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We talk a lot around here about eco-friendly fabrics, but we don’t always spend as much talking about why it’s important to opt for these alternatives. They’re often more expensive and harder to find than their conventional counterparts, and I think sometimes we forget the “whys” behind green crafting. The Dirty Truth About Cotton Conventional cotton is one of the most pesticide-intensive crops in the world. In fact, 16% of the world’s pesticides are sprayed on this single crop alone....

In addition to my dry erase price signs, I need to price each item individually with my booth code. Many antique/art stores use booth codes in order to keep track of which booth earned money. Instead of using new price tags from the store, why not make your own from recycled paper? They’re so much cuter and way more eco-friendly! What You Will Need: Recycled paper Scissors Permanent marker Twine....

Inspiration Liz and Jeff kicked things off with some green crafty eye candy. I was particularly struck by a soap-making company that they talked about: Ethically Engineered. The Chicago soap-maker produces 100% organic vegan soaps using solar energy powered equipment. Even their packaging is recycled and biodegradable! Amazing, right? That’s the sort of crafty practice that I feel like most green crafters are working to achieve. Not everyone is quite to this point yet, but don’t despair!...

I feel the same way about my printer ink. Seriously, I will do anything to avoid printing. And when my girls print stuff, and what they print is usually completely ridiculous and non-essential, I cannot STAND it. I can literally feel the pennies draining out of my pocket as all that pricey ink is frittered away. Therefore, I heart Ecofont. Ecofont markets itself as an eco-friendly typeface. It does this by being a holey font....

New York-based artist Amy Wilson mainly works in watercolor, but when it was time for her 5′ x 130′ vinyl art piece in West Thames Park to come down, she decided to put her crafty skills to use and keep all of that plastic out of the landfill. She’s been turning all of that beautifully printed, salvaged vinyl into one of a kind tote bags. Amy describes her experience: She had been wanting a vegan replacement for her trusty leather purse, and inspiration just struck!...

So I went online to see what I could find and see if anyone else has given a cheap bookcase a chic makeover. Here is what I found: This black and white beauty is nice. You should see what it looked like to begin with. You can get this look with the help of this Apartment Therapy tutorial. Home Made Simple took one bookcase and gave it three different makeovers....

Container gardening is a great way to grow your own veggies, even in a limited space. We’ve looked at making an upside down tomato planter. Now let’s make use of that patio or back porch’s floor space with a home made Earth Box! Not only does this contraption let you grow a bunch of veggies and herbs in a small space, it’s self-watering! Once you start to get sprouts, you just have to add a bit of water from time to time to replenish the reservoir if you don’t get any rain!...

These colorful DIY napkin rings are made from an old paper towel tube! We don’t use a ton of paper towels around here, but there are certain jobs that still have me reaching for the roll. See: cleaning the cat box. Any toilet paper roll craft works just as well with a paper towel roll. You just cut that tube in half or thirds, and you’re ready to rock! You can get six to eight DIY napkin rings from one paper towel tube, depending on how wide you cut them....

Rain chains are like downspouts, only prettier! A well-placed rain chain will direct the flow of water from your roof, keeping it from eroding the ground underneath or pooling next to your foundation. You can direct your rain chain into a water feature, a gravel bed, another downspout, or a rain barrel, and you should definitely put it someplace where everyone can appreciate how pretty it looks as it does its job....

You are going to love tie-dye! Tie-dye is one of my favorite summer activities. In my opinion, mess doesn’t matter if you keep it outside. The fact that tie-dye can get pretty messy, then, is just part of the fun! I also love that it’s a process-oriented project. You can’t completely predict your outcome so there’s no point in getting stressed out about it. This also makes it a great project for kids, or a group in which people have different skill levels....

The chopstick baskets are made from used chopsticks that are cleaned and sanitized, dyed with tea and then crafted into this amazing basket that folds flat when not in use. Artist Brian Parks studied in China for several years and discovered he could create useful items out of discarded chopsticks and now he is always looking for new things to create with them. Another brilliant item that I love at Eco-Artware is the set of vinyl record coasters....

We’ve talked about Noonday Textiles and Jay’s gorgeous, hand-dyed hemp here before. Since last year, Jay has gone back to school for Sustainable and Organic Horticulture and launched a line of new fabric options and colors! On top of her hemp offerings, Noonday Textiles now stocks gorgeous organic cotton corduroy, 100% organic cotton knit jersey, hemp corduroy and a stretch hemp jersey. She hand dyes all of the fabrics herself using eco-friendly dyes and has expanded her color selection significantly since last year....

From mylar birthday balloons to plastic birthday banners to theme-driven disposable birthday plates and cups and napkins, children’s birthdays can be shockingly product-driven. As a green mom, it’s often hard to for me to give my children what I want for them to have without giving in to my baser consumeristic desires. Of course I want their birthdays to be magical, and when all their friends’ birthdays are magical by means of a plethora of plastic crap, then it’s tempting for me to give my girls the same....

I am the kind of person who will, after the last of the store-bought-who-knows-when potholders gets a big hole in it, do completely without potholders for months, risking my fingers to pull bread and cookies out of the oven using a dishtowel as I continue to insist that I’m going to sew myself plenty of potholders “as soon as I get around to it.” Hallelujah for holidays, I tell you....

It’s not. Nope, there’s still a toilet sitting in my living room. No seriously, there is. You laugh but I have pictures to prove it. My husband and I have gone DIY for many home improvement projects and each time we swear we’re never going to do it again. Yet somehow we get ourselves into these stressful situations over and over again. I think we tend to forget how awful things were while working on the renovations because once they’re finished things usually turn out pretty good....

Why work crafting into your busy schedule? Of course, it’s easier to just buy what you want at the store, but around here we’re all about keeping it eco-friendly. That can mean using our crafty skills to divert waste from the landfill, choosing eco-friendly materials, or making reusable crafts to replace the disposables in our lives. Unless you have the cash to always buy fair trade and organic products, chances are that making some things yourself is the greenest way to go....

My favorite part of the weekend? Tucked into a corner was Good Will Industries and D.C.’s own Goodwill Fashionista. For those of you who arn’t familiar with the Fasionista, she writes about how you can find amazing fashion right at your local Good Will shop. Finding gently used clothing and reusing is a concept that is nothing new to readers of this here blog. What was even more great about the D....

Twine. If you can, use hemp twine. Chalkboard paint A hole punch A pencil Chalk Scissors How To Do It: Draw a mask onto your recycled cardboard. I simply searched for a mask image on a search engine. Once I found one that I liked, I put recycled paper up to my computer, and traced it from there. Cut it out. Chalkboard paint it! Follow the directions on the chalkboard paint for the dry and cure times....

HandCrafting Justice is a good example of folks using crafty skills to change lives. The group – a project of Sisterhood of the Good Shepherd – sells hand-crafted, fair trade-certified goods. They train their artisans, so they can make a living off of their crafts in areas where eking out any sort of living can be a big challenge. Sisterhood of the Good Shepherd is a religious organization, and while HandCrafting Justice is one of their projects they do not directly run the company....

If you want to have a totally handmade holiday, now is the time to get started. Over the next couple of months, we’ll be posting about recycled gifts and giftwrap you can make yourself and great handmade finds for sale! There are lots of ecofriendly gift wrap options out there if you’re feeling the traditional, paper wrapping thing. If you want to branch out a bit, though, you might try wrapping some gifts this year using the traditional Japanese method furoshiki....