I’ll show you how we made our restaurant book using the eco-friendly supplies given to us by Full Circle Crafts, and–best yet–tell you how you can enter a giveaway to win even more Full Circle Crafts supplies.
Kids love to play Memory! Here are a ton of handmade memory games that you can craft using sustainable supplies.
Handmade Memory Games Crafted from Sustainable Supplies Read More 👉
Directional fabrics, including children’s novelty sheets, require a slightly different, and only a little more complicated, method to sew a circle skirt with nothing upside-down.
Here’s how to make your kid a circle skirt where Charlie Brown ALWAYS faces the right way.
How to Sew a Circle Skirt from a Kid’s Bed Sheet (or other Directional Fabric) Read More 👉
Do I really need to tell you WHY I want to draw on rocks? Or wood? Or seashells? Just think up a reason that makes sense, and pretend that’s why.
Use Faber-Castell Pitt Pens to Draw on Wood, Rocks, and Shells Read More 👉
Scrapbooking chipboard is really easy to repaint and embellish. Here’s how I did it.
Play the guitar? Use a guitar pick? Ever wanted to make your own?
You can!
Review: The Pick Punch for Making DIY Guitar Picks Read More 👉
Need some sparkle? DIY body glitter takes just seconds to make, is perfectly customizable, and works even better than expensive, store-bought body glitter with freaky ingredients.
And, by using the secret ingredient that you probably already have in your cupboard as the base agent, your body glitter not only won’t be freaky, but will actually be healthy for your skin.
How-to: DIY Body Glitter from Healthy Ingredients Read More 👉
Kids love to make their own jewelry, and these pendants, crafted from upcycled cardboard, are especially fun to create and wear. The pendants cost no money, slip easily inside a letter to a pen pal, and, if the kid gets tired of wearing them, can be tossed right back into the recycling bin.
Happy almost new year, you guys! It’s been an awesome crafty year, and we are all so glad that you guys could share it with us! We love reading your emails and comments, and we can’t wait to make 2013 just as fantastical.
Want to snazz up your pine cones, AND keep them forever?
Here are three different easy methods for making your own dipped pine cones – they’re gorgeous, they may even match your wall colors, and you can keep them just about indefinitely. Even better? Pine cones are free! Just head out to your back yard or to the park with the kids and a basket and collect those natural craft supplies to your hearts’ content!
Decorative Dipped Pinecones: Three Methods Read More 👉
Store-bought wrapping paper offends me for a lot of reasons–the wasted money, the wasted resources, the energy misspent on buying ephemeral window dressing instead of focusing on family time.
And yet brown paper bags and sheets of newspaper, the go-to gift wrap for the thrifty and eco-minded, aren’t so much…well…cute.
To solve the cuteness dilemma, I spent a lot of effort decorating my first several packages with various upcycled materials and stash components. And then…
…I did something different.
Yes, I DID Wrap All of My Christmas Presents in Newspaper and Brown Paper Bags Read More 👉
Uh oh! Did you realize that there are some folks that slipped through the cracks on your Christmas list? Don’t despair! We’ve got some simple handmade last-minute gift ideas that you can whip up for anyone on your list.
Worried that in twenty years you’ll have trouble remembering what it was that your little kid wanted more than anything else for Christmas this year?
Record their wish lists for posterity with an ornament!
Cinnamon dough is as easy to make (and as fun play with!) as play dough, and the ornaments that you can make with cinnamon dough are both sturdy and sweet-smelling.
How-to: Cinnamon Dough Ornaments that Smell Delicious and Last Forever Read More 👉
My kids LOVE to make ice cream in their Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker. But is it worth the fuss?
Depends.
Review: DIY Ice Cream with the Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker Read More 👉
Here’s how to turn yesterday’s newspaper into a temporary toy that your kids will love using to increase their spatial reasoning abilities.
How-to: Build Newspaper Structures with Your Kids–It’s a Toy that You Can Recycle! Read More 👉
A roller shade is easy to repair. Replacing the torn section with fabric won’t hinder the shade’s performance, and considering how roller shades are about the cheapest and most crappy-looking window covering available, anyway, the repair will actually vastly improve the overall look of the entire window treatment.
Here’s how to repair a torn roller shade with fabric that you already own, making it look even better than it did when you first bought it.
We love recycled felt around here! It comes in a rainbow of colors, diverts plastic waste from the landfill, and is just a joy to cut, glue, and sew. Do you need some craft ideas for your stash of recycled felt? We’ve got you covered with these 10 projects!
You lucky ducks who’ve had feet upon feet of snow already probably don’t care, but I’ve been desperately staving off the whining for snow in my house with tons of snowflake crafts. If you, too, feel the need to get your DIY snowflake craft on, here are several crafty tutorials to get you started.
And, because a snowflake that harms the environment is a pretty darned poor snowflake, all of the crafty snowflakes below are made from primarily eco-friendly ingredients.
