I don’t make the journey halfway across the country to California very often, and so the last time I was there I pocketed a small handful of tiny pebbles from my favorite beach, and when I came home I made this glass vial treasure bottle necklace that will allow me to wear a little of my favorite beach around my neck anytime that I’m lonesome for it. Are you, too, a collector of sandy souvenirs?...
First of all, the paint. I had my heart set on Freshaire paint. Home Depot no longer carries this brand or any other brand of paint that is considered eco-friendly. But after I contacted Freshaire they said Glidden Premium and Martha Stewart Living paints are low to no VOC paints. So we opted for Glidden. Second, we were hoping to save the bathtub but have to move the tub to fix the rotted out floor underneath....
We are big on materials around here. Whether we’re talking about the environmental and social impacts of conventional cotton or finding ways to upcycle something where you’d normally buy new, we talk a lot about things, since we use things to make…things! And there’s nothing wrong with that. What we don’t talk about as much is process, but how and where something is made is just as important as what it’s made out of, right?...
Etsy has a huge assortment of some very nice, handmade, eco-friendly favors perfect for the bride that loves handmade but may not have the time to go DIY herself. First stop- check out these adorable handmade, organic soaps wrapped in flower seeded paper made by unearthmalee. Order as many as you need as they’ll make super cute, usable, practical and super green favors for your eco-wedding. There’s also these pretty tags made from recycled fibers and seeds....
When you think energy conservation, crafting might not spring immediately to mind, but this tea light heater can heat a whole room for pennies! This DIY heater made from tea lights and terra cotta flower pots is actually not that new, but now that cold weather is here it’s making the rounds again. The project comes from Dylan Winter of Keep Turning Left, and he uses the heater in the video to warm his small home studio....
No, really. I’m serious. Granted, Santoro describes the sound as “kind of like scratching a record backwards or radio static” because you’re listening to many strands of tape at one time. So a Sonic Fabric dress isn’t exactly a replacement for the IPod. (John Fishman of Phish did have a Sonic Fabric dress made to play in concert, but that was kind of a special case. Here’s the video of the performance if you’re interested....
If you’re looking for a kid-friendly dessert or a birthday party treat that won’t knock the children over with sugar overload, then this fruit pizza recipe is what you want. Since fruit pizza gets most of its sweetness from the natural sugars of fruit, it’s easy to cut the refined sugar way down, or completely out, in this dessert. Fruit also lends natural color, so you can choose to modify or skip artificial dyes altogether, and you’ll still serve up a colorful treat....
I did have a couple of bones to pick with the article, but there were also quite a few good things that were new to me. First, the Green Quilts Project, founded by Susan Shie, encouraged quilters to make quilts from 1989 to 2004 to send healing energy to the Earth. I had never heard of this effort before. I also didn’t know about Mountain Mist’s Eco Craft batting, fiberfill, and pillowforms, which are made from corn fiber....
The weather is getting colder, and we have a handmade holiday on our minds! Handmade gifts have heart, are better for the environment, and, if you opt to buy, it supports independent artists! 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!...
By now, y’all probably know that we’re a homeschooling family, and as a homeschooler AND a crafter, hands-on projects are very important to me. I believe that there’s a kind of knowledge that you get only when you’re wrist-deep in the guts of a subject, not just watching it and scribbling about it from the edges. It’s the difference, to me, between studying a subject and living it. So when the kids and I undertook a short unit on Christopher Columbus, we read about him and wrote about him, we discussed the repercussions of his actions, we visited life-sized recreations of the Nina and Pinta, we drew a giant chalk Atlantic Ocean on the driveway and marked the ships’ sailing route, we had a Columbus Dinner with all foods boat-shaped or ocean-themed (that was just silliness, but it was fun!...
I saw these adorable page corner bookmarks from Oh Crafts and had to make some of my own. I thought they would be perfect for children who are back in school or even college students. Grab your junk mail envelopes and make some of your own eco-friendly bookmarks! What You Will Need: Junk mail envelope Ruler or straight edge Pencil Scissors Optional: Markers, magazines, or other items to decorate your bookmark....
Have you ever started a project, and it just gets gigantic by the end? A few weeks ago, we decided to rearrange the furniture in our living room, replacing a giant, 3-piece entertainment center with a smaller situation that wouldn’t look so looming in there. When we took the old one apart, it turned out that each piece on its own was super awesome! The base is now a window seat in my office, the top piece makes a perfect long shoe rack for the hallway, and the middle piece was just right for a kitchen sideboard....
This post is as much about tips on sewing an applique quilt as it is a “how to.” There is no mystery to quilting but these are some helpful hints that might make your life easier if you are using the applique method. If you want to know how to use the “piece together” method, check out this t-shirt memory quilt tutorial. Depending on how many pieces of items you have, you can determine what kind of method to use....
Like I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Buy Handmade: Jewelry Ideas for Mother’s Day, Mother’s day is right around the corner! To make my mom’s day a little bit more special, I wanted to make her a brooch that she could wear all day long. I came across Bargain Bound’s tutorial on how to make Sheet Music Flowers and thought I would combine it with Oh Happy Day’s tutorial about DIY Paper Flower Corsages....
Got a few too many little toys? I do! I don’t know how my kids ended up with SO many little toy dinosaurs and horses and action figures and army people (okay, I DO know…the answer is Goodwill), but I do know that they have more, and I mean powerfully, shamefully more, than they need. The kids aren’t yet ready to give up a single critter from their 5,000 plastic critter collection, but I do hate the sight of toys that never get played with (did The Velveteen Rabbit scar YOU, too?...
Therefore, I’ve become pretty dang familiar with the kinds of pictures that people are happy to thrift with their frames. Posters, of course. “Cute” sayings. Awkward family photos. Amateur oil paintings. Cross stitch pictures, made with love by some loved one somewhere, professionally matted and framed. That last one gets me every time. Mind you, I don’t cross stitch myself, and I don’t enjoy the kinds of landscapes or flower gardens or teddy bears in overalls that compose many of these donated finds....
Recycling paper is good, but reusing it – especially when that reuse means you’re not buying something new – is even better. If you’ve gotten a package recently, get it ready for crafting. Find out how to reuse brown packing paper below! There are basically two ways to flatten out brown packing paper, and which method you choose depends on how fancy you want to get. Both techniques for how to reuse brown packing paper are below!...
We love to entertain and hate to toss out anything that might prove useful later on. Of course, what that means is quite a little collection of empty wine bottles and the corks to match. Luckily, it’s time to get our summer garden planted, and our bottle and cork collection might just pay off! How to Reuse Wine Bottles in the Garden If you’ve got a sizable collection of empties, you might consider using them to line a raised garden bed....
Do you have warping and stretching problems when you’re sewing jersey? Here’s how to sew knit fabric with a simple stabilizing trick! Today’s tutorial was supposed to be how to make super adorable springtime legwarmers for your baby, but due to some measuring problems and a stomach bug, that project didn’t shake out so well. Seriously, it was an utter fail, but I’m going to give it another whirl next time I have a tee that needs refashioning....
Let’s get crafty in the kitch! This iced tea vodka is all natural, and you can control how sweet or unsweet it is. I keep seeing sweet tea vodka at the store and sort of feeling like a bad southerner for passing it by. Especially since I’m a southerner who makes cocktails as part of my job. I have a couple of concerns about store-bought iced tea vodkas: They seem like they will be way too sweet....
