We use a lot of paper in our day to day, but it doesn’t have to be that way! [Creative Commons photo by Eunice] Americans go through 700 pounds of paper products per person on average every single year. That’s a lot of trees! On top of things like paper towels and tissues, billions of menstrual products end up in the bin. In 1988, a field study found that 6.5 billion tampons and 13....
Today, Green Kid Crafts, Crafting a Green World, and I are giving you the opportunity to spend your own relaxing afternoon with your own kids. Green Kids Crafts is giving away, to one lucky winner residing in the United States, a free one-month subscription to their eco-friendly kids’ craft-of-the-month club. Your free one-month subscription will include three different craft kits suitable for a child ages 2-8. Here’s how to win: Post one comment to this post for one entry....
I mean, pumpkins are natural. Spiderwebs are natural. Black cats are natural. Mind you, you won’t actually be using any actual spiderwebs or black cats in the following project tutorials, but you get the idea. So whether you want to try for a completely plastic-free Halloween, or you just want to include a few natural components in your overall Halloween decorations, check out this list for some great Halloween nature crafts!...
There are a lot of resources on the web to help you plan your events. Kaboose is a family centered website with a whole section dedicated to celebrating Earth Day with the family. My favorite part, of course, are the crafts. This site has detailed instructions for creative recycled material crafts you can do on Earthday or any day! Some of my favorites projects include the coffee ground fossils, recycled crayon earth ornaments, and toothbrush bracelets....
Store-bought furniture polish may make your wood table look beautiful, but the chemicals in it are skin, eye, and airway irritants, and it may be aerosol-based or contain petroleum byproducts. Seriously, you don’t want to rub something like that onto the table where you eat. We’re starting off Spring Cleaning Week with one of my favorite recipes: my homemade wood polish. This two-ingredient wood polish takes a few minutes to make, lasts just about forever, and can be used on everything from your coffee table to your cutting board to your kids’ wooden toys....
Serving trays are super easy to find second-hand, but for some reason they’re almost always terribly gaudy, the poor things. But your collection of gaudy serving trays? Those are just serving tray makeovers waiting to happen! Gather up your gaudiest serving trays, and check out these makeover tutorials. Find something that you like, make it happen, and save an innocent serving tray from a future garage sale. NOTE: Some of these tutorials will call for a non-eco-friendly sealant such as epoxy or polyurethane....
Scratching your favorite CD doesn’t have to be a tragedy, at least not when you’ve got something else this cool to upcycle it into! This mandala, made from an upcycled CD and plenty of buttons, is an easy craft to make, and an easy craft to make look cute. To make it, you will need: scratched CD. If you don’t have any of your own, ask your friends or check on Freecycle....
Do you have a favorite blanket that’s outlived its usefulness as a throw? Heres how to make a poncho from it! The weather here in Atlanta has been really up and down. Literally. It’s been hopping between drip-the-pipes freezing and shorts weather. And a warm day can turn chilly if the wind picks up. Layers are key, and this homemade sweater looks like a great solution. Emma Chapman at A Beautiful Mess says that she really isn’t sure what to call this blanket garment....
Wondering what I did with all that beeswax that I dyed in my last post? This is what! Poured candles are a really fun craft to make, because they’re easy to do, and yet there are tons of possibilities for using different molds or different dyes, different waxes or different sizes. In these photos, I’m using a store-bought silicon mold, but I could just as easily be using a novelty muffin tin, or a toilet paper tube, or a mold that I make myself....
How to tie dye to refresh dingy or stained clothes. Summer is the best time to tie-dye. Even with gloves on, tie-dye is a messy project, with a couple of iffy chemicals that you don’t necessarily want in your kitchen, but outside you can spread out and make your mess in the fresh summer air, and if you sit on the grass then you won’t even have the driveway to hose off when you’re done....
During my last creative brainstorm I relocated a favorite journal of mine (pictured). I acquired my cowboy journal at the last large indie craft fair in my area called Crafty Bastards. The journal, by Ex Libris Anonymous, is made from an old library book. It is hand made and one of a kind. Snippets of text from the original book are sprinkled throughout the blank pages of acid free paper....
Why, yes, this IS an oddly specific tutorial that I’m writing here. But what can I say? Sometimes I write tutorials for things that everyone needs to make, like plant markers or refashioned T-shirts or fitted sheets, and sometimes I write tutorials for things that I happen to need right now. And right now, I need seven giant upcycled cardboard Minecraft grass block party invitations, because my kid only turns ten once....
One of the greenest things that you can do as a crafter is mend your things rather than replacing them, and clothing is no exception. Any time you buy something new, you’re contributing to all of the waste associated with that product’s supply chain. You might think that you have to be an expert seamstress to mend damaged clothes, but that’s not true at all! You don’t even need a sewing machine – just a needle, thread, and a bit of patience are all it takes to repair damaged clothing....
If you’d like a little more variety in your clothespin stash, check out these simple crafty projects that will show you how to decorate, embellish, paint, color, and otherwise jazz up your clothespins: Decoupaged with Scrapbook Paper: I don’t like to throw even the smallest leftover bits and bobs of scrapbook paper into the recycling bin. Small bits of pretty paper can be punched into confetti, glued into a collage, or, as this scrapbook paper clothespin tutorial from John and Sherry Petersik from Babycenter shows, used to cover clothespins....
This ring is hand carved from a used number 11 pool ball…yes, a pool ball! How cool! Eleanor Salazar of PoolBallRings is an artist from Maine who can hand carve any color or number ball you like, in your size, and have it to you in two weeks. She even makes earrings. What a great gift for the pool shark in your life! The 2ReVert shop asks, “Where has your Jewelry Been?...
Can you believe that next Monday is October 1st? In preparation, I was browsing Pinterest for unique pumpkin ideas. I came across this awesome tutorial from Two Paper Divas and knew I had to try it! Instead of using scrapbook paper, though, I decided to make this project even more eco-friendly by using book pages! What You Will Need: Recycled paper. I used the same book pages I used in my Recycled Fall Jars tutorial....
Isn’t it hard to part with the beautiful Christmas cards that you receive from family and friends? Last year I made a New Years banner from Christmas cards and Becky has shared Seven Ways to Recycle Greeting Cards, but here are 5 more ways you can recycle all of those gorgeous cards: 1. Christmas Card Ornaments by Ruffles and Stuff Cut up some of those adorable Christmas cards and turn them into even more adorable ornaments!...
I HAAAAATE it when my headphones break! Even if they’re a cheapo pair of earbuds, I expect them to last, and if they’re a nice set of headphones, then I expect them to REALLY last. Tossing them in the trash? Not an option. Fortunately, most of the most common breaks in headphones are easy-ish to repair. Here are some ways to repair your headphones that will have them back on your head by tomorrow: Clean out the jack....
Less than a month after writing, Senator Lugar replied, with a letter that was short and on the vague side, but implied that he understood where I was coming from as a small business-type person, at least, even if he overlooked my roles as a parent who buys natural and handmade children’s things and an environmentalist who buys second-hand children’s things. In late February, Representantive Hill also replied, in a letter that was much more thoughtful (though much more belated), although still, perhaps, missing my point that throwing more legislation at a poorly written act is, while more helpful than not, less the solution I’d completely prefer....
It’s one of the staple fabrics that, as a cloth diapering momma, I bought every time it was on sale. Only now? All my babies are toilet trained, and I still have, pardon my French, a butt-load of fleece. One of the things that I like to do as an eco-friendly crafter and that I like to teach my children as a natural parent is to remember to have respect for our stuff....