Snow that Won’t Melt: DIY Snowflakes Crafted from Eco-Friendly Materials Read More 👉
You want to make a Christmas tree ornament out of natural materials? Check out my epic round-up below–from pine cones to beeswax, popcorn to acorns, if it’s been hung on a Christmas tree, then it’s here!
Christmas Tree Ornaments Crafted from Natural Materials: The Epic Round-up Read More 👉
Recycled craft kits delivered monthly to your door? Don’t mind if I do!
Giveaway: Win a Craft Kit from Green Kid Crafts Read More 👉
Got a stash of plastic bags that you can’t bear to toss? Try some of these plastic grocery bag crafts to give them a new life instead!
It’s not too late! Get inspired by one of the projects below, then pick up your carving knife (or hammer and nails, OR solar light and glass jar) and whip out the Jack-o-lantern of your dreams before Halloween night!
6 Last-Minute Jack-o-Lanterns to Make in Time for Halloween Read More 👉
One fallen tree branch, one handsaw, and a couple of easy cuts are all you need to make a ton of natural craft projects.
Wood slices are hard to mess up, and they’re a very versatile craft supply. Add some paint, some wood polish, maybe a drill, and you can make for yourself any of the eleven cut tree branch craft projects listed here.
Cut a Fallen Tree Branch and Make Something: 11 Nature Crafts from Upcycled Wood Slices Read More 👉
Want to bring more nature into your art?
Crayon, colored pencil, and marker holders are easy to make from reclaimed fallen branches. They organize your art supplies, make them visible while you work, and, if you’re creating with kids, display a manageable (and easy to clean up!) number of utensils that the kiddos can access independently. Here’s how to make one for yourself.
See how proud that kiddo looks? She and I made that witch’s hat, the exactly perfect Halloween costume accessory, out of recycled newspaper and cardboard (and a lot of tape!). Considering that everything except for the tape and paint came from our recycling bin, and that this is EXACTLY the tall, polka-dotted hat that she had wanted, I’m declaring it a Halloween win.
Now that the weather’s cooling off, you’re probably sorting through your dresser and closet, pulling out your cold-weather clothes, and stashing your lighter stuff away until spring. As you sort through, you’re bound to find a couple of old t-shirts that are past their prime. Maybe the pits are stained beyond saving or you’re just tired of wearing that particular tee. Those well-loved t-shirts are perfect for all kinds of fun t-shirt crafts!
10 Upcycled T-Shirt Crafts Read More 👉
Are you ready to see the features from the September Green Crafts Showcase? I know they will inspire you just like they inspired me!
Top 5 Projects from the September Green Crafts Showcase Read More 👉
Kid going on a field trip? Generally gotta have a name tag.
Instead of buying disposable name tags, my kiddos and I make reusable name tags. These name tags can be made almost entirely by a kid with just a little adult help, and can be used until any of the information changes–if a kid made one of these in kindergarten, and used it until she headed off for middle school, that’s probably worth an entire package of disposable name tag stickers right there, and if the whole class did it, that’s a good effort towards helping a school go green.
How-to: Make a Reusable (Not Disposable!) Kid’s Name Tag for School Field Trips Read More 👉
Q. Do you need another reason to drink beer?
A. Bottle cap magnets recycle beer bottle caps.
You’re welcome.
While you can make bottle cap magnets with a strong, clear crafter’s glue, I prefer the clear, hard gloss that you get from epoxy. Epoxy is simpler to use than you think, though, and the easy-mix, low-scent epoxy that I use is simple enough that my eight-year-old can use it.
How-to: Upcycled Bottle Cap Magnets Made with Epoxy Read More 👉
Liquid watercolors are a versatile art supply that kids, especially, love to create with. If you’ve got a stash of dried-out markers lying around, you can make your own liquid watercolors for free, in the process breaking down those plastic markers for recycling and upcycling one of their most wasteful components.
How-to: DIY Liquid Watercolors from Upcycled Dried-Out Markers Read More 👉
Below are five ways to reuse markers and pens instead of tossing them.
5 Clever Ways to Reuse Markers and Pens Read More 👉
For our upcoming trip to Walt Disney World, I sewed my two daughters matching dresses from one vintage Snow White-themed flat bed sheet.
Craft Project Show-and-Tell: Matching Dresses from One Vintage Snow White Flat Bed Sheet Read More 👉
I saw these adorable page corner bookmarks from Oh Crafts and had to make some of my own. I thought they would be perfect for children who are back in school or even college students. Grab your junk mail envelopes and make some of your own eco-friendly bookmarks!
How To: Junk Mail Bookmarks Read More 👉
Using an old crock pot or a DIY stovetop bain-marie, a hand-dipped candle becomes an easy, kid-friendly craft project, one that can stock an entire season of candlelit dinners in a single afternoon.
How-to: Hand-Dipped Wax Candles Read More 👉
Toys are fun for any kid, but half the fun of unfinished wooden toys is, I discovered, letting my kiddos paint and finish them all by themselves.
