[Tent at the Renegade Craft Fair. Creative Commons photo by LaCabeza Grande]

It’s still probably a bit cold for outdoor shows, but it’s not too cold to get planning! Some of the outdoor show needs are similar to the setups for indoor shows. You still need tables or some other surface to showcase your goodies, linens, and some horizontal display solutions. Outdoor festivals tend to have bigger spaces - usually, 10 feet X 10 feet - and you’ll probably have a tent. Here are some ideas for handling an outdoor setup!

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What to do, what to do?

The best thing is that there are loads of cool projects designed for felted wool, and its versatility means that there are just as many projects for beginners as there are for the most advanced crafters.

What to do with felted wool?

Well, here are five things to start with:

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Is awesome.

Felted wool has all the benefits of wool for crafting–it’s sturdy, can be shaped, holds a dimensional structure well, is durable, and has an appealing texture–and has the eco-friendly attributes of being natural and second-hand. As part of my green crafting manifesto, I do not buy new things, nor do I intentionally buy products exploitative of the world’s creatures (please, don’t ask me about glue!), and yet when I buy a wool sweater from the Goodwill Outlet Store, I don’t have to worry about whether or not the wool has an organic certification, or about the high price of organic wool. I just think, “Yay, recycling!”

And yet, the wool sweater you take home from the thrift store requires some work before it becomes that versatile wool felt. Here’s exactly the work you need to do:

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I work almost entirely with found and recycled materials, so one of my biggest problems is the storage of…stuff. Old postage stamps, orphaned game pieces, costume jewelry, wrapping paper, comic books, beach rocks, buttons, and tinsel–you name it, and it finds its way into my work, and if I can’t see it and access it, I can’t use it.

Yeah, I’m tempted every time I wander into some big-box store, 40%-off coupon in hand, by all those clear, organized, neatly-portioned craft bins they always sell. Look, a different compartment for each kind of bead, and I can see them all! Look, slide-out drawers for each different kind of paper!

But I also want my craft room to have character, to not only contain the things that inspire me, but also, itself, BE an inspiration to me. So I have not bought those clear, organized, handy-yet-bland plastic bins. Instead, I try to find vintage, thrifted, or otherwise recycled containers for all my storage needs. Here’s part of my collection of vintage containers:

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The beginning of the year slump is almost over, and that means craft show season will be creeping up on us before we know it! What’s a green crafter to do about a display? Over the next few weeks, we’re going to look at a few eco-friendly display solutions for different setup needs.

It’s so tempting to hit up local big box stores for new display pieces. I’ll admit that it’s even easier sometimes. But where’s the fun in that? Getting your goodies second hand helps you present your wares in a unique, Earth-friendly way! The setup you go for really depends on what sort of show you’re doing. Indoor vendor spaces are often smaller than at outdoor shows. Unless your table is at the end of a row, you probably won’t have much natural vertical space, like you would with a tent. So what are some green ways to showcase your goodies?

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If you haven’t yet submitted something to the carnival, please send in a post for our next edition! We’d love to get your thoughts about green crafting, upcycling, thrifting and crafting, and more.

Want to host a carnival?  Let us know!  Details about submitting and hosting are on the Carnival of Green Crafts home page.

New to the Carnival of Green Crafts or blog carnivals in general?  Missed previous carnivals?  Here’s the 411:

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We have been so pleased that so many green crafters and craft aficionados out there have sent in posts, commented, and visited the carnivals thus far.  For those who haven’t, we have the following invitation for you:

• Submit one of your posts! Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.  The next two carnivals will be here at Crafting A Green World and then at Whip Up.  The blog carnival submission form is the easiest way for us to keep straight who’s sent in what, but if it gives you fits then email us at greencraftscarnival (at) gmail (dot) com.
• Suggest someone else’s post! If you see a post out there and you think “this would be perfect for that green craft carnival thingy,” then by all means let us know about it.  We’ll touch base with the author and make sure it’s ok with them before we link to it.
• Host a carnival! If you want to be more involved in the green craft community or get more exposure for your blog, hosting a carnival is a great way to do it.  Don’t be scared, we’ll help make it easy and fun.
• Let us know about your blog! We love it when people send in their posts, but we also know that people get busy.  So we have come knocking to several of you and asked for permission to include your posts.  We’d also love to build up a list of blogs that hosts can pick from and know that the blog owner is fine with being included in the carnival whenever.So if you have a blog, and it has some green crafting content, and you just keep forgetting to send in a post - or if you’re shy about submitting - leave your blog’s address in the comments here.  You can feel free to send in a post when you have something you’re extra proud of, but we’ll also keep an eye on it and quite possibly surprise you.

So that’s our invitation to you, to help make this carnival a fun community event. Let us know if you have any other thoughts as well.

Welcome to the first Carnival of Green Crafts!

For more information about the Carnival, please see the Carnival of Green Crafts home page here at Crafting A Green World.

We’re pleased as punch to announce that the next Carnival will be August 9th at BlogHer, courtesy of Hobbies, Crafts & DIY Contributing Editor Debra Roby. Send in your posts via the carnival submission form today!

Thanks so much to all the crafters who shared their posts with us for this Carnival.  Let’s dig in!

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Being creative with your quilt ingredients is part of the history of quilting. Now granted, many of the choices that early quilters made were due to economic constraints. I suspect that if the pioneers had sewing machines and fabric shops readily and affordably available, a lot of them would have taken advantage of those options. However, quilting does have a historical ethic of conservation and re-use. Quilters today manifest this ethic through the obsessive saving of fabric scraps too small for any reasonable project, “just in case.”

So if you’re willing to look past batting, there are other earth-friendly alternatives for your quilt’s insides. Your linen closet, thrift stores, or donations from other people’s sewing supplies may provide just what you need.

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Problem #1: Nothing in my house is mauve, persimmon, or lime.

Problem #2: I don’t have a twin size bed.

So what do I do with this sheet?

Granted, sheets are just really big pieces of fabric, so there are plenty of options. But this sheet is so cute, I want to use it for something special.

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