Are you ready to see the features from the September Green Crafts Showcase? I know they will inspire you just like they inspired me! If you can, visit each of these sites and leave them a comment of encouragement– it’s always nice to know our work is appreciated, right? If you missed the deadline for this month’s showcase, you can still enter the upcoming one that we’ll post next month!...
This amazing video tutorial is a lesson in more than just sewing. Annika Sanders of UK clothing shop Junky Styling shows that green crafting is all about your mindset. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/9IXHsIJ2UUs&hl=en_US&fs=1&] I just love what an unusual take this is! The quote that really stood out for me was: It just strikes me as a philosophy that a lot of green crafters share. Where most folks look at items in a thrift store or junk headed to their trash and recycle bins as static, green crafters see so much possibility....
Whether you’ve got a deck of playing cards that are past their prime or just a partial deck of survivors, I’ve got plenty of ideas for upcycling them! Playing cards are one of my favorite craft supplies to alter. Find your perfect project among the tutorials below, because I think you’re going to like altered playing card crafts just as much as I do! Things to Build permanent house of cards: When my kiddos were little, we inherited several incomplete decks of old playing cards, and this was by far their favorite thing to do with them....
What You Will Need: Red paper. Using new paper isn’t the most eco-friendly craft supply, so try to opt for eco-friendly scrapbook paper options like the Green Stack Collection or recycled kraft paper. 1 book page. You could use sheet music, magazine pages, or junk mail envelopes, too. School glue. If you can, use eco glue! A black permanent marker Scissors A picture frame. Instead of buying new, check out your local thrift stores or garage sales to find a frame....
One of the most beautiful things about crafting green is the end result of our labor: awesome crafts that are unique, upcycled, and built with our own two hands. Add solar power into the mix, and the project is elevated into the realm of clean, green, renewable energy – something that reduces your carbon footprint even after the project’s complete! With a little bit of know-how, you can create decorative, solar lighting accents for the garden....
Is there something that you’ve been hanging on to but aren’t sure how to reuse? Maybe there’s something you see getting wasted at home or in the office that you just know you could craftily repurpose if you just had a few ideas to get you started! Has someone asked you how to reuse something, and you were stumped? We want to hear from you guys! If you have a few minutes, check out our How do I reuse…?...
The billboard was created using 2,000 (!) reclaimed plastic bags that were woven together to make the billboard, which measures over 120 feet in length. Nedbank employed seven crafters to create the billboard, taking them about six weeks to complete the project, making this a huge handmade project. This is the third in a series of greener advertising for the Bank. The first billboard boasts solar panels that power its illumination at night, and provides extra power to help run a kitchen at a school in Alexandra....
Sublime offers soft and soothing colors that seem perfect for this time of year. They come in organic cotton as well as organic merino wool. Organic options enough for everyone. The organic cotton is entirely natural and untreated. It has been grown organically without the use of pesticides and gently dyed using environmentally friendly products. I am in love with the colors, Peapod, Rice Pudding and Laundry. Great names too!...
While on the island of Chiloé, the second largest island of Chile, the majority of the artisans sold hand knitted items and hand spun wool. I couldn’t have been more delighted! Chiloé was a magical place for me, the views of the ocean and rolling farmland with happy and healthy looking cows and sheep and chickens, were such a pleasure to behold. The island holds much lore and is seeped in tradition, with hand spun wool being one of these traditions....
If you spend any time outdoors, you come across the occasional bird feather. And if you simply enjoy collecting natural objects, or if you enjoy crafting with them, you probably want to pick up that feather, take it home with you, and display it or make a pretty feather craft pretty with it. Did you know that’s probably illegal? The Migratory Bird Treaty Act “makes it illegal for anyone to take, possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale, purchase, or barter, any migratory bird, or the parts, nests, or eggs” without a permit....
I’ll just come clean: I heart washi tape crafts! What I love most is how washi tape can add such a cheerful burst of color and a modern feel to my upcycled craft projects. I think there’s an idea that upcycled crafts have to have a certain type of handmade look. Sure, washi tape crafts also can look handmade, but I think the splash of color and texture gives the finished product a modern feel that you don’t always get when you’re upcycling....
