Green Options

If you have not gotten your hands on one of the Junk Beautiful books you are totally missing out.

Sue Whitney is the ultimate when it comes to taking a piece of whatever and re-purposing it into awesome decor. Examples: an old grate becomes the centerpiece of a magnificent winter wreath, washboards and a printer’s drawer become a stylish outdoor patio table, a tire and drum become a side table, a vintage wooden milk crate becomes a garden cart, dominoes become a soap dish, an old urinal becomes a planter…and that’s just ideas from the Junk Beautiful Outdoor Edition.

The best thing about making stuffies and soft dolls is how eco-friendly the craft can be. You can make stuffed toys and animals and dolls from recycled materials, such as felted wool or the fleece that is made from plastic bottles; from natural materials, such as hemp or organic cotton or peace silk; from any of your stash fabrics or the tiniest bits of pieces leftover from other projects. You can stuff them with buckwheat hulls, cotton, eco-friendly fiberfill, crystalline silica-free play sand–anything!

Even if you’re an experienced sewer, however, three-dimensional design can be hard. I sew well, for instance, but when my daughter asks me to sew her a stuffed dinosaur toy or I want to sew a stuffed turtle for the child of my partner in a Craftster swap, it’s many (silent) swear-words later before I can come up with something half-decent.

So unless I’m trying to create something really weird, I often check out from the library the crafting books that have the best patterns for stuffies, and I’ll make or modify those. Here are five of my favorites:

Recently Becky shared Re-Construct: Eco-Friendly Crafts Made Easy here on Crafting a Green World and when the Re-Construct project designer wrote in sharing this amazing diy ottoman for the project I was also thrilled.

I think being green and crafting go hand in hand, especially when it comes to anything that involves decorating- mainly events like parties and weddings.

I love making things for parties and when it came to decorating my wedding I was very hands on. That’s why I really like The Green Wedding Guide: Creating a Celebration That’s Elegant and Ethical  by Valerie Edmunds.

Inspiration abounds on the internet these days, but I still find great comfort in picking up a real book. I have loaded up the shelves in my craft room with some great reads for the beginning and green crafter. Here are my top recommendations.

Are you an avid reader and fan of the literary arts? Have you ever been to a book art opening? Reading Elle Decoration recently, I found this lovely post on the subject.

“Food and Interior Stylist, Paul Lowe of Sweet Paul has been styling a series called The Written Word“. The paper sculpture vases and the picture holder in the pics above show some of Paul’s creative spark.

If your in the mood to create functional upcycled art here is an adorable tutorial on how to make a book table, if you are looking for a stylish book recycling project.

There is an entire world of craft radio out there in the ether. In the same way in which I blog, obsessively, every single day about my crafty life on my personal blog and read the crafty blogs of others, there is also an audio/video version of that same crafty obsession that can be watched or listened to at one’s leisure.

While you grade papers, or wash the dishes, or eat your lunch, or walk home from school at night, you can listen to craft news (the CPSIA, although delayed, is still a big deal), craft opinion (which type of knitting needles are the best?) and interviews with other crafty people (Alicia Paulson has a lot of interesting things to say about the process of writing a craft how-to book).

I heart podcasts.

Wednesday more sad news in the world of DIY publications: CRAFTzine, the cousin to MAKEzine, will stop issuing their epic how-to print volume after this, their 10th Issue. The magazine will continue to exist as an online-only publication at craftzine.com.

Gillian Grant is an American artist living in Paris. A painter, crafter, and a mom, Gillian runs Mon Ami Vie where she sells her lovely upcycled accessories and is working on a self-published book on green crafting.

[Birdie Bon Bon]

Her Crafts
Right now, she’s focusing on making Birdie Bon Bons and also her new Fat Bottoms. She makes the Bon Bons with 100% biodegradable jute cloth and raffia and fills them with birdseed and dried fruit. Birds can snag the snacks inside or take the bits of fabric scraps for nest-building.

January 6th is the submission deadline for Garth Johnson from Extreme Craft’s book 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse. Any sort of crafty upcycling project is fair game!

[Creative Commons photo by M.A. Enriquez]

Betsy Greer turned Craftivism into a Masters thesis. The creator of Craftivism.com, she believes that crafting and activism are meant to be together. Her new book, Knitting for Good, is a handbook of projects, tips, and thoughts on using your crafty skills to make the world around you a better place.

[Creative Commons photo by Gideon Tsang]