Green Options

There really are a lot of options today for those who would like to enjoy the craft of scrapbooking without contributing to wasteful or destructive world practices. Not only are there more green scrapbooking products on the market, but there are also other products, such as archival sprays, craft punches, decorative scissors, and a wide variety of adhesives, that allow us to utilize many more recycled elements in our work than we may previously have considered.

As an example, we recently underwent a project in our house to paint our girls’ room as a rainbow (I know, I know–little girls). This entailed the collection of a variety of paint chips in rainbow colors, which were then left sitting, unwanted, after the rainbow project had reached its conclusion.

What to do? What to do?

My girls love themselves some pancakes, but there is something that I just cannot handle about standing at the stove for half an hour flipping pancakes first thing in the morning. It’s like I can feel my life passing me by while I stand there, flipping and flipping and flipping.

Instead of flipping and flipping and flipping these days, now I bake my girls these pancake muffin cuties–they’re pancakes, baked in the oven instead of on the griddle, and they’re delicious, portable, and amenable to the same yummy variety of toppings that makes pancakes so awesome.

Here’s how I make them:

We use a lot of paper in our day to day, but it doesn’t have to be that way!

[Creative Commons photo by Eunice]

Americans go through 700 pounds of paper products per person on average every single year. That’s a lot of trees! On top of things like paper towels and tissues, billions of menstrual products end up in the bin. In 1988, a field study found that 6.5 billion tampons and 13.5 billion sanitary pads and their packaging end up in America’s waste stream annually. You’ve got a weapon to fight all this waste right in your craft room: your sewing machine or even a simple needle and thread! Here are a few ways you can stitch your way to less waste.

I live in an old row house. I love its little quirks, sounds and somewhat original architectural details. What I don’t love are the drafty doors. Now that the weather has turned once again, I’m reminded of these drafts.

Loosing heat out of these cracks not only ups your electric bill due to having to heat the house more to compensate for this loss, but it also contributes to our carbon footprint. So here is a quick and easy tutorial on how to upcycle an old long sleeve shirt or sweater and make, what I call a draft catcher. This is a temporary band-aid fix for the larger project of having the door replaced, which us renters might not be able to do.

Start by sorting through your pile of clothes destined for the scrap pile or Good Will. Look for a shirt that has long sleeves and a pattern or color that you like. I found a shirt that I had long wanted to make into a pillow.

Yes, yes, record bowls are pretty sweet, but they’re really only righteously cool when the record itself is something cool–the St. Olaf Choir Sings Feliz Navidad, say, or The White Album, or Songs and Games to Develop Gross Motor Skills. When the record isn’t classic or cheesy or thematically-appropriate or doesn’t fit in with your personal style guide, don’t make a bowl out of it and don’t throw it out–slap some acrylic paint and some glitter and sequins on that baby and hang it up in style!

You will need: a record album, gesso, acrylic paint, embellishments (see below), your choice of sealant/varnish, your choice of hanging mechanism (see below)

As much as I love many things about autumn, moving my clothes drying indoors is not one of the things I love. My clothes dryer holds fewer clothes than my clothesline does, it takes longer to dry them than a really sunny day does, it doesn’t leave my clothes smelling all nice and fresh and outdoorsy like the actual outdoors does, and it costs me money! And dryer lint? That just pisses me off.

My kiddos, however, love themselves some dryer lint. It’s the older one’s special job to help me by emptying the lint catcher in the dryer, and when she fills her little pail full, we make dryer lint modeling dough. Here’s how:

Okay, so remember when I said that there’s nothing more festive than a bunting? Well, I lied. There is one thing on Earth that is more festive than a bunting: a PERSONALIZED bunting! Follow along with me as I totally become the birthday party hero by making personalized buntings for two of my daughter’s little friends (You know what they say about November birthdays, right? Happy Valentine’s Day!).

You will need: your recycled denim bunting, freezer or sticker paper, pre-washed wool or acrylic felt (wool felt will shrink a lot!), matching thread,  a glue stick, a free-motion presser foot if you’ll be doing machine-applique

You totally know that a bunting makes a party more festive, right? There’s nothing happier than those little triangular flags, gaily waving in the breeze.  But do you know what would make a happy little bunting even happier? If it was made from your skinny jeans. Live in the moment, my friends; love your body, and I’ll show you how to upcycle your old jeans into some party flags.

You will need: a pair of jeans; double-fold bias tape (or you can make your own!); cardboard; rotary cutter and mat; sewing machine and thread

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:

We all forget our reusable shopping totes from time to time. Instead of putting yourself on a green guilt trip, pick paper over plastic (ask your friends and relatives to also!), and upcycle those bags into some not-so-shiny seed packet business cards. Since I focus on the environmental impact of crafting, I decided any self-promotion should reflect my agenda. Plus, I’m ever enthusiastic about combining gardening with crafting. This is what I came up with, and they’ve gotten rave reviews. The process involves some unorthodox methods, but such is the way of the eco-craft ninja…

Gather your materials and ideas. Here’s what’s involved:

• An inkjet printer
• The seed packet outline template (download here in JPG or PDF file formats)
• Embellishment option 1: A graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop or GIMP (free open-source software)
• Embellishment option 2: Decorate the packet post-printing by hand
• Embellishment option 3: Do both!
• Paper grocery bags
• Iron and scrap fabric
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Glue stick
• Paper creaser or popsicle stick
• 1 can of wildflower seeds
• Optional: rotary cutter with dedicated blade
• Optional: stamps, stickers or other embellishments(as long as they don’t poke holes in the paper)