Anything that you can cut a heart out of or paint a heart on, you can make into a Valentine. Make your Valentine out of yarn. Or twine. Or twigs. Or hair. Or selvage. Or dried beans. Or dirt. Or ribbon. Or chain. Anything you can glue down into the shape of “I Love You,” you can make into a Valentine. Cook your Valentine out of peanut butter. Or cinnamon....
Oh, the temptation of Clorox wipes and Lysol wipes, and even store-brand disinfecting wipes! That bleachy smell! That grab-and-go convenience! Those poisonous, germ-killing toxins! It’s not right that I have to drench my house in toxic chemicals just to keep the puke bug away. Natural cleaning is always the goal, even when you want to disinfect. Fortunately, by following the recipe in Homemade Cleaners, by Mandy O’Brien and Dionna Ford, homemade, non-toxic disinfecting wipes are an easy DIY project....
Friends, I should not. And you know why? Because I have been kissed with the crafty bug. There are several pretty easy and cool-looking ways to hem jeans, in particular, that I can tell you about, but the method I’m going to use today, primarily because I’ve got a lot of stuff to do today and I also want to wear these jeans to an Old Crow Medicine Show concert tonight so that Ketch can look down from his sweet fiddle and appreciate them, is something that I like to call the controlled fray....
Got a foodie friend on your shopping list? Give the gift of homemade granola! Let’s be honest here, you guys. Granola might have a health food rep, but it’s really glorified candy. And what’s a better holiday gift for a food lover than a homemade sweet treat? Homemade granola is so much tastier – and healthier! – than most store-bought varieties. If you’ve ever checked the label on commercial granola, it’s full of polysyllabic ingredients, preservatives, and most likely high fructose corn syrup....
Have you seen Wikki Stix? They’re AWESOME! Wikki Stix are short pieces of sticky waxed yarn that you can buy for your kids (or yourself!). The wax is malleable, so they’re bendable. They’re only slightly tacky, just enough to make them stick to each other or to even slick surfaces, but they don’t leave a residue. You can sculpt with them, pose them on any surface, and they’re re-usable, so when you’re done just unstick and unbend them and put them away for next time....
A fabulous Repurposed Book as Sketchbook tutorial by Livividli Lifestyle Blog was linked up to our Green Crafts Showcase this month. I was so inspired by it that it will not only be featured tomorrow as one of the top 5 projects, but I wanted to create my own version. Instead of a sketchbook, I repurposed my book into a journal. What You Will Need: An old book. You can easily find these at garage sales or thrift stores....
Save your broken crayons, and use them to make fun, new recycled crayons that will thrill the kids. These recycled crayons are made from all the stubs and broken bits that nobody uses to color with anymore. Once you’re finished, the crayons will be big enough to color with again, and they’ll also be made into unique shapes that your kids are going to want to try out right away....
Have you heard about the group of California schoolchildren who want Crayola to establish a recycling program for their markers? To make a long story short, Crayola won’t do it (yet), and Crayola doesn’t want you to recycle their markers, either, because breaking down a Crayola marker for recycling would require taking it apart, exposing tiny pieces that are potential choking hazards and thus freaking out Crayola’s lawyers. However, you CAN recycle most of a Crayola marker....
Julie posted a couple of weeks ago about how to sew up lunchbox cloth napkins for a waste-free packed lunch. We shared the post over on our Facebook page, and a savvy reader there asked: It just so happens that I’ve made quite a few reusable snack bags, and they’re easy peasy! Here’s how you can make your very own reusable snack bag. This tutorial will make a 7″ X 6....
Do you have an old or broken watch at home? Perhaps you’ve come across one (or several) at a garage sale or thrift store. I found this DIY video on how to transform a watch into a picture locket. I wanted to take this idea even further, though, and make it into more of a piece of art! Here’s how you can turn your old watch into a bracelet that is as awesome as you are!...
