Crafting a Green World

Even more than a celebration of our nation’s birth (which I could take or leave, frankly), in our town, at least Independence Day is a celebration of our community culture. Between the fish fry, the farmer’s market, the Fourth of July parade, and the fireworks, I’ve got plenty of opportunities to show off my craftiness as well as my festive spirit.

The best crafts, in my opinion, are thematically appropriate (red, white, and blue, you know) without being too slavish (the flag isn’t for wearing, my friends) or too country (denim is best if it’s ironic).

And, of course, the best project has to be eco-friendly–what’s up with craft foam, anyway? It’s like wool felt for anti-environmentalists(not that I’m automatically a fan of wool felt, mind you–it comes from sheep).

Anyway, here are five 4th of July projects that satisfy my own discerning tastes AND are quite able to be completed by the big day. Fireworks away! Read the rest of this entry »

I know, I know–most of these holidays are just ploys by greeting card companies to get us to buy stuff. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day–it’s a plot by Hallmark to get me to spend my hard-earned money on a bunch of nonsense.

I have two little kids, though, and a loving partner. There’s no WAY I’m giving up the glory of Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, and heck, I’ll do my part on Father’s Day, too. And it is nice to have a sanctioned event handy to remind us to honor and celebrate our loved ones, to demonstrate our gratitude and appreciation of them. Especially when we’re honoring mothers. As in me.

Everyone in my family knows, though, that I only like gifts that are 1) handmade, 2) food (especially if it’s also homemade), 3) camera stuff, or 4) craft supplies. And nobody hardly ever gets me camera stuff.

So here’s a list of five nifty, crafty, handmade gifts that you can make in plenty of time for Mother’s Day. Just in case, you know, you don’t have a good camera store near you: Read the rest of this entry »

Or newspaper. Or sheet music. Or parchment paper. Or wrapping paper. Or napkins. Or old scrapbook paper. Or crinkled aluminum foil. Or pre-colored coloring book pages.

Anything that you can cut a heart out of or paint a heart on, you can make into a Valentine.

Make your Valentine out of yarn. Or twine. Or twigs. Or hair. Or selvage. Or dried beans. Or dirt. Or ribbon. Or chain. Read the rest of this entry »

We’re in the process of making a long-distance move here at my house, from Northern Idaho to Central Oregon.  With that comes a lot of random pieces of clothing, old towels, or scraps of fabric that we don’t want to throw away, but aren’t in good enough shape to send off to Goodwill.  I was grasping for something to do with these scraps when the idea hit me like a ton of bricks… Make a rag rug!  They’re easy to make, and they’re a good way to use all these random pieces without letting them go to waste.

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Recycle This is an amazing blog about how to reuse and recycle anything. Just ask the question. Recently, a question about marbles came up and I had to tune in.

Some of the reader ideas and creative suggestions included:

gathering them up for a backyard project by placing them for stepping stones outside for a colorful zen garden.

using a huge washing-up bowl with loads of marbles, filling it with hot water, essential oils and soaking your feet for a footsie massage by rolling them over the marbles.

Any more more suggestions? Read the rest of this entry »

Now that you know what to do with your packing peanuts and greeting cards, what about that wrapping paper? Did you throw it out? No, of course not! But what do you do with it now that the gifts are unwrapped and the holidays are over?

Well hopefully you are a careful unwrapper, like myself. I exude extreme restraint when I denude any gifts. Not only do I want to know what’s inside, but I also want the paper, too. Even if you aren’t as a restrained unwrapper, you can still salvage the paper and reuse it in many many crafty ways.

If your paper is a bit crinkly or has seems from its previously held shape, you can easily flatten the paper out using your iron. Set it on low and place a towel between the paper and the iron. Check it often because you don’t want to burn the house down!

Once you have your flattened paper you can now use it in so many different ways:

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As the holidays start to wind down, I’ve taken a look around my house and realized that I have a lot of left over things that accompany all the gift giving. One of the bigger boxes that was shipped to me was packed with those pesky peanuts. Having no idea what to do with them, I started poking around for some ideas on what to do with my snowy, sticky, new friends.

Since I don’t work in an office, How to Fill an Office with Packing Peanuts seems out. Which is too bad because it looks like an awesome prank!

The next best thing to do with them, if you don’t have an office to pull off the prank, is to use them for what they were made for in the first place - packing! Sentimental Holiday ornaments and decorations can be safe and snug for the next year when you reuse the peanuts as you put away these things.

Use them loose or wrap them in newspaper so they don’t go flying everywhere. Gently nestle the more breakable pieces and feel secure in knowing that they will be safe until you pull them out next year.

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Over the Summer on our sister site Feel Good Style, we shared the book Simply Green Parties by Danny Seo, and now for the winter holidays I’m pleased to present his classic book on green gift wrap.

Pictured here is the cover of Simply Green Giving: Create Beautiful Gift Wrapping, Tags and Handmade Treasures from Everyday Materials. The how-to manual on eco gift wrap includes:

“clever ways to recycle ribbon, cards and paper from presents people give you. Last, but not least, there are gorgeous last-minute gift ideas that don’t look like an afterthought and are gifts people will actually love.

A few highlights:

* Use an old cardboard globe as a gift basket
* Use colorful wood cigar boxes as handsome gift boxes for homebaked treats
* Recycle old books into a ring boxs

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As the holidays are solidly upon us, I am finally feeling a little bit relieved that it is almost over. I took the handmade pledge, made the majority of my gifts, or bought handmade for the rest. I, again, underestimated the amount of time it would take me to get everything accomplished and ended up spending an arm and a leg on shipping, but my stress level has subsided.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the holidays. Figuring out gifts and baking an insane amount is actually fun, but takes a lot of coordination. So I wanted to give you another option for your gift giving. The gift of time.

It is the ultimate in green giving. No purchase necessary. It doesn’t consume resources. It even thwarts the consumerism that is so prevalent during this season. All’s it requires is for you to craft some room in that super busy over-scheduled life of yours.

I didn’t say it would be easy.

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With the holidays continuing their slow march up the calendar, I know that many of you will be hitting the road to visit friends and family. This shouldn’t mean that you have to leave your craft behind. Here are some tips to make your travels more craft friendly.

Pack it to go - Grab one of your tote bags and start adding all your crafting accessories needed for your current project. For my knitting projects, I keep a small zippered pouch stocked with small scissors, a tape measure, darning needle and stitch marker. I throw that in along with my yarn, needles and my pattern.

In the air - Knitting needles, small scissors under 4 inches, and sewing needles are permitted in carry on luggage. TSA recommends that your knitting needles be made of plastic or wood/bamboo, but metal needles are permitted. They urge caution if for some reason your supplies could be constituted as weapons, and suggest you bring a self addressed stamped envelope in case your items need to be shipped, but I’ve never had an issue.

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