How-to: An Upcycled T-Shirt Tank Top Tutorial
An upcycled tank top is a quick and easy sewing project to make from any old T-shirt.
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7 Art Supplies Made Directly from Nature
You don’t have to be satisfied with art supplies that are simply “non-toxic.” Art supplies that come directly from nature, with minimal processing, are healthier, more environmentally friendly, and can still be of excellent quality, often allowing you to create effects that it’s difficult to obtain with their artificial counterparts.
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How-to: Make a Rainwater Watercolor Painting
Natural materials make fabulous art supplies. Even when it’s raining outside, you can make good use of the weather by creating a watercolor painting project in which the rain is the most important ingredient.
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Making Your Own Waldorf Dolls: Tips and Tutorials
Although making your own Waldorf doll is a complicated and time-consuming craft, it is not especially difficult, especially with all the generous tutorials and thoughtful patterns available to walk you through the process. Here are all the resources that I’ve been using as I create Waldorf dolls for my own children.
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How-to: Sew an Upcycled Petticoat from a Recycled Prom Dress
Even if you regularly sew lovely dresses, it can be easy to forget that you must also often sew the correct foundation garments for those dresses. Here’s how to sew a full petticoat using parts from an upcycled formal gown.
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Review: The PotMaker Makes Plant Pots from Recycled Newspaper
Using the PotMaker, you can make plant pots from recycled newspaper with just a little folding and a few twists of the wrist. Is that any better than using the origami method to make newspaper pots?
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5 DIY Pots for Plants and Seedlings Using Natural or Recycled Materials
If you’re a gardener, then chances are you’re probably already pretty crafty. You could buy pots the right size to start any plants or seedlings from any gardening center, but none of them, even the ones made from natural or recycled materials, are as good as simply bypassing the consumer market altogether and making your own DIY pots.
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How-to: Sew Your Own Steam Mop Pads
I made myself an entire stash of re-usable steam mop pads. I recycled old towels for the project, creating mop pads that are easy to wash and sanitize, quick to sew, and offer customizable thicknesses, so that I can blast my stone-tiled kitchen floor but not trash the wax on my wood living room floor.
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Announcing the Winners of the Knit Picks Full Circle Yarn Giveaway
Knit Picks is giving away three skeins of Full Circle yarn to TWO lucky winners! Are you one?
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Giveaway: Win Three Skeins of Knit Picks Full Circle Yarn–There Will be TWO Winners!
Did you read my review of Knit Picks Full Circle yarn yesterday? Do you want to check out some of this 100% reclaimed wool yarn for yourself?
You’re in luck! Knit Picks is giving away three skeins of their Full Circle yarn to two (count them, TWO) lucky winners! Read on to discover all the ways that you can enter this giveaway.
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Announcement: The Winner of the Earth Paints for Children Set
Did you enter the giveaway for your own set of Earth Paints for Children, an organic, eco–friendly, mineral-based painting kit from Earth Paint?
If you did, then today may be your lucky day! Read on to see who our winner is
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Review: Knit Picks Full Circle Yarn
I want the yarn that my children craft with to be made of natural fibers, to be easy for fumbling little fingers to work with, and to be comfortable on their delicate skin. I would like their yarn to also be both texturally and visually interesting, to hold their attention while they build their muscle memory and practice their fine motor skills.
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Giveaway: Win an Earth Paints for Children Organic, Eco-Friendly Paint Set
If you know any kiddos who enjoy painting, and you’d like to provide them with some special materials–say, an organic, eco-friendly, earth- and mineral-based paint set–then you’re in luck!
Read on to enter a giveaway for one set of Earth Paints for Children.
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Review: Earth Paint Eco-Friendly Paint for Children (and a Giveaway!)
My kiddos do a LOT of painting, with all different kinds of paints. They’ve done tempera and acrylics, oils and watercolors–heck, they even spray paint!–but I can say for a fact that they have never before used completely natural, completely toxin-free, completely artificial chemical-free paint (other than mud, of course) until they painted with Earth Paint.
