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How sweet are these organic cotton prints from Baby Bird Design? I ran across Emily’s shop over the weekend, and I’ve got to say: I’m swooning from cuteness! Emily Burger, proprietress of Baby Bird Design, is a stay-at-home mom and freelance designer who’s just recently gotten into fabric design. She says she’s chose to print her designs on organic cotton because: She’s got all sorts of fabric themes from forest and jungle creatures to the basics like polka dots and stripes....

What a waste of all that valuable crafting material! Before I send my recycling materials out to be remade (a process that, while better than nothing, still requires even more energy and materials resources to perform), I often like to repurpose them back into our family’s life for a little while longer. Whether my kiddos make themselves a giant robot toy out of our empty juice bottles, and throw those bottles back in the plastics bin when they’re tired of their toy, or we all use up an afternoon to make a paper mache pinata that gets dumped into the paper bin after the party is over, there are loads of ways to make recyclables work for you just a little while longer....

Mahe Zehra Husain is an artist who makes magic out of aluminum cans and plastic packaging. Yesterday on CAGW, I reviewed her e-book Crafty Cans and Perplexing Plastic, in which she offers tutorials for using die-cutters and embossing tools to upcycle soda cans and plastic packaging into jewelry, bookmarks, scrapbook embellishments, and more. This week, Mahe is giving away 25 copies of her e-book The Christmas Guide to Upcycling. For this giveaway, you may use as many or as few of the following points of entry as you’d like: Don’t forget–to notify you that you’ve won a copy of The Christmas Guide to Upcycling, we have to have your correct email address, so pay attention when you’re typing it into the web form before you comment....

You have two shops on Etsy that are eco-friendly; a jewelry shop and a vintage shop. Tell us a little about your jewelry shop. How did you start making jewelry? I’ve been making jewelry on and off for years. Back in college I made friendship bracelets and worked with seed beads on a loom. When I lived in Chicago, I started beading and wire wrapping and sold my work in a couple of shops there....

My husband has a huge box of wood pieces that he throws leftovers into after he’s done making a project. These pieces can range from tiny little scraps to half a two by four. But for some reason he had a bunch of pieces that were all about the same size left over from making something and we came up with these cute little snowmen. We used three pieces of wood with two being between two and three inches long and about an inch and a half wide and maybe a quarter to a half inch thick....

We here at Crafting a Green World really love crafting, the environment, and crafting with the environment in mind. Even more so, we love sharing our experiences about crafting and the environment with you. So each week our group of core writers and many contributors bring you information on the latest and greatest in green crafting, including tutorials on reuse, book reviews, natural and green supplies and crafter interviews. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, our site and our authors are supported by our ad network....

Thank god there’s a solution, or we’d all end up looking like me in my sixth grade class picture, with those big ole’ cuffs on my jeans and the ugliest hairstyle you’ve ever seen on a 12-year-old. And sure, the controlled fray is quick and easy and awesome, but let’s say you’re looking for something a little more polished. Friends, I have that something: it can look invisible or stand out, it’s also fairly quick and fairly easy, and it leaves no fray....

Wire hangers may not be suitable for actually hanging your clothes, but for internal structure they’re actually pretty great. The wire in wire hangers is quite strong, malleable enough to be formed into shape but not so malleable that it’s easily warped once in place, and can be cut with a sturdy pair of wire cutters. Using nothing but wire hangers, hot glue, and duct tape, I created a hoop skirt for a garment that I’m making my kiddo to wear in this year’s Trashion/Refashion Show in our town....

These melted crayon ornaments are so easy to make that the kids can do most of the work while you’re frantically cleaning the house for company. Actually, since they use old, broken crayons in their making, you can even pretend like the kids are helping you clean when they make these! That’s a joke, by the way. Kids don’t help clean. Or, rather, they kind of help clean, but that help entails so much griping and moaning that you almost wish you hadn’t even asked for their help in the first place, which is exactly what they want you to wish....

