Have you been saving your wine corks, waiting for the perfect project to come along? Me too! I have a big ol’ stash of wine corks, and this wine cork board was a great way to use up a bunch of corks and make my work area a bit more organized at the same time. I have a habit of saving anything that looks like it could possibly become part of a craft project, and my cork stash was basically overflowing....
Learn how to make a simple tote bag from an old pillowcase and sustainable hemp webbing. Not only do I have a tutorial for you today, I’m here to remind you to enter our Hemptique giveaway! Click on over to see the prize pack they’re offering and to find out how to enter. Like I mentioned on Wednesday, I was super excited to discover that Hemptique carries hemp webbing. I love making tote bags, but conventional webbing is normally made from dirty cotton or from polyester (aka plastic)....
Are you a wine cork hoarder like I am? Here’s how to make mulch using your stash of wine corks and which sort works best. Before I walk you through how to make mulch, it’s important that you choose the right kind of wine cork for this project. There are a couple of sorts of wine cork, and only one of them works for this project. You want to make certain that the corks you’re using are natural cork....
Fortunately, this repair is dead simple, a fix that you can do even if you have no idea how to sew and no sewing tools at hand. You will need: a safety pin. If you don’t have a safety pin, you can use a paperclip instead. the drawstring. If your drawstring is broken (or you just hate it and you’re sick of seeing it every time you put on your pants), you can replace it with grosgrain or any other sturdy, grippy ribbon....
So, you’ve completed your tiling project, and you’re quite pleased with the results. But what can you do with the leftover tiles? While you could haul them off to the landfill… it would be nice if you could find a better use for them. What if you could take those left over tiles and turn them into personalized coasters? By doing so, you end up with a nice personal work (that can make great gifts), and you’re recycling the tiles....
Flea market and resale shoppers are the ultimate greenies. We love bargains and love all things vintage, used, and reusable. And those of us who take our fab finds and recreate them into something new- that’s upcycling at it’s best. So, the question is, what are you going to do with your bargain finds after you buy them? How will you make them into something fabulous? Will you use them as is or will you redo your new treasures into something even better?...
Not only is this bad for me and my legs, but also for the computer. It can’t cool itself down sitting on my legs. That’s where this pretty nifty laptop pillow from IF comes in. The Log laptop pillow is a series of log shaped pillows that when placed just so, make a comfortable pillow for your laptop and legs. Held together by snaps, the logs are made with hemp canvas and organic cotton twill or a hemp and lycra twill blend....
What I love even more, though, are the decorations that I don’t have to make myself take down on January 2. The tinsel and the twinkle lights and the tree and the four hundred nutcrackers and the paper stars all have to go, even though it makes me 100% sad to put them away. It’s a good thing, then, that I have convinced myself that my decorations that are “winter” themed, rather than purely for Christmas, get to stay up through February!...
This is a guest post by Laura Bucci, who knits and sews bags. You can find her at her arts & crafts blog. I must admit that I prefer to buy foreign craft items when I’m actually visiting the country of origin as opposed to buying them in my home country. There’s something missing when these items are sold out of context. Right now, I’m thinking specifically about Latin American crafts since that’s where I’ve traveled to in the last few years....
What’s the COOLEST thing that you could make with a Mason jar? An FM radio, is what I’m thinking. To see what I’m talking about, check out the Single Station FM Radio Kickstarter. This Kickstarter bares the giant boombox of old, with all its circuitry and plastic components and massive packaging, down to the essentials: your favorite radio station, a speaker, and a case–in this case, a wide-mouth 8 oz....
You’ve heard of origami – the art of paper-folding – but have you ever tried its craftivist cousin, origomu? Using your crafts to make a difference is an important part of craftivism, but another type of craftivism is using your skills to keep materials out of the landfill. Origomu hits both of these, and it does it beautifully! The literal translation for origomu is “folding rubber,” and it’s becoming a movement that’s encouraging crafters to transform six pack rings into beautiful plastic accessories....
Vintage sheets are my favorite fabric to sew. You can get them on the cheap, they’re super soft after having been washed a billion times, and the novelty prints immediately whisk me back to my own childhood and all the pop culture stuff that I was into that’s still really cool now (says I!). I sewed my nine-year-old these sweet Dr. Seuss (he was an environmentalist!) pajamas from a twin-sized vintage sheet that I scored for a couple of bucks at my local Goodwill....
Memorial Day windsock (Or you could just decorate a toilet paper tube and start from there!) Plastic cup from the recycle bin (Red Solo cups work well. I also think a Starbucks coffee cup would be good for this project. See what’s in your bin that you can rinse and reuse!) Craft knife Glue Decorative tape Scissors Star stickers Take Your Windsock Apart Disassembling your windsock is super-easy! Simply remove the crepe paper streamers that are attached at the bottom....
Here’s a question from our mailbox: ” I was wondering if you could put a page up on how to reuse cardboard? I have a ton of it and am short on ideas. We have neighbor kids who love arts and craft projects. Please, help us out!” Cardboard is a terrific material to reuse for kids’ crafts because it’s so sturdy, and it’s amenable to a wide variety of media, from duct tape to spray paint....
(Groans in the background) Yes, I know, I know. Those of us who are married and have been married for awhile are so done with weddings. We’ve made the rounds, been to lots of them (and probably been in a few), planned our own and pray to never have to go through it again. But there are plenty of bright and shiny brides-to-be out there planning their weddings who would love to go green and DIY- the two seem to go hand in hand....
If you were lucky enough to have guests over for the holidays, now is the perfect time to up your tableware game for NEXT year’s holiday hosting. Was there something that you’d wished you had at the time? A different table runner, perhaps? Embroidered napkins? Pillar candles on frosted glass candle holders? Whatever your wish, you’ve now got plenty of time to craft that perfect table setting–heck, you’ve got time to make a whole new TABLE before the next big holiday gathering!...
I took an anonymous survey of crafters from across the country, and found that 92% of us use commercial supplies to some extent. My two part article for The Storque (to be cross-published here) will reveal further statistics. There will also be an extensive list of resources that I have found to be informative about the business practices of retailers, product safety concerns, and environmental catastrophes both in the U....
What You Will Need: Toilet paper rolls. A magazine. Glue (Use Eco-glue if you can). Tissue paper– I wanted to use newspaper instead (perhaps the comic section to add some fun for kids), but I didn’t have any on hand. I had tissue paper left over from a present that was given to me from Christmas, so that’s what I used. Get creative with this, though, and use what you have!...
Because homemade costumes always get more candy! If you’re looking for inspiration, check out my favorite DIY kids’ Halloween costumes, below. Your kiddo will be the cutest little pumpkin/zombie/glow cloud/zombie clown out trick-or-treating this year! 1. Bat https://www.instagram.com/p/9WwePrlS0T/ This homemade bat costume is a lot cuter–and a lot warmer–than the store-bought bat costumes that you’ll see. 2. Bowser https://www.instagram.com/p/BrwJxGjFH3P/ This DIY Bowser shell is probably my favorite thing on the planet right now....
Cords Suede or leather cord is a common alternative to expensive (and sometimes not so eco-friendly) chain. Silk ribbon is also an animal product, so keep an eye out for that. You can find natural rubber cord for jewelry, but be careful: it can tarnish sterling silver. If you’re working with sterling, you might want to opt for organic cotton cord instead. The other trick with rubber cording is that some “rubber” cord is actually plastic....