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Review: Inca-Eco 100% Organic Cotton Yarn from Galler Yarns is Good for Wrapping Things
We all know how much better we, ourselves, craft when we use quality materials. And think about how much more likely a kid is to really love working with yarn if the yarn that we hand her feels good in her hands, is beautifully dyed, and does exactly what it’s supposed to.
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Announcement: The Winner of the Make Your Own Gummies Kit from Glee Gum
It’s time to announce the lucky winner of the Make Your Own Gummies Kit from Glee Gum! Is it you?
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Giveaway: Win a Make Your Own Gummies Kit from Glee Gum
Glee Gum is giving away one copy of their Make Your Own Gummies kit to one lucky reader. Read on to see how YOU can be that winner!
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Review: The Make Your Own Gummies Kit from Glee Gum (Spoiler Alert: It’s Vegan!), and a Giveaway
I know it’s a spoiler alert, since I want you to read my entire review, but I have to tell you that my girls and I LOVED this Make Your Own Gummies Kit from Glee Gum. It’s easy enough for the kids to do with adult supervision, it incorporates lessons in science and geography, it’s eco-friendly and encourages a sustainable global marketplace, and–something that you will appreciate if you don’t choose to eat gelatin that is processed from animal bones–it’s vegan.
But I know what you’re really wondering: Did I manage to give myself second-degree burns by pouring boiling sugar syrup all over my foot like I did with the Make Your Own Gum kit? Well, I guess I should leave some surprises for my actual review…
How-to: Make Your Own Organic Colored Sanding Sugar
Want to decorate your cakes without springing for expensive organic sanding sugar or settling for the cheaper (but still expensive!) conventional sanding sugar? Fortunately, making your own colored sanding sugar takes about ten seconds, and you can use the same high-quality organic sugar and natural food coloring that you already have in your pantry. Here’s how:
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Make Your Own Liquid Soap: Natural Recipes for Liquid Hand Soap, Dish Soap, and Laundry Soap
Read on for several recipes for liquid soaps that you can make yourself–some are very frugal, some are very fancy, and some will clean your dishes or your laundry as well as your hands.
From Cloth Pads to Crocheted Tampons: DIY Menstrual Supplies
Even though there are a lot of great manufacturers of reusable menstrual supplies out there, if you’re feeling crafty, there’s no reason why you couldn’t make nearly everything that you need all by yourself. When you DIY, you can make your stuff extra comfy, extra cute, of just the right absorbency, and even completely from stash, if you’re super-resourceful.
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Project Show-and-Tell: A Child’s Rainbow Dress (with Detachable Wings) Sewn from Prom Dresses
I’d do anything for that kid of mine, and armed with six rainbow-hued thrifted Prom and bridesmaid dresses, a ruffler foot for my sewing machine, and not a little hot glue, I made her Rainbow Fairy Dress a reality.
Bath and Body Beeswax Recipes (and a Few Recipes to Keep Your House Honey-Sweet, Too)
Because I’m always looking for a way to reduce the toxic chemicals that we keep in our home, I also like to make my own cleaning and bath supplies, and beeswax has proved itself to be just as versatile, and just as useful, in recipes that keep our house and bodies clean and happy as it is in all the other ways that we use it. Here are some of the best beeswax recipes for bath, body, and cleaning supplies that you can make yourself.
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How-to: A Recipe for Natural Beeswax Wood Polish
From my antique library table to my unfinished wood kitchen countertops to my children’s many wooden toys (especially the hand-stained wooden toys), my homemade beeswax wood polish keeps them all in good condition, with all-natural ingredients and scented with essential oils.
