Seriously, ditch the freaky store-bought gingerbread house kit this year, with that thick cardboard-textured gingerbread and the whopping five pieces of candy that it comes with. As you’ll see in the projects below, baking a gingerbread house is as simple as baking cut-out cookies, and much more fun to decorate than a store-bought kit. Next » Gingerbread House
Found in everything from cave paintings to King Tut’s tomb, this handmade substance was a predominate component in decorative art for at least a few millenia, until the industrial revolution came along. Casein, the protein found in milk, makes an extremely durable binder for pigments to adhere to most porous surfaces. The rustic finish is not usually desirable for fine art, and it fell out of favor all together with the advent of convenient, but far more volatile, canned paint....
Jill Porter created JMP Designs through, what she calls, a “happy accident.” While planning a family get-together, she challenged herself to only use recycled materials for decorations– she decided that she would make recycled flower centerpieces. Porter explains: In June of 2010, Jill opened her etsy shop, JMP Designs, and has since sold recycled soda can art jewelry to 49 states and 10 countries! I am so glad that this “happy accident” happened because Jill’s jewelry is absolutely stunning!...
I’ll be honest – Halloween has never been my favorite holiday as I always viewed it as a wasteful one. But with a little planning and some imagination, greening Halloween is easier than I thought. I’ve never been more prepared with so many new crafts finished and ready to be displayed because of Crafting a Green World. If anything, writing tutorials have made me plan a little better for Halloween and I hope you also enjoyed my weekly DIY’s as much I had fun making them....
The weather is getting colder, and we have a handmade holiday on our minds! Handmade gifts have heart, are better for the environment, and, if you opt to buy, it supports independent artists! Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be posting about recycled gifts you can make yourself and great handmade finds for sale. I don’t know about you guys, but I have the hardest time coming up with boy gifts....
Full original article: Hobby Lobby is currently working with our buyers over our merchandise selection. Our customers have brought this to our attention, and we are currently evaluating our holiday items and what we will carry in the future. Looking to get crafty for Hanukkah this year? Don’t look to Hobby Lobby. After noticing that the Hobby Lobby in her area didn’t stock any Hanukkah-related craft supplies, one crafter asked a sales associate, and was told: Yep....
It’s cold! Yes, it’s winter and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. But geez, my sofa-afghan seems to be getting a lot more use these days. Anyhow, all this chilly weather gets me in the mood for vegan hot cocoa, marathon TV watching and a blazing fire. Well, my cocoa is brewing. My TiVo is loaded. Now I need to get this fire-thang started. In my house, a cozy fire always begins with homemade fire starters....
Here’s the recipe: 1 cup cinnamon (Speaking of cinnamon…have you ever made these cinnamon macadamia nut truffles? NOM!) 3-5 t sweet smelling spices of your choosing (I prefer cloves, nutmeg, allspice, and pumpkin pie spice) up to 1 cup applesauce (I find that the amount of applesauce it takes to make the dough really depends on my spices each year, or perhaps the humidity–some years I’ve only used 1/2 c applesauce, and some years I’ve needed a full cup)...
Coffee is almost the perfect waste-less product. I drink the coffee, repurpose the coffee can and use the grounds, but the snag always came down to the filter, until recently when I had a caffeine induced inspiration. I was crafting my normal hand sewn fabric flowers when I took a small coffee break. While cleaning the pot, I noticed how the filter has a bit more give and was a little more forgiving than regular paper, almost like a stiff gauze....
Paper napkins are a huge waste of resources. Not only does it take energy and trees to produce all of those disposable napkins, but once the meal is through, you have to toss them in the trash, since you can’t recycle that food-soaked paper. Cloth napkins might feel like a fancy-dinner-party-only sort of thing, but that doesn’t have to be true at all! It’s easy as pie to whip up a batch of cloth napkins, and you can make yourself a bunch if you like, so you have some for every day use and a set for special occasions....
Give your earrings, brooches, or buttons new life by transforming them into a unique hair pin! What You Will Need: A hair pin of some sort. I used a bobby pin. An earring, brooch, or botton. I used a vintage earring that I bought at a garage sale. Hot glue/hot glue gun Pliers and/or scissors How To Do It: If you have an earring or brooch, you’ll need to remove the back piece....
Fabric storage can seem impossible. Do you have your fabric stuffed in plastic bins? Tossed into brown paper grocery sacks? Stacked on a shelf, at first neatly, but then just crammed in wherever it will fit? Goodness, I’ve done it all, but after a LOT of trial and error, a lot of fed-up afternoons searching for that one piece of fabric that I know must be somewhere but that I just can’t find, and a couple of wasted shopping trips in which I later discover, horrified, that I already owned something just like what I had bought, I finally figured out the perfect fabric storage system for me....
Have you ever found an online tutorial or template that you love, but it’s not quite exactly what you’re looking for? Maybe the thing that you really wanted to make is a few inches bigger or smaller or has a differently angled curve. The heart wants what it wants, you know? There’s often no need to settle for something less than your vision because often, creating your own template from scratch is surprisingly workable....
Oh, junk mail! Why do you invade my life? Even after signing up with Catalog Choice, I still get bills and credit card offers each week, and if you’re saving all that paper for possible future craft projects, they can add up quickly. We’re all familiar with the joys of crafting with junk mail, but have you ever peeked inside of those envelopes that house things like bills and bank statements?...
Y’all are going to be shocked at how easy these cards are to make! They look super cute, too–my nine- and eleven-year-olds made the three in this picture, and happily made tons more with me for an entire afternoon of crafting embroidered greeting cards one wintry day. These embroidered greeting cards work well for every occasion. We sent ours out as Christmas cards, but my younger kid is already planning the Valentine cards that she’ll make soon, and a birthday cake with candles is a simple design....
Then I saw the price of the dry-erase write-on globe, and I realized that I would not be purchasing it after all, on account of I prefer to be able to buy groceries and pay the mortgage. And still the thought of that write-on globe has been ticking around in my head for many months, until last weekend, when I stopped by an out-of-season yard sale and spied a beat-up old globe....
Fun fact: EVERY little kid loves BINGO, and this game stayed in heavy rotation on our games shelves for a shocking number of years. Heck, we still played it even after we lost a couple of the numbers. Knowing that some numbers will literally never be called just adds to the challenge! My little kids are teenagers now, and their plan for the ultimate game night is no longer BINGO but Cards Against Humanity (don’t tell them, but I took out all the really awful cards before they saw them, mwahaha!...
Infused vodka can add a special twist to an average cocktail, but conventional booze isn’t the best choice for the planet. Instead of buying infused booze at the store, choose a good organic vodka and make your own infusion! For this infused vodka recipe, I used purple basil from my garden, which is why the basil in the jar looks rather dark. If you can’t find purple basil, don’t fret!...
Well friends, revenge is mine. His precious Park Avenue will someday soon find itself permanently affixed to the bottom of a mod looking purse. To add insult to injury, I also get to steal his duct tape. I don’t suggest disassembling your perfectly playable board games for the purpose of craftiness, unless they were already on their way to the dumpster, or you are a sour grape like me. You probably have a few playing decks with missing cards, or obnoxious graphics on the backside....
You CAN make these recycled paper beads by hand. Your kid, however, depending on her age, probably can’t. The easiest way for kids to make these paper beads by hand is to wrap them around those narrow straws for stirring coffee, and even then, it’s pretty fiddly. You can handle fiddly, but kids? They have a notoriously low threshold for tolerating fiddly. And that’s why even though I may not super love this 4M Recycled Paper Bead Maker, because I can make better beads by hand, my eight-year-old kiddo DOES love it....
