It’s super-quick. If I want to give a loved one a couple of bars of cold-process soap for Christmas, I’d better make it in October. If I want to give a loved one vegetable glycerin soap for Christmas, it’s done in two hours (with about five minutes of hands-on time, most of that being prep work). My three-year-old and five-year-old, with me around to actually melt and pour, can make a really nice present for the adults in their lives....
Have you ever wanted to start a new art practice or craft hobby and wished that instead of having to spend a ton of money to stock up on brand-new supplies, you could just find someone else who wants to get rid of those exact supplies and make them a deal? Have you ever wanted to work with an unconventional material, like pill bottles or architectural blueprints or 1980s greeting cards, but you don’t know where to source it?...
The musk ox is a large gentle creature similar in weight and stature to a buffalo. They have large curved horns and long shaggy hair and are more closely related to goats and sheep than to oxen. I first fell in love with these animals when I was researching the arctic a while back for work. For those of you that have watched the Planet Earth series you know how cute they are....
As with any new exercise, please be cautious and consult your doctor before trying anything too terribly strenuous. To kick things off, let’s take a look at common aches and pain that jewelers experience. That’s right, jewelry-making friends! I feel your pain. You know what I mean: that achy lower back, sore neck, and stiff hands after a marathon crafting session. Here are some poses just for you. Your Aching Back All of that hunching over does a number on your back....
We’re right smack in the middle of Fall festival season, and I’ve been sewing up a storm! All that time hunched over the cutting table and sewing machine is definitely taking its toll on my body, and I’m sure I’m not the only crafter that suffers aches and pains after a crafting marathon. Rather than pop a couple of ibuprofen this year, I’m trying to relieve my muscles a little more naturally with yoga poses that target parts of my body that take the most abuse during this time of year....
It may not technically be summer yet, but tell that to the school district. Here in Atlanta, school is out, and that means lots of mom-and-kiddo time. This calls for an arsenal of summer crafts for toddlers to keep those baby hands busy (and, preferably, messy!) all summer long. 15 Recycled Summer Crafts for Toddlers Binoculars – This is a great project for a huge age range. Julie has made it with her older girls, and I’ve made them with my toddler and the other kids in his preschool....
We rely on a LOT of cat toys, treats, puzzles, and other cat enrichment around here. Cat enrichment is so important to the physical and emotional well-being of your cats. Don’t let your tiny hunters suffer from boredom; instead, check out this list of my favorite cat enrichment items below, and make your best friend their new favorite toy! corrugated cardboard box cat scratcher. Cats LOVE sharpening their claws on corrugated cardboard....
Kids LOVE to do arts and crafts and sensory activities of all sorts, and when you can make the supplies yourself (usually for a lot cheaper than you can buy them!), it’s easy to indulge your miniature Cassatts and Rembrandts. Check out these tutorials for tons of DIY art supplies that your kids are going to enjoy creating with: Chalk. Make your own sidewalk chalk! 2. Cinnamon dough. Bake this delicious-smelling play dough, and it will keep nearly forever....
Make the most out of that old Mason jar, spaghetti sauce jar, or jam jar with these awesome jar lid crafts! 1. air freshener. Grab a hammer and nails and make your house smell awesome. 2. chalkboard price tag. Fancy up your next craft fair or yard sale! 3. coasters. Wide-mouthed Mason jar lids will fit most beverages. 4. container candle. Use the vintage zinc canning lids, as they’re deeper....
I was happily doing coloring pages long before adult coloring was a thing. You can call me retro, or call me a dork–I don’t care, because coloring is fun! One thing, though? Once you’ve filled in that beautiful coloring page, especially if you’ve really taken your time AND used your nicest art supplies… then what? Recycle it? Stick it to the fridge for a few weeks and then recycle it?...
And so, just as one of my kids has been embroidering on her T-shirts and my other kid has been appliqueing cool stuff onto tote bags, I have turned my eyes back to a craft that it usually only occurs to me to work on when the weather gets cool. I am going to have SO MANY QUILTS ready by the time winter rolls around this year! Star quilts are especially fun to sew....
They have green glue, acrylic paints, stamps, pigment dyes, recycled paper mache items and more. The store popped up when I did a “green crafts” search. I was pleasantly surprised to find a newcomer to the word of green craft supplies. The store doesn’t have a huge selection (yet?) but they have some basics including glue, paint, digital kits, board books, glass glintz, pigment inks and dyes, and artist mediumslike eco clay, artist spackle, gloss artist medium and matte artist medium....
My roommate bought Altoids’ new Smalls mints and I begged her to let me have the adorable little tin once she was finished enjoying the mints! With Christmas right around the corner, I’ve been trying to come up with eco-friendly ways to give gifts this year. We’ve shared DIY Gift Wrap Ideas and Five Sustainable Wrapping Solutions for Eco-Friendly Gifts, but what about ways to wrap small gifts? Plus, I love when the wrapping is just as cute as the gift!...
We love green craft supplies around here, and we talk about how to find green craft supplies quite a bit. What we don’t often dive into are the toxic chemicals you’re avoiding when you choose natural craft supplies. Here are seven common toxic chemicals that might be lurking in your crafty stash. 7 Toxic Chemicals in Craft Supplies 1. VOCs Short for volatile organic compounds, these nasty chemicals are solvents used in making products like glues and paints....
Did your favorite board game box crash and burn? Yeah, mine, too. Here’s how to make your own board game storage to replace it. We love games, especially sustainability-related games like GBO Hawaii. Sometimes we may love them too much! So when that box falls apart, your board games still deserve a better fate than being shoved, unprotected, on a shelf, its pieces stuck in junky Ziplock bags. You need sturdy board game storage!...
Crafting with old books is controversial in the upcycling world. Any time that we share old book crafts, we get at least a couple of comments from folks calling shenanigans. What I love about Brian Dettmer’s book crafts is that his pieces pay homage to what was originally inside the book. Dettmer describes his work as “sort of a remix, in a way.” He doesn’t make collages or move pages around....
I LOVED my antique card catalogue from the second that I saw it in my local university’s surplus store, but I have to admit that it did look pretty janky. Someone had half torn out most of the awesome labels, and scrawled messily across the ones that they didn’t tear– –there were scratches and scuffs across one side, where it had clearly been transported with little care, and worst of all, whoever first purchased this card catalogue had chosen a model with a white laminate exterior around the solid wood catalogue drawers–yuck!...
Empty cardboard toilet paper rolls are one thing that everyone seems to have. My kids love to play with them to make binoculars and all sorts of fun playthings. I have found several creative ways to transform toilet paper rolls. Favor boxes for special occasions and parties are one way to put them to good use. Anyone can easily take empty rolls and turn them into fun party favors, especially for Halloween....
I spent basically all of last week battling a horrendous ick: fever chills, watery eyes, and (of course) an endlessly runny nose. From what I’ve been hearing, this has been one of the worst cold and flu seasons in years, and that means a lot of paper tissues headed straight to the landfill. I know, handkerchiefs aren’t a sexy topic, but when you’re blowing your nose approximately every 45 seconds, I think it’s an important one to talk about....
Seeing such amazing wildlife just reinforced why I care so much about this planet and why we need to find a balance between people and wildlife. It solidified in my mind just how precarious that balance is and how precious clean air, water and land really is. Like a typical tourist, I spent some time perusing gift shops at various points of interest throughout the park. I was taken aback by the amount of well, stuff, to put it politely, that I found in them....
