My dining room table unfortunately becomes a dumping ground for all my “stuff.” This week, I decided that it was time for a change. Here are 5 items (that you probably have around your home) that can help you create an easy and eco-friendly centerpiece that rocks! 1. Recycled paper I first layered sheet music pages in a circle on the middle of the table. I was inspired by this book page table runner from Ruffled Blog....
Here in the U.S., we’re predicted to spend over $7 billion on Halloween this year. That’s billion. And most of what we’re buying is not so great for the planet. This year, use your crafty prowess to have a greener, kinder Halloween. From candy linked to child slavery to single-use decorations that head straight to the landfill on November 1st, Halloween has a dark side that goes beyond ghosts and goulies....
So what’s my cure? I start spring cleaning early. Starting early gives me plenty of time to sort and decide where everything is going to go. If I wait for spring then it’ll be time to work in my garden and a thorough cleaning won’t get done. This extra time also let’s me clean and sort in an eco-conscious and creative way. To begin, I sort through everything and make three piles:...
One of the trickiest parts of running a crafty business is finding eco-friendly promotional materials that are within your budget. That’s why I was super excited when UPrinting – the sponsors of this giveaway – approached us about their eco-friendlier business cards printing by UPrinting. UPrinting uses soy-based inks and 55 percent recycled paper in their business cards, and they’re offering up a pack of 250 cards with free shipping to one lucky Crafting a Green World reader!...
The reason being that this seems to be one of the few holiday-related retail opportunities that the UK hasn’t latched onto yet – and from what I’ve learnt I really hope we don’t. Don’t get me wrong, we certainly know how to create seasonal waste – the amount of packaging for the millions of chocolate Easter eggs lining the shelves is obscene. Undeterred though by my initial ignorance, I turned to the internet where I came across this article on the aptly named Geeky Housewife promising 50 uses for plastic eggs....
Textile designers Lara Cameron, Bianca van Meeuwen, and Tegan Rose run Melbourne-based Ink and Spindle. Co-owner Tegan says the three of them “came together after discovering we shared a common interest & passion for textiles, design, the handmade & the environment.” On top of printing their own designs for sale on eco-friendly fabrics with solvent-free inks, they offer printing services for folks looking to design their own sustainable fabrics! At Ink and Spindle, they print all of their fabric as sustainably as they can, because, as Tegan says: They knew from the outset that they didn’t want their company to be another in the conventional, “usually very toxic, textile industry....
We’re big fans of Harmony Art around here. Harmony Susalla’s organic cotton prints are gorgeous, and she runs a sustainable business to boot! Since we last checked in with Harmony, she’s put out tons of new designs and has switched from organic cotton to fair trade organic cotton for several of their sateens. Not only that, Harmony says: Let’s hear it for a fabric business that gives back! You don’t get much more fab than that....
This week, my friend asked me to help her decorate for a baby shower that her family is hosting. Of course, I am super excited to help create one-of-a-kind decorations that are inexpensive and eco-friendly! Instead of using new fabric, though, I went to my local thrift store and bought old pillowcases and curtains in the colors that the mom-to-be wanted (brown, teal, and pink). Here’s how you can make your own upcycled fabric banner!...
That’s great for people reading this blog and other green crafting blogs, but large scale change is going to require many, many crafters demanding organic and other earth-friendly products. If all the products are sequestered in little green boutiques, that’s going to be a slow process. What about the crafters who aren’t reading this blog? Do they know these products exist? Have any of these products gone mainstream? I went on a hunt through some of the biggest mainstream fabric shops’ websites to find out....
What You Will Need: Recycled paper. I used book pages. 2. Recycled cardboard 3. Hot glue/hot glue gun Twine. If you can, use hemp twine— it’s more eco-friendly! Scissors A hole punch A pencil How To Do It: Create two patterns– one for the top of your acorn and one for the bottom. I pulled up this acorn image from Little Acorn Learning on my computer screen, put my recycled paper up to the screen, and gently traced it....