Are you baffled about what to do with them? I mean, do you even HAVE any end tables to set them on? And if you do, do you really want to dust that doily-covered end table every weekend? No. No, you do not. Fortunately, there are a lot of beautiful ways to upcycle paper and yarn doilies. Some are archivally safe so that you can pass the doilies down to your own grandkids, and some are great ways to alter them and give them a second life, especially if they’re tattered or torn....
Upcycled sheet music pennant-embellished wreath. Transform any plain wreath into a fall-themed one with this easy add-on using old sheet music. Burlap and lace wreath. Burlap appears to be THE thing for making a wreath look autumn appropriate, as so many of these fall wreaths incorporate it. Here, it combines with lace and fabric accents. Felt flower-embellished wreath. I LOVE this method of making flowers–so simple, so easy to use with any non-fray fabric....
Is there a more ubiquitous recyclable than the glass bottle? If you buy anything from a grocery store, or consume any beverage that you didn’t make yourself, you’ve got some glass bottles in the recycling bin. And that’s a shame, because most glass bottles are elegantly designed, super sturdy, easy to cut (I promise!), fun to embellish, and useful for loads of projects. So go rescue those glass bottles from your recycling bin, because after reading this list, you’re never going to have to toss another glass bottle again....
Spring is here (or at least it is where I live in Georgia)! I’m loving the warmer weather already! Although I don’t have kids of my own, I remember how much I loved making projects with my parents. Spring is such an inspiring season to get outside, get active, and get creative with your children! Here are five eco-friendly Spring crafts for you and your kids to create! DIY Windchimes by Hands On: As We Grow Jamie at Hands On: As We Grow created this really beautiful windchime from various tin cans....
Finally, I figured out the problem, which you probably already knew: my girls didn’t want to draw with a blunt crayon. A crayon that’s been used for longer than 30 seconds is dull enough that you can’t do anything nice with it (my children claim), whereas markers and colored pencils have pleasingly pointed tips for all kinds of intricate doodles and writing and flower-coloring. Yes, I do have a couple of the super-sized Crayola crayon boxes with that plastic sharpener in the back, that plastic sharpener that sucks and then breaks, but honestly, I save the two nice 64-color boxes for special occasions....
Flowers Chic and Cheap: Arrangements with Flowers Picked from the Market or Backyardis full of unusual yet simple ways to display your blooming beauties. While the book itself is not necessarily green, you can easily take its suggestions and make them work in a green way, like using only organic flowers, or posies from your yard and garden, or flowers from local farms or Farmer’s Markets. Even if you don’t have organic options, buying from local gardeners and farmers is greener than buying from a floral shop because you are buying local and supporting the local economy, and local flowers that are not sent to floral shops are often sprayed with less chemicals and pesticides....
Handkerchiefs might seem a little bit gross at first, if you’re used to the paper disposable kind, but just like disposable menstrual products, a lot of that is because we are barraged with marketing messages designed to make us feel like our bodies are disgusting and we need these wasteful products to somehow be cleaner. There is nothing disgusting about using a handkerchief. What is disgusting is pounds and pounds of paper waste in our landfills that we used to blow our noses one time....
We over-use clean water. We take purified water that’s been sent to and from a water treatment plant and use it to flush our toilets, to water our gardens, to wash our cars. We send water that’s perfectly able to flush toilets and irrigate landscaping out the bottom end of our sinks and washing machines and out to that same water treatment plant, only to have it treated and sent back to us so that we can flush toilets and irrigate landscaping with it, paying and paying and paying for the privilege to waste clean water the whole time....
I still don’t have an infinity of free time, however, and so not only am I gardening with the lasagna garden method, but I’m also basically eschewing nearly all ornamentals. I like my garden to be pretty, sure, but I also need it to multitask for me. Multitasking means sunflowers, and speckled cranberry beans that climb them. It means kale in the border garden, and carrots in between the lilac bushes....
