There are so many ways to create your own building block sets, so many ways to embellish old or thrifted block sets to make them playable in an all-new way, and so many ways to upcycle blocks so that you can enjoy them in brand-new ways.
Whether you’re refurbishing a kid’s hand-me-down building blocks for a new generation, or adding new interest to a current toy, painting building blocks is an excellent way to turn an old toy into something brand-new and exciting.
Here’s how to deep clean wooden building blocks and simple wooden toys, how to refurbish them, and even how to polish them up so they look beautiful and fancy and like the high-quality heirlooms that they are.
There are so many DIY Christmas garland options using one of the most eco-friendly and economical materials out there: paper!
However, you can do a lot more with the classic paper chain, especially in terms of Christmas tree decor. Because wouldn’t you rather have an eco-friendly, customized garland that fits your specific vibe?
Last week, I showed you all of my favorite felt ornaments. Here, then, are some of my other favorite felt crafts that I make around Christmas-time.
Felt is excellent for children and beginners because it doesn’t fray. It can be hand-sewn or machine sewn, and while it has zero drape, it has a ton of structure that allows you to skip the starch and interfacing.
So pick your favorite ornament, your favorite felt, and start crafting!
You’ve picked out an old book and prepped its pages–what’s the next step in creating an altered book that you’ll love?
Let your imagination be your guide!
Fortunately, those stained, snagged, or simply outgrown tights don’t have to go into the wastestream! Here’s how to upcycle your old tights in a myriad of ways.
This photo shoot with Jack-o-lanterns on our heads is one of the funnest Halloween activities I’ve done yet in my life.
Be warned: pants zippers are tedious and painstaking to replace. What they are not, however, is difficult. If you’ve sewn with zippers before, and you’re comfortable using a zipper foot, you can make this repair.
If you sew, and especially if you enjoy refashioning clothing or upcycling pieces to give them new lives, you should be reclaiming the zipper from every single pair of pants that wanders through your workshop.
No matter what cushion you’ve got that needs a washable, reusable cover, I’m not going to judge you. Instead, I’m going to show you how to make that cover from any handy blanket that you’ve got in your stash.
Altering a book to use as a journal requires more than just scoring the perfect ancient tome. After you do a price check to make sure you’re upcycling trash, not destroying a national treasure, you have to physically prepare the book to receive your art, writing, and ephemera.
But if you were one of the 800 members of the Auntie Sewing Squad, you helped make over 250,000 fabric masks to donate to 200 communities around the country, prioritizing the vulnerable communities that were the most affected by COVID-19 and the most disenfranchised from the political power bases that informed community response.
My personal rule of thumb these days is that the more I love my letter and want it to reach its destination, the more standard I make the envelope. If you’re just playing around with some fun, low-stakes pieces, feel free to experiment with your most creative choices. If you really want your piece to arrive safely and on time, however, make you DIY envelopes just a *little* bit creative.
And homemade hair accessories, especially when they’re crafted from the scraps and stash of your craft supplies, or upcycled from other items, are an easy, fun way to add some personality to your wardrobe.
Scrunchies are one of my favorite stashbuster projects. Like the other projects that I mentioned, scrunchies are very forgiving, so you can fudge fabric dimensions as needed to fit your scraps.
The manufacturing process for making cement at its current large scale is highly toxic, and is one of the worst things happening to the environment at the moment.
If you, too, are beholden to a continually evolving set of brand-new tights all year, every year, this little hack won’t cure your heartbreak, but it might make you feel maybe 3% better, at least if you or someone you love also has hair that occasionally needs to be tied back.
But alas, Shein is yet another imported fast fashion outlet, even more insidiously unsustainable than the other imported fast fashion outlets.
So if Shein is so unsustainable, why is it so popular, especially with young adults who should know better?
Want to have a meaningful wedding that doesn’t cater to the multi-billion-dollar wedding industry? Want to have a personalized wedding that celebrates your love as well as the ethical standards that guide your life? Want to wear and decorate with and eat and share only things you love, and that love the Earth?
It turns out that plastic 2-liter bottles are sturdy and versatile, perfect for upcycling into a variety of fun projects!
I LOVE the hanging planters that these plastic bottles create. They’re extremely light, so I don’t have to worry about overburdening the curtain rods that I hang a million plants and suncatchers and other dangly things from. They’re self-watering, so I can leave them without worry when I travel, and the water reservoirs are transparent, so I can see when I need to refill them.
Somehow, until I made the effort to really think about how I could reuse plastic 2-liter bottles, it never occurred to me that a plastic 2-liter bottle is a nearly perfect planter. It’s cheap. It’s sturdy. It’s light. It’s easy to modify to fit a variety of needs.
Reinforcing that entire thigh area, both the rip and the surrounding real estate, with a denim patch, as well as quilting the snot out of that patch, stops the rip.
Whether you’re prepping for the next in a line of 1970s parties or just getting a head start on Halloween–or just love 1970s clothing!–check out my list of my favorite DIYs of 1970s fashions.
This method results in a pair of bell bottoms that are wide and blousy and flowy. You couldn’t get away with wearing them in all circumstances, but they’re also super dramatic and super fun for every bell bottom-appropriate occasion.
Bell bottoms are a simple DIY, when made from an existing pair of well-fitting pants and some scrap fabric.
Take a few pages out of the camp counselor handbook and check out my list of my favorite summer camp-style crafts. They’re all highly kid-approved, and you can very likely source all the necessary supplies from around your house, yard, or recycling bin.
Below, you’ll find lots of macrame tutorials, ranging from beginner-friendly to ones that require more fine-motor finesse.
These embroidery floss macrame pendants are a little more challenging than, say, my yarn tassel or Ojo de Dios summer camp crafts, but I think they’re suitable for older elementary kids on up.
Here, I’ll show you how to make the simplest version of the Ojo de Dios, but there are so many further avenues for exploration.
This DIY yarn tassel is the perfect outdoor craft when it’s beautiful outside, and also a pretty terrific indoor craft when outside sucks.
Bottle bricks are a way of both accepting the reality of plastic waste, and also using the physical fact of that waste for a specific purpose.
Spring is a terrific time to freshen up your stash of bird feeders by crafting a few more from eco-friendly materials. The birds love them, you love them, and the environment loves them!
