Published on March 9th, 2010
Easter is right around the corner ready to hop into your homes.
Are you ready? Have you considered having an Eco- Easter?
Forget the throwaway baskets, the terrible un-eco plastic grass, and cheap little plastic toys that are broken and trashed before the day is over. This year consider being green and offering your children fun, quality toys and products that are eco-friendly and that can be enjoyed for much longer that a day or two.
Stubby Pencil Studio (www.stubbypencilstudio.com) is a one stop shop for eco-friendly arts and crafts supplies for kids. They also have games and small toys; all made with ethical and eco materials.
They have offered to give away a wonderful Eco-Easter Basket to one lucky winner. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on January 27th, 2010
Valentine’s day will be here before we know it, and if you want to do the whole thing handmade, it might be time to start planning! Here are some awesome recycled projects to get you going:
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Published on January 26th, 2010
Browsing through my local library’s green section I recently came across A Greener Christmas
. Wow! I really wish I would have had this book at Christmas. What a great book filled with crafts and recipes to bring back the old fashioned feeling of a true Christmas, not a glitzy glammy one.
I have discovered several ideas in the book that can easily be transformed to fit Valentine’s Day so I don’t have to wait almost a whole year to put any of these nifty ideas into use. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on January 16th, 2010
You might think that this is a Christmas project–they are ornaments, after all–but for one thing, my girls and I were waaaay too busy before Christmas making presents and the really uber-Christmassy projects (made-from-scratch gingerbread house, anyone?) to have time for something festive but not necessarily thematic. And for another thing, our part of the midwest doesn’t start to get really cold, like weeks at a time below freezing cold, until after the new year, and for this project, you want a consistent few days under freezing to enjoy your work.
So for us, this is a nice winter project to do anytime it’s cold enough. It adds some decoration into a yard bare of flowers and most of its greenery, and depending on what you use, will become a handy natural dispenser for either birdseed or self-sown wildflower seeds. Here’s how to make it:
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Published on December 30th, 2009
I didn’t get to make as many handmade gifts as I had planned but I still made a few. Here’s a bit of my handmade holiday show offs.
I made my mother another memory shadow box out of items I found in my grandparents old stuff. This one matches the one I made for her last year. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on December 27th, 2009
[Recycled Ornament Tree based on a tutorial from Indie Fixx]
The gifts are all gifted, and maybe the ambitious among you have even recycled your Christmas tree already. Here’s your chance to show off all of your holiday hard work! We’d love to see your handmade gifts and decor. Feel free to share away in the comments!
Pictured above are what several of my pals got this year: jars of curried lentil soup mix. Here’s how you make it:
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Published on December 23rd, 2009
I tend to have philosophies about things. I have a green crafting manifesto, a strict definition of appropriate children’s clothing, a teaching philosophy and a course philosophy both detailed on my freshman composition syllabus, and, of course, a gift-giving philosophy–one for adults and one for children, one for holidays and one for birthday parties.
It can sometimes be kind of tiring, mentally, to be me.
However, to focus–for holiday gifts given to adults by my children, I prefer 1) that they be primarily handmade by the children, and 2) that they function as workable gifts on their own. The adults should appreciate and like the gifts, and find a place for them, because of the gifts themselves, not just the fact that the gifts came from my own clever and adorable children.
Oh, and my kids are three and five years old; this can be a challenge. Within those criteria, here are five projects that work: Read the rest of this entry »
Published on December 23rd, 2009
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!
This is the very last installment of the 2009 Handmade Holidays, and we’d love to hear from you! Tell us all about your handmade holiday adventures!
Christmas is just a couple of days away, and if you’re anything like me you’re pulling together a few last-minute gifts for the folks on your list. In case you’re feeling stumped, here are a few ideas for you!
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Published on December 13th, 2009
I’ve given handmade gifts to family and friends for years now, but I never before really cared all that much about how they were wrapped.
My biggest accomplishments were wrapping a box in the comics page from the newspaper (I know–how original) or in a brown paper bag turned inside out to hide the logo.
If I was feeling extra-inspired, perhaps I’d have my girls draw decorations on the brown paper bag or newspaper, but that was about it.
This year, however, I’m feeling inspired to make my gifts’ wrappings as beautiful as the gifts themselves. Perhaps it’s because my budget is tighter than ever (not only am I crafting all my gifts, but I’m crafting them solely from STASH), and so I want the outside to be extra-pretty to make up for it, or perhaps it’s just a new outlet for my crafty mindset.
Either way, you can play, too! Read the rest of this entry »
Published on December 12th, 2009
I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas: Gifts, Decorations, and Recipes that Use Less and Mean More by Anna Getty is a great book that covers how to green Christmas better than any other book I’ve read on the subject in the way that if offers tons of hands-on advice and projects, and that’s what I love most- the DIY projects and crafts.
I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas is full of tips, expert advice, crafts, recipes, decorating ideas and pretty much everything you need to make the holidays more eco-friendly. Read the rest of this entry »
