Author Archive

Becky H

Becky began her foray into the worlds of both crafting and recycling as a kid, using fabric scraps from her mom's sewing projects to play Project Runway with her Barbie as model (the only thing that doll was ever good for.) By day, night, and sometimes weekend, she tries to scrape out a living as a musician. When she's not doing that, she has a serious case of crafting ADD, constantly bouncing between sewing and scrapbooking (with the occasional bout of jewelrymaking or whatever else catches her fancy thrown in for good measure). And she absolutely loves incorporating recycled materials into her projects--gives her a better chance of finding a place to hike, and a chance of actually being able to fill her gas tank to get there.

Crafting a Green…Scrapbook?

This is a guest post by Becky Haas, an amateur crafter/environmentalist who also tries to make a living as a professional musician. You can also find her at the craft blog Sew and So.

I’ve caught myself contemplating this quite a bit lately–whether it is actually possible for a craft that relies so heavily on paper to be done in a way that’s eco-friendly.

It seems that scrapbooking has a few extra challenges that makes it difficult to find supplies that are made from recycled materials. For one, the paper used as the base of the page has to be sturdy enough that it can handle having photos and other potentially bulkier items adhered to it–generally cardstock weight. This eliminates most, if not all, homemade and handmade papers. because they tend to be more fragile and tear easily. But the bigger challenge I’ve found in finding basic supplies is that most scrapbookers want stuff that is acid- and lignin-free.

New Life for Old CDs

This is a guest post by Becky Haas, who is an amateur crafter/environmentalist who also tries to make a living as a professional musician. You can also find her at the craft blog Sew and So.

I have a confession to make…I’m addicted to music. I guess it comes naturally, since that’s what I spend a lot of my time doing. So I always love it when I stumble across a craft project that uses music-related materials, like Kelly Rand’s recent article on things to do with old cassette tapes.

By this point, I don’t have too many old tapes lying around, but what I do have is a lot of CDs–most of which I still listen to. But we all have those CDs that are too scratched up to play properly, or came free in the mail with unwanted software, or have those songs that seriously tempt you to throw the disc out the window if you hear them just one more time, if it wouldn’t be considered littering. So here’s a couple of ideas for things to do with them.

My first thought was jewelry, and it turns out that it’s pretty easy to transform an old CD into that. Here’s what you need for a very basic set of earrings and a necklace:

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