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Project Show-and-Tell: An Upcycled Smash Book for My Anniversary
Smash books are quicker, easier, and more creatively amenable to recycled components than traditional scrapbooks can be, and frankly I much prefer the look of a smash book to that of your typical carefully engineered scrapbook. If you’d like some more examples, then please feel free to take a look below at my own upcycled smash book–it’s by no means perfect, but the beauty of a smash book is that it isn’t meant to be perfect. Instead, it’s meant to be meaningful, fun, crafted with lots of upcycled materials and stash components, and beloved by its recipient.
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How-to: Craft DIY Wax Seals Using Crayons and Stamps
Whether you’d like to use a wax seal on a letter, a gift, or your own altered art, this candle + stamp method is just as quick and easy as using traditional sealing wax supplies–and it’s cheaper!
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Review: The DIY Chewing Gum Kit from Glee Gum, and a Cautionary Tale (Involving Second-Degree Burns)
DIY chewing gum can be a surprisingly eco-friendly project (hint–it’s the chicle), but be warned: in the process of making this chewing gum from a kit, I got a really, really, REALLY bad DIY chewing gum-making injury.
Giveaway Announcement: Winners of The Christmas Guide to Upcycling, by Mahe Zehra Husain
Were you one of our 25 winners of The Christmas Guide to Upcycling, by Mahe Zehra Husain? Check here to see!
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Giveaway: Win a Copy of The Christmas Guide to Upcycling, by Mahe Zehra Husain
Twenty-five people will win a copy of Mahe Zehra Husain’s ebook, The Christmas Guide to Upcycling. Enter now, and one of those winners could be you!
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Green Crafter Book Review: Crafty Cans and Perplexing Plastic, by Mahe Zehra Husain
If you’re a recycled artist or crafter, you may think that you know everything that can be done with old soda cans and plastic packaging, but trust me–Mahe Zehra Husain has some very new things to teach you (and something to give you, as well–read on for the details!).
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How-to: Repair an Umbrella
Fortunately, one of the most common points of breakage in an umbrella–that tip that comes unmoored from the metal support–is quite simple to repair.
How to Sew a Drawstring Bag (an even easier tute!)
In the year since I crafted my first drawstring bag tutorial, I’ve refined it to correct these fiddly bits and to make the bag even quicker and easier to sew. Read on for the quickest, easiest, drawstring bag tutorial that you’re ever going to find.
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DIY Buttons: Make Your Own Buttons from Natural or Recycled Materials
Using tools ranging from scissors to drills, using materials ranging from fallen tree branches to clamshell packaging, and, most importantly, using absolutely no additional money, I’ve been able to make a wide variety of sturdy buttons for all my sewing and craft projects. Check out the following tutorials to see how to make some DIY buttons of your own.
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Upcycled Clipboard Projects: You Never Knew that an Old Clipboard Could be This Useful!
I’m currently working on a project to revamp our clipboards from dust-catching shelf-clutterers into something actually usable–otherwise, they’re off to Goodwill next weekend–but until then, check out with me these DIY upcycled clipboard projects from across the web. Clipboards actually ARE useful!
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What are You Making Under There? Upcycled Underwear Tutorials from Around the Web
Instead of wearing cheap, mass-produced, low-quality undergarments that have to be replaced regularly, I’ve found that sewing panties and boxer shorts, for people both big and small, really isn’t that hard. You can sew underwear from your own stash fabric–even scraps, for kids’ underwear!–or from awesome thrifted clothing, and the results are unique, way cheaper than store-bought, and often sturdier, since they can be made from higher-quality fabrics and sewn with care.
To make your own upcycled undergarments, check out these patterns and tutorials from around the web.
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How-to: Dehydrated Orange Garland
When I saw that my family was clearly not going to eat through that entire 10-pound bag of navel oranges before the last ones went bad, I thought briefly about marmalade and fruit leather, but then I thought, “Nah–craft supplies!”. Read on to see how to turn leftover oranges into shelf-stable craft supplies, and how to make a garland that shows off the lovely translucency of the preserved orange slices.
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