Archive for the ‘Green Crafting’ Category

Green Shopping can be fun and  eBay is a great source of Eco-Friendly products. Whether you are looking for a gift for your environmentally conscious friend or just something for around the house.

By using Vintage or Used products you are giving those products a new lease on life and at the same time reducing the use of new raw materials and the energy needed to produce them.

Look for items made from recycled, organic or sustainable materials like hemp, soy or bamboo. If you are feeling adventurous look for items that artists have given a second life to, like bags made from candy wrappers or soda can pop tops.

Don’t forget to look for items that can help us reduce our use of resources like solar powered phone chargers, or hybrid energy efficient computers.

Don’t overlook refurbished electronics, if you are not a slave to the “latest” fashion in electronics, you can often find great deals in refurbished electronic and at the same time keeping those materials out of the landfill.

bibi

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I love it when I find ideas about taking things that would otherwise end up in the garbage and turning them into something useful.

I came across this site that does just that: it’s called FaveCrafts: Discover the Crafter in you. In it you’ll find a section called Green Crafting that has several articles that cover reusing materials from used wine bottles to old jeans, tin cans and trash that can be used as crafting materials. If crafting is your thing they also have a blog you can follow at www.FaveCraftsBlog.com.

Especially in these tough economic times, some of these ideas can come in handy when folks are looking for ways to keep the cost of gifting down. Some of these articles can be used to teach our children the importance of taking care of the environment and reusing as many materials as possible. The younger we teach them the more ingrained it will become.

Here is a list of some of their articles:

10 Ways to Reuse and Recycle Trash for Crafting

15 Homemade Christmas Ornaments: Recycled Paper Ornaments

Green Crafting Tip: Dress Up Wire Hangers

Homemade Cork Board

Recycled Market Tote Bag

Recycled Tin Can Luminaries

Turn Old Jeans into Pot Holders

Vinyl Record Bowl

Enjoy!!!

bibi

Comments (2)

If you happen to be in Atlanta the next week, The American Craft Council  will be holding it’s annual American Craft Council Show for the second year in a row. It will feature artists who use the concept of “Going Green” as a method of artistic expression.

The show will be held in Atlanta March 13-15th at the Cobb Galeria Center. (directions here) Friday and Saturday, March 13-14: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Sunday, March 15: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Regular admission is $12 for one day, $18 for a two-day pass and all three days’ admission for $20. Children 12 and under are admitted free. American Craft Council members and those who join the non-profit organization at the show ($25 annual membership fee) are admitted free all weekend.

A preview Party on Thursday, March 12 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Cobb Galleria Centre. Tickets for the Preview Party are $75 each and can be purchased at www.craftcouncil.org/atlanta. Proceeds from the Preview Party jointly benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta/Youth Art Connection and the American Craft Council.

The craft show will include over 200 artists, one quarter of which meet the Green Craft Standard by creating collectible treasures from cast-offs and reducing pollution and landfill use. The collection will include fine art pottery to metal works to distinctive wearable items to mixed media pieces. Some of the recycled materials used include exotic hardwoods and metals, stained glass, metal, fabric, buttons, stainless steel and granite.

The artist list includes the likes of Jewelry Artists Mayra Orama Muñiz and Erica Millner from MIO Studios, Paul Pearman, with his mosaic belt buckles, Clay Artist Kirsten Stingle, and Sculptor Dave Caudill.

To preview the show and to purchase tickets online, please visit: www.craftcouncil.org/atlanta.

bibi

Comments (3)

And the winner is Reusable Bags… Have you ever put any thought into the implications of your answer? Now you may say to yourself, what’s the big deal, its just a couple of bags. But the big deal is that millions of bags, paper and worst yet, plastic bags end up in the landfill and rivers and oceans . Not to mention the natural resources that are being wasted in order to make these bags that will more than likely be used only once. Let’s look at the statistic: (source WallStreet Journal/ SFGate)

• A family of four in the US goes through 1500 plastic bags a year
• All together we discard 100 Billion plastic shopping bags in a year
• Less than 1% being recycled
• Plastic bags can take up to 1000 years to decompose
• 490,000 gallons of oil to produce 100 million non-degradable plastic bags
• 4-5 trillion Plastic Bags used Worldwide
• Making paper bags consumes millions of trees and it actually takes more energy to make paper bags than plastic.

Now some cities have started to do something about this problem, by just simply banning the use of plastic bags altogether. San Francisco and Oakland in California, were the first cities in the US to do this, and now a dozen other cities are planning the same. Internationally, Taiwan has banned both the use of plastic bags and plastic utensils. Here’s a list of cities and countries that have already banned the use of plastic bags or are planning a ban. (source: cbsnews.com)

• IN THE UNITED STATES

Cities that have adopted a plastic bag ban:

• Oakland
• San Francisco

Cities Considering action on plastic bags:

• Annapolis, Md.
• Austin, Texas
• Baltimore
• Berkeley, Calif.
• Boston
• Fairfax, Calif.
• Maui, Hawaii
• Malibu, Calif.
• New Haven, Conn.
• Portland, Ore.
• Phoenix
• San Jose, Calif.
• Santa Cruz, Calif.
• Santa Monica, Calif.
• Seattle

• INTERNATIONALLY

Countries that have adopted a plastic bag ban:

• Bangladesh
• China
• Rwanda
• Taiwan
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Zanzibar

Cities or countries considering action on plastic ban:

• Australia
• Singapore
• London

What about “Reusable Bags” as the first option?

No it’s not a new idea, it’s an old idea, we just went away from it because we became a society of convenience. But it is still a very practical, and a very “good for the environment” idea.

If you pay attention, all the business are jumping on the bandwagon of selling reusable shopping bags. Everybody has them, from your local supermarket, to Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ikea, and other smaller companies that have taken off with the idea of reusable shopping bags and put a twist on it like Chico Bag, who makes them small enough to fit in your purse or glove compartment. Or people like Cyndi at MyRecycledBags.com who takes the time and effort to recycle those plastic bags and turn them into something beautiful and useful. On her site she also teaches people the Craft of making Bags out of recycled materials.

Plastic bags have been around for about 25 years. Which means that our mothers and grandmothers can still remember going shopping, with their own Reusable Bags. If they could do it, I think so can we…

paper bags paper or plastic? plastic bags recycle reusable bags

bibi

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On October the 15th, a fellow blogger, Cindy from MyRecycledBags.Com put forth a great idea as her action post. The idea is to Craft with recycled materials. I want to share this with you because she has many great ideas of crafts that can be made with a myriad of recycled materials, using plastic bags, bread bags, VCR tape, cassette tapes, old denim, and other recycled fabric to craft with.

Check out her post: Crafting with Recycled Materials

green crafting recycle recycled materials

bibi

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