Green Options

Cork is just one of those materials that I never give much thought to. It just keeps my wine fresh and makes a great organizational board. Lately, however, I have seen cork popping up more and more on Etsy and discovered that it is actually a great environmentally friendly product. Here is what I learned:

Cork is harvested from the outer layer of bark of the Cork Oak [...]

I couldn’t believe my eyes! Did I just see this recycled Capri Sun bag at Target? In amongst the pretty floral and pleather handbags, there they were, in all their green-crafted glory…recycled Capri Sun tote bags - at Target! Wow, green craft is really going mainstream. I had a vision of a young indie crafter, sitting on a mountain of money, drunk on Capri Sun, tied to her sewing machine cranking these bad-boys out. After some research though, I learned the real story and how we can help. TerraCycle, Capri Sun and Honest Kids have teamed up to help prevent the billions of juice packs that Americans drink each year from ending up in a land fill.

Earth Day is tomorrow and it is bound to be the most celebrated yet! It’s time to celebrate all of the accomplishments the green movement has made and to think about all that is left to do. This year, why not make some new Earth Day traditions to insure that the day will be fun and educational for our crafty kidlets, family and friends?

There are a lot of resources on the web to help you plan your events. Kaboose is a family centered website with a whole section dedicated to celebrating Earth Day with the family. My favorite part, of course, are the crafts. This site has detailed instructions for creative recycled material crafts you can do on Earthday or any day! Some of my favorites projects include the coffee ground fossils, recycled crayon earth ornaments, and toothbrush bracelets.

Everyday I come across something on Etsy that surprises and gets me excited about the endless recycled craft possibilities. This week I came across reiter8, an upcycling crafter from Brooklyn that takes sailboat sails that would otherwise go to the dump and creates bags and pillows out of the canvas.

The designer came up with this idea while visiting her mother in Maine. After taking notice of the strong canvas material that made up the sails on a boat, she realized that this material would make a sturdy alternative material for bags and pillows all while saving them from going to landfills.

Craft show season is almost upon us! Rejoice! It’s finally time to gather all your supplies and get ready to spend some hot summer days at shows selling your wares. Luckily, crafter extraordinaire Jen Menkhaus just told me about Treecycle, a company dedicated to education and access to environmentally friendly products. This site is great for crafters because they carry a huge supply of recycled paper bags, shipping boxes, jewelry boxes and more! In addition to a ton of products, Treecycle also has a huge page of links to offer information on environmental issues. In case you need reason to buy recycled products from Treecycle, they share this lovely list to explain how it helps…

Lark Books is a fantastic publishing company that brought us all kinds of art and craft books including the addictive “500 Series.” Every year they publish 60-70 new titles and invite artists to submit work to be included in future books.

They now have a wonderful opportunity for artists that work with recycled plastics! I hope to see some submissions from our readers! To read the call for submissions…

Easter is upon us again! This year, why not say goodbye to those prepackaged kits and dye your eggs with vegetables? For fantastic instructions to make beautiful eggs like those in this photo, please visit Billi-Jean of My Bountiful Life!

Photo copyright Billi-Jean.com. Used with permission.

At the heart of the green crafting movement are artists using bizarre materials to make their crafts. I absolutely love making and wearing jewelry made out of unexpected materials. When has a gold heart necklace from the mall ever sparked a conversation in the way that a necklace made out of used car parts or broken plates has? You are sure to start some interesting dialog when wearing something from these three artists.

This ring is hand carved from a used number 11 pool ball…yes, a pool ball! How cool! Eleanor Salazar of PoolBallRings is an artist from Maine who can hand carve any color or number ball you like, in your size, and have it to you in two weeks. She even makes earrings. What a great gift for the pool shark in your life!

The 2ReVert shop asks, “Where has your Jewelry Been?” Being that these earring are made from used skateboards, one never knows what kind of trouble they got into in their last life. That is the best part about jewelry made from repurposed objects, the back-story (or perceived back-story) adds so much interest and personality to a piece.

Even our littlest crafters deserve hip eco-friendly clothing, and that is exactly what you will find at Sweet Pepita. This green crafter extraordinaire dropped her metalsmithing tools for a sewing machine after the birth of her daughter Pepita, in an effort to make environmentally conscious and Pepita friendly clothing.

She now makes the coolest hand sewn toddler t-shirts (and pixie hats) made from 100% organic cotton and recycled fabric. Have an old Poison t-shirt [...]

Here at Crafting in a Green World, we clearly like crafting with recycling paper! Emma’s post on maps and Autumn’s posts on recycling folded paper and Playing Card Bags made me want to risk the paper cuts to craft. I am discovering, through writing these blog posts, that I am pretty fascinated in paper crafts too. I have already tackled junk mail, paint chips, and old photos, but as I pack up my recycling for the week, I noticed a kind of paper then gets no love, newspaper! Sure, we have all used it to pack a box, but think of all the possibilities!

One of my favorite ideas from Emma’s map post was the adorable Paper Cotton Bird. I could not resist sharing this one made out of newspaper. This Etsy seller from England pays great attention to detail as she hand stitches each bird with embroidery thread using her own pattern. They are so darn adorable, I can’t stand it.

When talking about recycled newspaper crafts, I must mention Newspaper Jewelry. I had the pleasure of seeing these in person, and they really are spectacular. This stuning pendant is made up of newspaper headlines that were hand formed into beads and stitched together with Swarovski Crystal beads.