Published on June 26th, 2008
Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.
Mmmmm. Alpaca. Can anyone get enough of super soft and sweet alpaca yarn? It feels like a dream to knit up and your finished product is warm and cuddly.
Frog Tree, another one of those great companies like Be Sweet and Conserve, supplies wonderful hand spun alpaca yarns. Their mission is “to supply meaningful and continuous work to various artisans and non-profit groups.”
Their alpaca yarn is made by a non-profit cooperative based in Bolivia, who also trains women to make hand knit items made from the yarn. Their yarn has become so popular that they needed to expand their cooperative to Peru.
Read the rest of this entry »
Published on June 16th, 2008
Raise your hand if you’re like me and have an overflowing bag of plastic shopping bags?
Ok, good. That’s just about everyone.
Raise your hand if you try and reuse them for random things like other trash bags and carrying lunch to work?
Great! I think that’s still a good chunk of you.
Now, raise your hand if you still have all these bags and still don’t know what to do with them but refuse to throw them away?
Yup, that’s what I thought.
Well you’re in luck because this week I am going to explore a bit about what to do with all those plastic bags. I’ve already told you about Conserve, a wonderful company that employs rag pickers in India to pick up plastic bags and then uses the bags to create the most amazing purses and totes. I’ve always wondered how to make bags out of plastic and knew that it involved fusing plastic together, but that’s about it. So I started to do a bit of research into what it take to do it yourself.
From the looks of these three tutorials it seems pretty simple. All you really need to fuse plastic are your plethora of plastic bags, an iron, freezer paper, parchment paper or other scrap paper, and a well ventilated area.
Read the rest of this entry »
Published on June 11th, 2008
I found Smelly Chick’s Online Soapmaking Resource the other day, because they had blogged about my seed packet tutorial. Interestingly enough, the site includes “tutorials, soap porn, industry news, and more”.
Now, the term “yarn porn” is often thrown around in the craft world. In fact, you are reading a blog post by the proud owner of knittingwhorehouse.com (I collect domain names with the loftiest of intentions). But… “Soap Porn”? Smelly Chicks, you asked for it, and I’m going to goat’s milk this for all it’s worth. Ahem… Read the rest of this entry »
Published on May 5th, 2008
Cork is just one of those materials that I never give much thought to. It just keeps my wine fresh and makes a great organizational board. Lately, however, I have seen cork popping up more and more on Etsy and discovered that it is actually a great environmentally friendly product. Here is what I learned:
Cork is harvested from the outer layer of bark of the Cork Oak tree found mostly in the Mediterranean. The bark is harvested every ten years, with each harvest producing a softer batch of cork. By keeping these trees in production, they provide homes to wildlife in about 1800 acres of cork forests and provides many jobs to the people of who harvest the cork by hand. Cork is also 100% recyclable! Of course they can be used for these cool crafts, but companies like Yemm & Hart also collect donated wine corks to make products like tile flooring. This sustainability and ability to recycle make cork an environmentally conscious crafting choice!
These images are just a few cork crafts I discovered on Etsy! Check out their shops for even more!
- Classic Chair Cork Coasters from Annacote
- Cork Beehive Brooch from Ottoman
- The UN-DIamond Cork Ring from Uncorked
Tell me about your cork crafts in a comment!
Published on April 28th, 2008
I couldn’t believe my eyes! Did I just see this recycled Capri Sun bag at Target? In amongst the pretty floral and pleather handbags, there they were, in all their green-crafted glory…recycled Capri Sun tote bags - at Target! Wow, green craft is really going mainstream. I had a vision of a young indie crafter, sitting on a mountain of money, drunk on Capri Sun, tied to her sewing machine cranking these bad-boys out. After some research though, I learned the real story and how we can help. TerraCycle, Capri Sun and Honest Kids have teamed up to help prevent the billions of juice packs that Americans drink each year from ending up in a land fill. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on April 21st, 2008
Earth Day is tomorrow and it is bound to be the most celebrated yet! It’s time to celebrate all of the accomplishments the green movement has made and to think about all that is left to do. This year, why not make some new Earth Day traditions to insure that the day will be fun and educational for our crafty kidlets, family and friends?
There are a lot of resources on the web to help you plan your events. Kaboose is a family centered website with a whole section dedicated to celebrating Earth Day with the family. My favorite part, of course, are the crafts. This site has detailed instructions for creative recycled material crafts you can do on Earthday or any day! Some of my favorites projects include the coffee ground fossils, recycled crayon earth ornaments, and toothbrush bracelets. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on April 14th, 2008
Everyday I come across something on Etsy that surprises and gets me excited about the endless recycled craft possibilities. This week I came across reiter8, a upcycling crafter from Brooklyn that takes sailboat sails that would otherwise go to the dump and creates bags and pillows out of the canvas. The designer came up with this idea while visiting her mother in Maine. After taking notice of the strong canvas material that made up the sails on a boat, she realized that this material would make a sturdy alternative material for bags and pillows all while saving them from going to landfils. Reiter8 takes full advantage of all of the different stitching styles Read the rest of this entry »
Published on April 9th, 2008
My friend, Nicole, from Freshly Blended Press, is amazing with recycling wallpaper. She uses all those old wallpaper swatchbooks for material that would otherwise be thrown away . All of the wallpaper is used exquisitly for the covers of her wallpaper journals seen here.
So, next time you come across wallpaper scraps think twice before tossing them out.
Nicole also donates part of her profits to The Humane Society.
Published on March 31st, 2008
Craft show season is almost upon us! Rejoice! It’s finally time to gather all your supplies and get ready to spend some hot summer days at shows selling your wares. Luckily, crafter extraordinaire Jen Menkhaus just told me about Treecycle, a company dedicated to education and access to environmentally friendly products. This site is great for crafters because they carry a huge supply of recycled paper bags, shipping boxes, jewelry boxes and more! In addition to a ton of products, Treecycle also has a huge page of links to offer information on environmental issues. In case you need reason to buy recycled products from Treecycle, they share this lovely list to explain how it helps… Read the rest of this entry »
Published on March 26th, 2008
Debra Roby, crafts editor at women’s blogging mega-site BlogHer, has been all over the green crafting topic this month. As part of the BlogHer series “Healthy Body, Healthy Mind, Healthy Wallet,” Deb is highlighting green and thrifty ways to get your craft on.
First, in Recycled Crafts: Recycling Crafters of Etsy, she lists some of her favorite Etsy shops that use recycled materials. As commenters point out, this is quite dangerous, because it may not be physically possible to visit Etsy and not buy something. My favorite one of her finds is RePlayGround!, with the tagline “Garbage has feelings too!” RePlayGround! has a shop, but they also have instructions for DIY projects and recycling kits like the bottle lamp kit pictured here. They supply the hardware, you supply the bottles, and let there be light. Read the rest of this entry »
