama! [Photo via B-Inspired Mama]
Wear a little green around your neck with a homemade terrarium necklace! Fun fact that I learned today: terrarium necklace findings are a thing. And they’re super cute! What a fun way to bring a little bit of green with you wherever you go! Cynthia at the Jordan Valley Home and Garden Club taught a workshop on how to make these pretty little necklaces at the SNAP Conference over the weekend, and she shared instructions on her site, along with sources for the findings that they used....
Have you been wanting to destash your craft supplies but weren’t sure where to start? Check out how I reduced my crafty stash by more than half! My husband and I are ever-so-casually house hunting, and a couple of weeks ago our realtor told us that an important part of staging your home for sale is decluttering. Since then, we’ve been sorting through everything we own and getting rid of lots of old knick knacks and general things-we-don’t-need....