What You Will Need: An empty picture frame. Thrift stores and garage sales always have empty picture frames at reasonable prices. I got mine from a garage sale. Sheet music or other recycled paper A recycled envelope Scissors Pencil and pen Hot glue/hot glue gun Buttons A scrap piece of paper for a pattern for your petals. I used paint chips that I had from my Paint Chip Magnets project....

Although this method of resizing a fitted sheet to fit a smaller bed is a little more complicated than my quick-and-dirty tutorial for turning a flat sheet into a fitted sheet for the same bed size, it’s still a simple process that allows you to save money by using what you own instead of buying new. Here’s how to do it: Before you begin, examine the fitted sheet that you’d like to re-size....

Can you feel the fall in the air? It’s been super crisp in the early mornings here in Atlanta, and before we know it we’ll be dressing for cooler temperatures. This light cowl felt like the perfect craft for early autumn! You know I love a necktie craft, and this vintage cowl was a super fun way to turn an old necktie into something useful and new! It’s fun to use neckties as-is for crafty projects, but if you use your seam ripper to open up a vintage tie, you’re left with quite a generous amount of fabric....

Today I’m sharing a colorful chair planter that I created to sell in my craft booth. I created a similar chair planter last year, but this year I decided to take it up a notch with a bright, fun color! How to Make a Chair Planter What You Will Need An old chair that has a broken or empty spot in the middle part of the seat. A lot of times you can find old cane chairs at thrift stores, garage sales, and antique stores that are missing the middle portion....

To make clear slime, I consulted my own resident slime-making expert. She’s put in hundreds of hours making slime, and is here with us today to teach you how to make clear slime, the Holy Grail of slimes. Syd’s clear slime isn’t your ordinary, everyday “clear” slime that’s actually milky or white, she tells me. When she says that her slime is clear, she means it is CLEAR. As in crystal!...

My kids and I love coloring books, as I’m sure you can tell from all of the tutorials that I post on ways to upcycle coloring book pages. Well, here’s one more for you! This coloring book page bookmark looks especially nice when made from one of those adult coloring book pages with lots of patterns, or when fussy cut to pick out an extra-cute detail from a larger coloring book page....

That’s not to say that I’m actually buying beverages in plastic 2-liter bottles, because plastic bottles are still THE WOOOORST (for proper inflection, please channel Jean-Ralphio’s character assessment at approximately :28). But I am pretty stoked now to dig them out of the recycling bin and put them to good use. It turns out that plastic 2-liter bottles are sturdy and versatile, perfect for upcycling into a variety of fun projects!...

Hosting a dinner party? Wow your guests with burlap no-sew silverware holders! These are great for special occasions or for setting the holiday table. Since they’re so simple to make, you can whip up more than one set. Maybe you could decorate one for Thanksgiving in pretty fall colors and another for your Christmas or Hanukkah table. DIY No-Sew Silverware Holder What You Will Need: + burlap or another eco-friendly fabric....

Feeding the birds is great for making your yard a wildlife-friendly natural habitat, but you know that much of the fun in it comes from the ability to watch those beautiful birds enjoying themselves at your bird feeders. With this window bird feeder, you can do that without leaving the comfort of your couch! Since this window bird feeder is also made from a used milk or juice carton, you’ve got the added bonus of diverting something from the waste stream to meet your needs, rather than buying something new....

Maybe its because I’m longing for a good holiday or perhaps its just that I love the colours and endless possibilities of maps but I’ve been seeing them all over the place recently. This image forms part of a collection of maps belonging to designer Benita Larson via Poppytalk. I love the way they are displayed and that some have being put to good use covering journals, books and boxes....

It could be a concert t-shirt from your favorite band, or a college shirt that remind you of the good ol’ days, or maybe it’s one of your child’s tiny tees that they’ve grown out of. They are filled with memories so you can’t let go, but they are taking up space in a drawer or box collecting dust. But they don’t have to. If you have some craft and sewing skills you can turn your old t-shirts into upcycled, repurposed and memorable items....