Posts

This season I also noticed the Green and Clean Guild of Esty handmade soap makers have some fabulous summer soother recipes. Another bathing beauty crafter I like is Alchemic Muse, a popular Green and Clean Guild member, who makes a fantastic cocoa bee soap: This honeybee soap features: Cocoa contains natural antioxidants known to rejuvenate and restore skin. An added touch of cinnamon and black pepper boosts skin circulation. Honey and coconut milk condition and soften skin while creating an extra bubbly lather....

If you haven’t yet submitted something to the carnival, please send in a post for our next edition! We’d love to get your thoughts about green crafting, upcycling, thrifting and crafting, and more. Want to host a carnival? Let us know! Details about submitting and hosting are on the Carnival of Green Crafts home page. New to the Carnival of Green Crafts or blog carnivals in general? Missed previous carnivals?...

In my hometown, we’re lucky not only to have all of the above and a library that stocks just released feature film DVDs, but several excellent thrift stores—thrift stores small and quirky, thrift stores large and conglomerate, thrift stores frequented largely by the college students, thrift stores frequented mostly by the townies. As an avid crafter whose Crafting Manifesto dictates that I work primarily with recycled materials, I have throughout several years’ worth of projects figured out a way to use pretty much any kind of thrift store junk to make awesome stuff....

As usual, the Green Crafts Showcase brought some incredible DIY projects this month. Here are the top 5 projects: 1. DIY CD Statement Earrings by The DIY Show Do you have a few old CDs at home? Instead of letting them collect dust, transform them into these super chic earrings. These have such a unique and modern look that is sure to turn heads. If you want to make your own CD statement earrings, check out The DIY Show’s tutorial....

If you’re lucky enough to have the know-how to change your own oil, not only are you saving yourself a pretty penny every 3,000 miles or so, but you are also probably amassing an impressive collection of empty motor oil bottles. Here’s how to upcycle motor oil bottles and snag some extra storage at the same time. These sturdy containers present something of a recycling challenge. They can’t be disposed of with your usual plastics due to the risk of contamination from the oil residue....

One of my personal missions as a crafts writer is to make vegan crafting and green crafting accessible to everyone. A big part of doing that is helping folks find cruelty-free, eco-conscious alternatives to animal products. Sometimes, though, I get a question that totally stumps me, and when that happens I feel very lucky to have an awesome community of eco-crafters to turn to! Amanda Saunders is a pyrographer–meaning she creates art by decoratively burning wood and then sealing it....

You might remember me mentioning Vermont Organic’s yarn in the Yearn-Worthy Yarns: Blue Sky Alpacas post. The particular yarn I used for the scarf was their O-Wool Balance yarn (shown at left), which is made from 50% organic wool and 50% organic cotton. The mildly marbled look is beautifully earthy and features a very low itch factor. In addition to the O-Wool Balance yarn, which now comes in 18 unspeakably exquisite colors, Vermont Organic Fiber Co has two yarns made from 100% organic wool, which is certified organic in both the USA and Europe....

But then in one of the quilting Facebook groups that I lurk in, someone posted a picture of a tree skirt that I LOVED. It was perfect–not overly Christmas-themed, not super gaudy, just sweet and simple and a lovely backdrop for a decorated tree and nicely wrapped presents. Her secret trick? She’d altered a conventional non-Christmas quilt pattern into a tree skirt! I bought the exact same pattern she used (because I am just that creative, lol), figured out how to alter it, and before the week was out I, too, had the perfect Christmas tree skirt of my non-cornball, sweet and simple and lovely dreams....

Zero waste design has been a growing trend in the fashion industry, and I’m very excited to see it catching on in the craft world, as well! The idea behind zero waste design is really in the name: designers create patterns that use every last scrap of fabric on the bolt to reduce the amount that goes to landfills. A happy side effect of zero waste design is that saving materials also saves money....

The answer is ALWAYS DIY! I made an awesome Coraline party for my kid, from DIY decorations to homemade food to a thrifted book and DVD all they way through to DIY party favors. Because I made everything myself, I was able to pull out the exact creepy and cool components that are my kid’s favorite, including a couple of elements that she kept for year-round bedroom decor. Here’s a list of my favorite free projects and tutorials that you can use to make your own DIY Coraline party....

Now that it’s all of fifty degrees outside, my kids have decided that surely summer is just about here, and they are on a homemade popsicle kick to celebrate! Here are some of our favorite popsicle recipes. Most of them work well with the homemade popsicle bar that we like to put together, some are recipes that you can set aside to surprise them with, and some are just for adults!...

Are you a crafter for hire looking to make some money at crafting a green world? My company – Pono Home – is hiring a seamstress to create part of our green living kits. If you’re a regular reader here, odds are you’re pretty talented at crafting all sorts of cool goodies for friends and family. But here’s a different adventure: my company, Pono Home, is looking to rid the world of plastic forks, knives, and spoons, and single use napkins....

This is a fun baby game that you can make with an old water bottle and other materials from your stash! Now that my son is approaching a year, he is a busy bee! I am constantly on the lookout for baby games to keep him busy. Anything that occupies him for a few minutes is a win in my book, and he loved playing with this water bottle baby game that I made him!...

After quite a bit of digging, I learned a lot about bleach and its environmental impacts. Before we get to the bleach stencil tutorial, let’s talk a bit about bleach and bleach alternatives. Non-Chlorine Bleach One of the major problems with conventional bleach is the chlorine. Chlorine is highly toxic, and bleach is one of the major culprits responsible for chlorine contamination. It pollutes water, harms wildlife, and is unhealthy for people....

We love a good upcycled craft project around here, so when Michael Welsh wanted to send me a review copy of his book, How to Make Crafts using Recycled Materials, I took him up on the offer. The book is geared towards kids, and the idea is to teach them how to start thinking about crafting with reclaimed materials. Michael was kind enough to chat with me about the book and why he published it....

If you answered “yes” to any of the previous questions (well, #3 is probably the most important…), then you must check out PalletFest. It’s billing itself–and I have no reason to disagree–as the nation’s first upcycling festival, and it’s happening this weekend, October 11 and 12, in Denver. Although the festival will incorporate upcycling of all kinds, pallets are perhaps the most ubiquitous material (other than toilet paper tubes…) when it comes to upcycling....

`As you have seen many times here before, my kids and I love big boxes. Mostly I just let them play with them, making their own things from their own imaginations, but sometimes we work together to turn a big box into something specific, like a giant gingerbread house for a kid’s candy-themed birthday party, for instance. DIY Box Creations (which I received for free from a publicist), by Courtney Sanchez, has twelve step-by-step tutorials to turn a big box into something specific, with creations ranging from pretend play scenery to kids’ costume pieces to furniture....

For complete contest rules see the Crafty by Nature Challenge post. Entries are due by April 22nd, 2009 (Earth Day). There will be one lucky grand prize winner (who gets the Yudu Screen-printer) and three runner-ups.

And so, this green crafty book review will look a little different than my review of Weekend Sewing or the Crafty Chica’s Guide to Artful Sewing. I’m starting from the presumption that many of the projects in Organic Crafts will be too simple to appeal to an adult crafting for herself, and that’s okay. Some projects, however, are pretty awesome, and it’s those that I’m going to review. Organic Crafts, even though it is a children’s craft book, definitely has a place in an adult’s crafting world....

Even if you make your own soap (and I do), you just don’t always have time for that. I mean, do you? I don’t, not always. In my house, some days are soapmaking days, but most days are catch up on the laundry, tell the kids to stop fighting, work when I can hear myself think days. But if you’re not making your own soap, buying someone else’s hand-crafted soap is the next best thing....