20 DIY Advent Calendars and Holiday Countdowns
DIY Advent calendars are a great way to keep my personal commitment to handmade while still having fun indulging in those daily little treats and novelties that I love so well.
40 Free Thanksgiving Printables for Easy Holiday Decoration
Thanksgiving printables make last-minute holiday decorating easier, while still keeping everything eco-friendly!
Two Dozen Thanksgiving Food Crafts
Thanksgiving food crafts let you get crafty for the holiday without adding a ton of junk to the waste stream.
There is so much going on, food-wise, for Thanksgiving that adding a whole other component of holiday decorating–much less the crafting required to make those decorations!–can sometimes just be too much.
30 Upcycled Cardboard Things to Build and Play With
Cardboard is a magical material. It’s free from your recycling bin, it’s easily modified and embellished, and it’s eminently recyclable when you’re done with it. It’s one of my personal favorite crafting materials, and it’s my absolute favorite material to give to young people to craft with.
20 Free Halloween Printables for an Eco-Friendly Holiday
Halloween printables, printed in an eco-friendly manner, are an easy way to upscale your holiday!
Three Dozen Free Halloween Quilt Patterns
Whether you want to go ham just for October, or you keep your dark academic decor out all year, there are so many fun and festive Halloween quilts to sew!
DIY Embroidered Cardboard Ornaments
So whether you’re obsessed with soothing symmetry like me, or you like to make your stitching free-form or representative, you can stitch the design of your dreams onto these embroidered cardboard ornaments. Here’s how!
Here’s the Best DIY Upcycled Cardboard Building Set
This upcycled cardboard building set is a terrific open-ended toy that won’t cost you a cent!
DIY Corrugated Cardboard Tower of Hanoi
This Tower of Hanoi is NOT made from plastic! Instead, it’s made from that likely-looking piece of corrugated cardboard hanging out there in your recycling bin. Cut it up, add some decorations, and you’ll have yourself a brand-new version of a 140-year-old logic game.
DIY Upcycled Cardboard Polyominoes
You don’t need another set of plastic game pieces kicking around your home, though. Instead, here’s how to make any set of polyominoes that you want from sturdy, upcycled, recyclable cardboard.
18 DIY Plant Hangers That You Can Make at Home
Do you, too, have too many plants and seemingly too little space? I can fix that!
Here’s How to Make an Easy Macrame Plant Hanger
This easy macrame plant hanger makes a comfy home for all your favorite plants!
15 DIY Journals, Sketch Pads, and Other Upcycled Books
These upcycled books are super handy, because you can make them in whatever size, style, and thickness you prefer.
DIY Coloring Book with an Upcycled Cover
I modified my go-to DIY journal with a cover made from upcycled cardboard, and filled it with coloring pages downloaded from the interwebs. It’s exactly what I wanted, and here’s how you can make one, too!
One Dozen Ways to Upcycle Photographs
. I love turning these old photos that I never look at into all-new decorations and utilitarian items, giving them new lives and incorporating those happy memories into even more parts of my home.
Loose Ends Completes Handmade Projects When Their Original Crafters Can’t
Loose Ends makes sure that handmade projects get to their intended recipients when their creators can no longer finish them.
Make Magnets from Any Paper: My Three Favorite Methods
Magnets are a fun and easy way to show off your tiniest art, upcycle your favorite photographs, or display comic book panels, sweet love notes, or pretty papers of all kinds.
Upcycle Photographs into Stickers: Three Methods That Really Work
Here are three easy methods for upcycling print photos (and book pages, wrapping paper… just about any paper works for this!) into stickers, along with the pros and cons of each method.
20 Fabric Bins, Baskets, and Other DIY Storage Solutions
You can DIY quite a lot of storage solutions using stash or scrap fabric as a base. You can make drawstring bags and floppy baskets, sure, but also boxes, bins, cubbies, and all sorts of other handy ways to organize and neatly store your stuff.