In my opinion there’s only one perk to the hot, humid and sticky summer weather – FIREFLIES! When the sun starts to go down and the humidity is high, that’s the perfect time to see the beautiful flicker of these amazing insects. Just about every kid wants to catch ’em and keep them as pets in a jar. But we all know how that ends. Instead, build them a nice place to hang out for a few hours – like a five star firefly hotel....
The First Runner Up is Becky, a loyal fan of Crafting A Green World and a wonderfully obsessed crafter who writes the blog Sew & So. Becky’s upcycle fashion is totally awesome cause she is willing to experiment with some really super fugly clothes and manages to resuscitate life back into their once doomed future. Her ability to take a way out of style bridesmaid’s dress belonging to her mom and turn it into this adorable cocktail dress rocks!...
“But what’s a hip bouquet?” you ask. Stephanie describes her creation: Stephanie is a photographer but has always been into crafting as a way to explore new ideas. She says she’s drawn to vintage and recycled materials “because it seems like a found treasure.” The history and uniqueness of vintage and reused materials really speak to her. A lot of Stephanie’s inspiration comes from her dreams. She says that her time asleep “is time for my mind to work on secret projects....
You’d think that I’d be a fan of traditional craft kits, but I am not. The average craft kit that you buy in a big-box store for your kid contains a ridiculous amount of waste, from the giant cardboard box that it comes in to the plastic baggies around every separate component of the kit to the parts themselves, often plastic or “foam” (also plastic). Yuck! It’s refreshing, then, to play with the kits from Green Kid Crafts, which ARE eco-friendly....
The exhibit is an annual look at the goings on in the fields of architecture, products, fashion, graphics, and more. In Why Design Now? the ever present beat of sustainability and environmental awareness is shown to have permeated all if these disciplines. If you’ve ever been to an art exhibit at a museum or gallery, you see the work neatly displayed on clean, crisp walls with accompanying wall text. But did you know that each show requires freshly painted walls, possibly new built walls to accomodate the amount of art, new wall text done in vinyl lettering or printed posters, and catalogues of the work printed in book form and sold in the gift shop?...
Tired of always having the same old neckline on every single T-shirt? Fortunately, the neckline of a T-shirt is the easiest thing to alter. You can create tons of different looks, it’s super quick and easy to do, and it doesn’t require any sewing skills! All you really need, in fact, is a pair of great scissors, a T-shirt to play victim, and a brave heart and bold hand. For this particular T-shirt (a T-shirt that I altered to fit already), I used a pair of pinking shears to cut off the ribbing completely, significantly widening the neckline....
What You Will Need: 2 large pieces of recycled cardboard Low VOC spray paint A guitar or an image of a guitar that you can trace Other paint that you can splatter (tempera paint works great!) Scissors A paint brush How To Do It: With one piece of your recycled cardboard, trace a guitar or an image of a guitar onto the cardboard. Then, cut it out. (Tip: If music isn’t your thing, you could also trace/cut out another image like scissors, tools, or even silverware....
Graduation time is here! Cards are so expensive to buy and are such a waste because most people throw them away. Instead, make your own from materials you already have! What You Will Need: One small square of paper. I used some left over yellow scrapbook paper. Scrapbook paper isn’t the greenest craft supply, so consider using recycled paper like sheet music, book pages, or magazines. You can also check out some recycled scrapbook paper like the Green Stack Collection, Eco-Friendly Recycled Scrapbook Paper, and Recycled Kraft Paper for Scrapbooking....
Your stash of felt scraps is perfect for whipping up crafty accessories. Here’s how to make a pinwheel brooch using a couple of pieces of scrap felt and a vintage button. I’m on a recycled felt crafting kick these days! Last week, it was a peacock fascinator, and this week I dipped into the old felt stash again to whip up a sweet, little pinwheel brooch. All you need to make a pinwheel brooch are:...
