Green Options » Soy Crayons

Eco Art Supplies Exist!

Leslie Richard — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:50:50 +0000

I feel like I just found a unicorn! Trying to find a one stop shop for eco art supplies is like finding a needle in a hay stack. Even if you have some earth friendly crafting supplies here and there in big chain stores, what we all yearn for is that one store that has a delightful eco minded collection and nothing else toxic to dig through. It’s such a buzzkill to have one recycled paper pad in a store full of stuff so nasty and smelly and noxious that I am hurrying out of there for some fresh air.

Before I rant anymore about how silly we humans have gotten with our toxic craft inventions, I think I shall go ahead and share this mythical creature I found. Eco Art Works! (Oh my gawd, I hardly know where to begin because this online store has such a cool and interesting selection, every single item is a green crarfters treat.) Eco Art Works crosses barriers between the artist, the crafter, and children to bring a full range of eco art supplies from non toxic professional watercolors, pastels, and paints to organic yarns, beeswax modeling clay, soy crayons and paper making kits. If you aren’t dizzy yet from this Bigfoot-like sighting there’s even more, so hold on to your chair…

Green to the Letter Giveway: Free Eco Stationary

Jennifer Lance — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:14:24 +0000

Last week, Kelli shared with us Green Valentines made by Stubby Pencil Studio. Stubby Pencil Studio offers 100% recycled (post-consumer) coloring, interactive cards, as well as eco-friendly art supplies for children and adults (see Victoria’s post on Crafting a Green World about toxic art supplies). Stubby Pencil Studio has graciously offered to give a “Green to the Letter” Stationery basket to one of our readers, a $60 value! Included in the basket:

6 packs of Color ‘n Kids cards (winner’s choice of styles)
5 Smencils (winner’s choice of scents)
Box of 24 Soy Crayons
Box of 12 Forest Choice colored pencils

To enter: Have your child write a slogan or poem about living green and post it as a comment to this post by Wednesday, February 27, 2008!

Color Me Green

Amy Stodghill — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:50:32 +0000

Winter days are usually filled with indoor activities. Keep the little ones occupied with a few downloadable coloring books and environmentally friendly crayons.

Soy crayons were introduced by pencil maker Dixon-Ticonderoga in 1997. They are made with soybean oil instead of petroleum derived oils. Soy crayons boast brighter colors than their oil based counterparts, glide smoother along the coloring surface and are non-toxic.

Another green coloring option are Crazy Crayons. Crazy Crayons were created by LuAnn Foty as a creative gift one holiday season by melting down and giving new life to old, worn down crayons around her house. She created the Crayon Recycle Program to rescue crayons that would otherwise be discarded. For every pound of unwanted crayons donated to the cause, she'll send out a Crazy Crayon in return. Today Crazy Crayons come in all sorts of fun shapes and sizes (in recycled packaging of course!)

If you'd prefer to color within the lines instead of creating your own drawings there are plenty of downloadable coloring books online.

Here's just a few eco-minded ones (of the many available out there):
Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance
US Environmental Protection Agency
Listing of coloring books created by US government agencies
UK based Activity Village has compiled a long list including earth day themed coloring pages

Remember to use recycled paper or reuse the backside of already used paper when printing!

Soy crayons tip via AmericanInventorSpot and are available from Dixon-Ticonderoga (where we also found the picture above.)

Crazy Crayons have been featured on Treehugger and are also available at 3r Living. Find out more about Crazy Crayons and the Crayon Recycling Program here.