Sew Nesting Fabric Baskets from Stash Fabrics
hese nesting fabric baskets give you a lot of storage options. Sew a set in the same colorway from the same fabrics, and they’ll all match each other and your decor. Since they nest, they don’t take up a lot of storage space, but when you need them, you’ve got four whole baskets’ worth of storage!
How to Make the Easiest Sewn Fabric Baskets
These fabric baskets are purposefully a bit on the droopy side, because I don’t like to sew with artificial materials like interfacing. A little interfacing or even cereal box cardboard would firm them up, though, if you prefer that look.
20 Things to Make with a Log Cabin Quilt Block
Because it’s so versatile and can take on so many looks, a log cabin quilt block is a great choice for a ton of fun projects. Here are some of my favorites!
Log Cabin Quilt from Upcycled Denim… And It’s King-Sized!
I roasted while I sewed all that denim and flannel in the smack middle of June, but I’ll be so comfy this winter!
I’ve had this log cabin quilt sewn from upcycled denim in my mind’s eye for a few years, but it’s the embarrassing state of my fabric stash that finally prodded me into action.
Refashion Hoodies by Swapping Their Graphics
Want to resize a hoodie or reclaim an awesome graphic? Refashion your hoodie by swapping its graphic for something different!
Free Patterns from Indie Pattern Companies: Outerwear and Layers
Outerwear can feel like some of the more complicated garments to sew. So many structural elements! So much hardware! So much interfacing and lining and piping and casings!
Free Patterns from Indie Pattern Companies: Dresses, Jumpsuits and Rompers of All Kinds
This week, we’re focusing on entire ensembles that you can sew–all the dresses, all the jumpsuits, all the pajama sets, all the rompers. And ALL from the free patterns offered by indie pattern companies.
Free Patterns from Indie Pattern Companies: Underwear and Accessories
Everything on this list is from one of my favorite indie pattern companies. The patterns I’m pointing you to are free, but I’ve also included plenty of suggestions for other patterns you can purchase from these companies. It’s important to show these indie companies some love!
Free Patterns from Indie Pattern Companies: Tops and Bottoms
Here are some of my favorite free patterns from those indie companies! We’re starting big with tops and bottoms, ranging from easy basics to add to your wardrobe to fancier styles to dress you up nicely.
Animal Rescues Need You To Donate These 20 Handmade Items
Animal rescues need YOU to do some crafting for good this summer!
Looking for something to make that will also make a difference?
Here are some handmade items that you can make and donate to your favorite animal rescue!
Sew a Wildlife Rescue Pouch from Fleece Scraps
Wildlife rescues use fleece pouches to contain small and baby animals in a way that keeps them feeling safe and comfortable. It mimics the type of pouch that a marsupial animal will be familiar with, and recreates the feeling of a nest for other animals.
20 Cat Toys and Enrichment Items from Eco-Friendly Materials
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!
DIY Cat Scratcher from Upcycled Cardboard Boxes
This upcycled cardboard cat scratcher is a great way to use up all your corrugated cardboard boxes. Cats love it, and it’s a useful donation to your local animal shelter.
36 Easy and Eco-Friendly Easter Crafts
Today, instead of feeling like you have to go out and purchase new decorations and baskets and toys and treats, choose something from my list of my favorite eco-friendly Easter crafts. Make something that you’ll love to reuse, and save yourself from adding new items to the global waste stream.
20 Homemade Indoor Games
Homemade games add an extra-fun element to any indoor play. You can customize your homemade games to perfectly suit the interests and current abilities of your kids, and older kids can even help with their creation.
24 St. Patrick’s Day Crafts That are Easy AND Eco-Friendly!
On the spectrum of weird American holidays, St. Patrick’s Day feels like one of the weirdest, so let’s lean into the weirdness together with this list of my favorite easy and eco-friendly St. Patrick’s Day crafts!
Easy Stashbusting Project: Stitched Scrap Fabric and Felt Memory Game
This is a great way to use up small scraps from your recent projects, and especially other projects that you’ve sewn for these same kids.