I was fortunate enough to connect with Tiffany Cassanova, the show’s producer, so that I could send the boys a few questions about their project. If you can handle the cuteness, read on: Interview with Tristin and Tyler CAGW: How old are you? Tristin: 7 Tyler: 7 CAGW: What gave you the idea to start documenting folks’ stories? Tristin: It’s fun to recycle and learn from people how to recycle and help animals and the Earth....
Want to keep your soft-boiled egg all warm and toasty until it’s ready to be eaten? Then do what you’d do for your kid (without the “eating it” part)–put it in a sweater! So Jane, by Hollie Keith, features a ton of projects that celebrate the author Jane Austen and her work. The projects are divided between fangirl crafts, such as “I Heart Mr. Darcy” pillows and embellished bookmarks, and Victorian recreation crafts, involving materials like doilies, patchwork, and silhouettes, that evoke the feel of living inside a Jane Austen novel....
These wooden toys from Clickety Clack are hand-cut from pine and left unfinished. I purchased a fire stacker and a water stacker for my six-year-old and eight-year-old, quite taken by the idea that my kiddos could take ownership of the manufacture of their own toys by painting and sealing these stackers themselves. To paint the stackers, the girls used conventional store-bought non-toxic liquid watercolors, and painted the colors right on with a soft paintbrush....
I shared my latest DIY garden hack on Monday, but making planters isn’t the only way you can get crafty in the garden! Whether you’re growing food or flowers, it’s a good idea to label your plants. Sure, once your food plants produce and the flowers bloom, you can easily tell what’s what, but there’s that in-between stage where it’s sometimes hard to tell the cucumbers from the collards. Trust me....
Pot holders are all well and good, but sometimes you just don’t need one more thing sitting on your counter while you’re trying to cook. After one scorched pot holder too many, I was stoked to see the DIY Pot Handle Covers from Wise Craft, written by Blair Stocker. It seriously took maybe half an hour for me to make enough pot handle covers to protect the handles of all my nice cast iron and stainless steel pots and pans, and I couldn’t be happier with the results....
EarthLust bottles are handmade from high quality, food grade stainless steel, which is naturally safe unlined. Their bottles are all custom designs with many limited editions. EarthLust uses non-toxic paints and BPA-free safe polypropylene #5 caps. They offer several different sizes and each bottle comes with a high quality carabiner (great for clipping onto your belt loop or purse on crafting trips) and optional sports tops are available too. If you would like to win this great water bottle please leave a comment on this post!...
Whether you need a quick and easy handmade gift or you would rather not hit up the store just so you can send some thank-you notes, you’ll find that it is super simple to make your own personalized, handmade stationery, entirely from your favorite scrapbook paper. You will need: scrapbook paper. I’m using 8.5″x11″ scrapbook paper for the stationery in these photos, and I had very little waste left over....
Kelly pointed me to these awesome wedding dresses made from pineapple cloth, and my interest was piqued! It turns out that pineapple fabric, or Piña cloth, is a traditional fiber from the Phillipines dating back from the 1800’s! So here’s the skinny on Piña. The lightweight fiber is often intricately embroidered. It’s traditionally used in high-end garments like wedding gowns called Barong Tagalog (fabric from a Barong is pictured to the right there)....
We’ve talked about denim’s planetary impact and even explored some eco-friendly denim options before, so you can imagine how happy I was to run across a new company offering Earth friendly denim! Why Denim Matters Denim production is seriously tough on the environment. Conventional denim is made from pesticide-laden cotton – one of the most sprayed crops in the world. Not only is the fabric a problem, but all of that dye has a huge impact....
The textiles designed by Marina Cavalieri are perfect for home accents, soft furnishing, upholstery and fashion clothing and accessories. On top of their small production company and printing in small batches onto organic and natural fibers, the company is also working towards Fair Trade certification, to ensure that communities receive a fair wage and adhere to ethical practices. You’ll find cottons, linen, silk and nettle in the collection, as well as wonderful accent pillows organized into Floresca, Organza and Marina....
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! I just love ornaments! Not only do they look lovely on the tree, they make great little stocking stuffers. In this video, Kim Buchheit of Wildly Wooly shows us how to make acorn ornaments out of felted wool and real acorn caps!...
Sidewalk chalk, bubble solution, fingerpaint…where does it end? Fortunately, pretty much all of those recipes that we rely on to keep summer fun and creative for our little ones can be made cheaply and easily and on-demand at home, often with simple household supplies. You’ll know exactly what’s in them, you don’t have to run out to the store to buy them, and you’re not wasting any money on plastic packaging that you’ll then have to go to the effort of recycling yourself....
They can customize for business or events and work with organizations to make fundraising kits. What a great way to promote your green business or raise money for a cause! Sure, there are recycled newspaper pencils on the market, but where else can you find pencils that smell like your favorite fruit or dessert? Life is too short to leave your sense of smell out of the experience of writing a letter!...
Let me start by saying, I’M OVER THE MOON! Which is appropriate because as I write this post – there’s a rare and gorgeous supermoon lunar eclipse happening right above my head. And I fully believe that “moon magic” can do all sorts of things – and that includes working some good energy into my plants. Back in December of last year I did a post about how to grow ginger from those plain old roots you buy at the grocery store....
1. Lego Costume Over on Instructables, there is a great tutorial showing you how to make a Lego costume. It would be simple to make this for a child too! [image by s.o.f.t. via Flickr Creative Commons] 2. Bat Costume Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories shows us how to make a bat costume. They also have instructions for a unique crocodile costume that I couldn’t resist posting! [image by littleREDelf via Flickr Creative Commons]...
Labor can be found in one part of the three-legged stool of sustainable development and the triple bottom line – Economic, Social, Environmental or People, Planet, Profit, and as crafters trying to be environmental conscious it is a topic that directly effects us. The labor movement was responsible for the 8 hour work day, the right to breaks, healthy working conditions and fair pay. For many of us trying to turn our hobby into a business, long hours seem to be the norm; often juggling a day job with our craft business....
Packing a healthy lunch for your kid can be a challenge, especially on busy mornings. I am with you, parents! My kid’s schools this year all start 30 minutes earlier than last year, and mornings at my house feel crazy short. My strategy for packing my son a healthy lunch is to do it the day before. Ideally, I can put leftovers from supper into his lunch bag. If we didn’t eat something lunch packable, I make his lunch for the morning after putting him to bed....
It’s house paint, leftover from the last time you painted whatever room you want to put that wicker basket in! You kept it so you could touch up the paint in that room, and because you’re not willing to throw away perfectly good paint, but the actual best way that you can use that excess paint is to make random furnishings, accessories, and storage solutions like ugly wicker baskets match your décor perfectly....
Prepackaged disinfecting wipes are full of toxic chemicals. Disinfect naturally with these homemade cleaning wipes that cost a fraction of the price! Hey guys! Welcome to Spring Cleaning Week at Crafting a Green World. I’m so excited to share this recipe for homemade cleaning wipes, and I’ve got a DIY soft scrub recipe coming on Friday. Happy cleaning! Commercial disinfectant wipes use chemicals like bleach and triclosan to kill bacteria. Those chemicals are definitely good at what they do, but the impacts on the environment and on our own health are not worth it....
You want to just peel that old spaghetti sauce label off of the glass jar that it’s stuck to, but you know that you can’t. Paper pieces will stay stuck, and whatever you do manage to peel off will just leave sticky glue underneath. You think you don’t have time to do a good job to get all the paper and all the glue completely off of your glass jars, but you really do....
