Globally Green Living

I have been on a craft kick and made some raspberry votive soy candles today. Soy wax is better for the environment, much easier to clean and is virtually soot free. Another bonus is that you don’t get a sink hole so don’t have to bother with a second pour of wax.

In celebration of Earth Day Michelle Kaufman offers us these instructional earth friendly DIY projects. This one shows how to make eco-candles with beeswax or soy wax with great ideas on reusing containers for them.

Here’s another DIY project on how to make a bird house or feeder out of disposable chopsticks with this instructional video. Great idea and very attractive too. You seem to need a lot of chopsticks but I guess if you use them you would have them around. I would have better luck doing the same sort of thing with Popsicle sticks collected during the summer. I want to reuse what I have when I can and not consume more but I still think it’s a great project that can be adapted.

Thanks to Peggy from Junk Creation I came across a post about making art from recycled items such as this colorful gecko from old magazines. We have been celebrating Earth day since the weekend and our yard is going to be very clean but if we put all the stuff in the trash, it’s not helping the environment much.

At Bead For Life women in Uganda make beautiful beads from recycled paper. This not only helps the earth but also enables people to get out of poverty by giving them a fair wage for their work. I bought a few bracelets at Xmas and they’re only five dollars so you could collect all the colors for a very pretty effect. I would like to learn how to make the beads myself because we have pile ups of magazines around here.

At Ten Thousand Villages there are many creations made out of recycled paper and magazines. These coasters are made by women in a co-op from the Philippines and this coiled bowl is made from recycled paper by Vietnamese artisans.

DIY magazine project instructions and ideas

• Henrietta’s Handbags offers free instructions on how to make a purse out of recycled magazines.

• At Craftzine, learn how to make these recycled magazine boxes. They’re very cheerful looking and could be used to store pictures, buttons, crafts, crayons and more.

• At A Little Hut, Patricia shows us step by step how she made her bowl from old magazines and glue.

• At PattyWack.com there’s a craft project called fun magazine roll ups that shows us how to decorate containers with rolled up magazines.

• To learn how to make your own beautiful beads, see Paper Bead Crafts, Paper University’s paper beads tutorial, and the easy shiny paper beads from Kaboose.

Ruby the resourceress from Second Hand Saints turns trash into art, designing each piece of jewelry with personality and fun.

A resourceress can apparently kick ass in a pretty pink dress but this one also creates wonderful bottle cap jewelry. She gets her bottle caps from bars, delis and pizza joints.

I have seen jewelry made from beer bottle caps but never dressed up quite as nice as these ones. Sparkles, beads and foil add pizazz to pieces of trash.

Besides the fact that Second Hand Saints recycle, they also work for social change and help support artists, women, disabled people and those recovering from addictions and abuse.

I had such fun browsing their junk mall and here’s a few of my favorite finds but check it out yourself. They have buttons, zipper pulls, belts and magnets if you don’t want any jewelry.

Second Hand Saints do custom orders if there’s a certain image you want on the bottle caps that’s not available. I adore this pirate girl bracelet and think it would look good as an anklet but I’m weird.

How about a choker/bootlet? This particular choker was created recycling foil from left over chocolate wrappers. It’s a very colorful festive effect.

The belts are awesome and if you really want to make a statement try a belly dancing belt or a jingle belt made with junk jewels (recycled foil).

Ruby is a wonderful writer with a great sense of humor so even if you don’t buy anything, it’s worth visiting her site for the smiles she brings.

Today I was checking out some “green” stuff for St. Patrick’s Day. We have a full house so could always use another bag. I found a cute reusable canvas bag with a shamrock on it at Cafe Press.

How about some funky recycled glassware from Inhabitat? Independent artisans make this recycled line from Guatemala. These fair trade products are created from recycled wine and beer glasses. The designs are brilliant and bring new life and class to old glass.

Eco-Artware (Gifts from recycled natural materials)

I love these fern green sachets made by graphic designer Lotta Helleberg. She used non-toxic paint on the back of leaves to create the design and the natural linen is colored with eco-friendly dyes. The sachets are then filled with fragrant organic lavender.

Have a musician friend or family member? Even though I can’t play guitars, I adore these necklaces at Eco-artware. The lucky picks come from Fender and Dunlap guitars.

Artist Susan “Sass” Brown has been creating art out of found objects since she was six. She also designs jewelry out of old pottery and game pieces. The charm is a nice touch and I think the same thing would make a great pair of earrings or even a bracelet.

• If you want to check out some Irish books, blessings and signs, here’s one of my favorite sites: Irish Jokes and Irish Blessings

“May brooks and trees and singing hills
Join in the chorus too,
And every gentle wind that blows
Send happiness to you.”

I have been having fun searching for fabric today to create my own reusable shopping bag. I have several but they are all sort of generic looking and I wanted a personalized tote bag.

It will be fun making my daughter her own bag as well. She’s not into pink at the moment but likes the strange combination of black, hearts and skulls. Gothic I guess you would call it. I looked at several sites selling organic fabric but here are a few of my favorite discoveries.

PM Organics began with an organic fabric co-op consisting mostly of WAHMs who made baby clothes and cloth diapers.

Pei and Marie realized what a large demand there was for organic fabrics so decided to invest as much as they could and launched PM Organics. The fabric prices are reasonable, there’s a large selection and the site is easy to navigate.

• My initial source for a listing of online stores carrying organic fabrics was Victoria Everman’s eco-links for green yarn and fabrics. Victoria is a writer, model and environmentalist and she has a lot of wonderful green crafty ideas and instructions.

• Victoria also led me to Uhandbag. I got lost there for a long time because there are so many fun projects and ideas. The free instructions are wonderful and I think I will try the handy tote bag.

Check out Lisa Lam’s U-Handbag blog if you want to get lost too. She’s the owner of the online shop and I appreciate all her detailed instructions since I’m not an experienced seamstress. After spending enough time there I will at least know how to make a decent reuseable bag.

I was just hanging out at Ten Thousand Villages to do some Valentine gift shopping so thought I would share a few of my finds.

This handmade recycled angel pin from Kenya is so cute. It’s made out of recycled metal and brass. They are created by disabled artisans in Bombolulu and supported by Bombolulu Jewelry Workshop.

Their mission is “To enable persons with physical disabilities to overcome their limitations by empowering them economically and socially so that they become fully integrated members of their communities.”

At Ten Thousand Villages I also found this handmade heart shaped bead choker from India. The beads are made out of glass and the group who makes them are artisans called Archana Handicrafts.

Archana means “a thing of truth and beauty” and they help artisans all over India. The choker shown is only 8 dollars.

On to the embracing couple statue, a beautiful work of art carved out of stone by Haitian artisans. The group responsible for these are the Comite Artisanal Haitien or Haitian Committee of Artisans. They help promote and market Haitian crafts for fair wages.

Supporting Ten Thousand Villages is a wonderful way to spread the love this Valentines day not just to your loved ones but to people around the world.

• Want to try a fun earth friendly Valentines craft? Check out Soy Silk Valentines Cards.