A great way to avoid buying plastic Easter eggs is to make your own stash of eco-friendly Easter eggs that you can re-use year after year, or embellish store-bought Easter eggs made with natural materials, such as wood, ceramic, or papier mache. We’ve done all of the above, including making DIY papier mache Easter eggs and wool felted Easter eggs, but I enjoy adding to our stash every year–for one thing, I’ve got two kids to whom I’m hoping to pass down our beautiful handmade eggs, so I need a good stash, and for another, I’m never quite sure that we get every single egg back from every single Easter egg hunt… One of the easiest ways to have a beautiful stash of heirloom Easter eggs is to buy wooden eggs and then embellish them....
Got some plain fabric handy? Check out how to dye fabric with tea for a natural, earthy look. We love natural fabric dyes around here, so I was intrigued when I ran across this tutorial from the Textile Arts Center on how to dye fabric with tea. The tutorial author uses a really cool, non-toxic resist technique along with the tea-dyeing to create really cool patterns on her fabric. You can do the resistance thing or just straight up tea-dye your fabric....
Madame de Pompadour lent her name not just to the bouffant hairstyle, but also to the practical yet lovely little drawstring wrist bags that allowed one to both wear a fancy ballgown (with no room for pockets!) and carry a lipstick and some cash for gambling with. Pompadours are still lovely and practical to sew and to carry, although it’s probably less advisable to take them gambling with you. But they still go well with an outfit that doesn’t have pockets!...
I’m a long-time fan of Magda Sayeg, so when I came across her recently released-TED Talk on the birth and growth of the knit graffiti movement, I couldn’t wait to watch. It’s inspiring to hear her talk about Knitta’s humble beginnings and how life-altering that first act of craftivism was for her. I love when she describes how people reacted to her wrapped stop sign poles and how that sense of wonder grew rather than faded, the more yarn bombing she did....
Don’t you dare dog-ear that book! That’s what bad people do. To make it even easier to not deface great works of literature, you can make yourself a set of bookmarks out of my other favorite genre of reading, the comic book. Comic books, or any other upcycled papers, are easy to turn into sturdy, fun, useful bookmarks. Here’s how: Source some comic books. Our local comic book shop has a back room full of comic books that are a quarter each....
What about the rest? Obsolete manuals, damaged books, those which have only kind of survived the toddler years… where do they go, what do they become? Disclaimer: If a book is not salvageable (or any parts of it that are beyond reuse), please tear it apart and recycle it. If books are in good shape and no longer needed in your household, please consider donating them to a hospital or shelter....
Kite paper is fairly accessible, although you may have to special order it from your favorite art store. It also comes in larger sizes that you can cut down to get custom sheets. I like to cut even the 6″ sheets down when I make the more elaborate decorations, though–even a 3″x3″ square can really cover some real estate when you start overlapping them to make those big starbursts! Below, check out my list of some of my favorite kite paper window decorations....
Having trouble finding organic ribbon for your latest sewing project? I am in love with the organic cotton ribbon from May Arts! When you’re choosing sustainable materials for a sewing project, picking sustainable fabric is a no-brainer, right? There are tons of organic and other sustainable options out there for fabric yardage, so it’s easy for ethical seamsters to just say no to dirty conventional cotton! Things get a little trickier when you’re looking for notions, though, doesn’t it?...
Need to get organized? Yeah? Totally yeah. Cardboard is sturdy, it’s easy to cut and fold, easy to paint and glue, and best of all… it’s FREE! Check out the following tutes and see the ways that cardboard is totally going to make your life better: book case. Build your own box set, and become the envy of everyone else who WISHES they had a hand-painted case for their Harry Potter Icelandic translations, too....
Hi folks…I normally write for Planetsave.com, and occasionally for Ecolocalizer and CleanTechnica. However, following my three day coverage of the first annual Recycling Arts and Resource Expo, this past Earth Day weekend in Bellingham, Washington, Becky Striepe has flattered me with an invite to post here. Becky suggested that I share my ‘top ten’ favorite recycled art pieces — a very difficult thing to do, given so many great works — so I thought I’d give it a go, but skip the rankings....
