Trying to get kids excited for back to school but not having much luck? Get them involved with making their own school supplies! This will help them get excited and have a chance to showcase their own style.
Dress up plain pencils, blah binders and boring books with scrapbook paper, stickers, or fabric. You can make just about any of the following ideas green by using only what you have on hand.
These crafts can help get kids ready to go back to school with supplies they helped dress up.
Canson, the paper company, has been around since 1557 creating quality art papers. They’re still at it today and are dedicated to providing art students, art enthusiasts and professional artists with exceptional papers and original products.
I had the chance to try out a few pads of paper from their XL Series of artist pads. The XL series of art pads are made from recycled paper that contain at least 30% of post-consumer materials.
I compared these papers to other artist pads I’ve tired and I’m impressed.
The heavy duty bristol paper is a thick paper which is double sided where one side is smooth while the other is textured. The XL series Recycled Bristol pad would be perfect for sketching, doing artwork with pencil, crayon, ink, or charcoal. It is also suitable for watercolor or acrylic paint.
The XL series Recycled Sketch pad is best suited for your basic sketching with pencil or crayon. Charcoal, pastels, and ink may also be used but it is more for pencil.
I absolutely love the XL series recycled drawing pad because it has a big spiral top so you can easily flip pages and sketch on the go. It is perfect for the art student or traveling sketcher. This is a pad you can keep in your bag and take with you, so you can have it whenever inspiration strikes.
These are great artist pads. I would use them (If my daughter didn’t already confiscate them for her fall art classes she’ll be starting soon). I do wish that they had a higher percentage of recycled materials in them but that might compromise the quality and texture of the paper.
I know that some recycled paper feels very, very thin while others still feel very textured and less smooth, all of which can pose problems when you need a specific type of paper- say for art class.
All of Canson’s papers are acid free, lignin free, and made without chlorine. Canson maintains rigorous control over their product manufacturing and production of materials to ensure consistency and performance. And they’ve stepped it up an eco-friendly notch by adding the Canson ecopledge (PDF) to their products.
In addition to creating the XL series of recycled content papers, every Canson artist pad bears the Canson ecopledge, a symbol of their commitment to doing business responsibly. And while their logo may be new, the promise they make is not. They have long adhered to the stringent European environmental standards and have followed sustainable practices in their pursuit of manufacturing the highest-quality, long-lasting papers.
These are the pledges they have made:
So what do you think? Can recycled paper compare to regular paper when you need high quality, thick, textured, or smooth bright white papers? I think Canson proves that it can.
We’ve had an email from Milly:
I know about making breadcrumbs with stale bread but is there anything that can be done with bread that’s gone a bit mouldy? I don’t mean eat it of course but compost it?
Obviously the best thing to do is avoid it going mouldy in the first place – freeze it if you don’t have time to use it up or turn it into breadcrumbs there and then. But sometimes loaves have a tendency to turn in a blink of an eye so it’s harder to avoid.
Bread is one of those things that some people compost and others don’t. It will break down quite quickly but in an open, slow going compost heap, it might attract vermin to the pile even quicker. It’s also not going to add that much goodness to the heap either so you might decide it’s not worth the risk. But then what do you do with it instead?
Any suggestions? Do you compost bread?
(Photo of non-moldy bread because looking for a photo of moldy bread was making me too queasy!)
Over on my new frugal living/growing/cooking blog The Really Good Life today, I’ve asked a Reduce This related question: How can you tell when something is good quality?
The first stage of the recycling triangle is Reduce – reduce the amount of things you buy/use and buy items that’ll last and can be repaired rather than ones that need replacing frequently — but how can you tell what will last?
What cues tell you when something is worth the extra money? And when it definitely isn’t?
Do you have a particular area of expertise? If so, tell us all about it on The Really Good Life!
I have some pretty exciting news: starting next Thursday, I’m going to be teaching an after school crafting class at the local Elementary school! Of course, I wanted to focus on teaching the kids about crafty reuse. I’m really excited about the chance to show this group of first- and second-graders the treasure trove of craft supplies right in their recycle bin and in nature.
Here are some of the crafty projects I’ve rounded up to share with them (not necessarily in order of appearance):
We’ve had an email from Joanne:
Hi, I have an old leather zipped wallet type purse which is old, worn and quite grubby. I would rather recycle it somehow than put it in the bin but am not sure how to do this. Do you have any ideas?
First, it obviously depends on the state of the item but it might benefit from a makeover. Trying cleaning and polishing the leather, or if it’s suede (as Joanne suggested in her email’s subject line), you can get suede cleaning tools for just a couple of £/$s — they’re obviously good for maintaining all sorts of suede items, they don’t make them spotless but they can improve them a lot. Any other ideas for makeover/upcycling suggestions?
If it’s too far gone for that, the leather might be reclaimable for craft projects – including ones that’ll benefit from a “distressed” look to the leather. The suggestions given on our post about recycling leather/suede from an old sofa might need more leather than a small purse would provide but there still might be enough to make small things with — a larger handbag might have enough good quality leather to make a smaller coin purse. Or it could be used to make small art artefacts – like these cool leather scrap mushrooms.
Any other suggestions?
(I’ve used a stock photo, not Joanne’s actual purse so don’t feel restricted based on the photo – just think old leather purses/bags in general.)
We’re big fans of Harmony Art around here. Harmony Susalla’s organic cotton prints are gorgeous, and she runs a sustainable business to boot!
Since we last checked in with Harmony, she’s put out tons of new designs and has switched from organic cotton to fair trade organic cotton for several of their sateens. Not only that, Harmony says:
I am happy to report that the production facility has recently been able to open up a school for the children in the area. We are planning a trip to India for this winter to see the progress first hand.
Let’s hear it for a fabric business that gives back! You don’t get much more fab than that.
Harmony says that she first got started with fabric design through a conversation at a family gathering:
My discovery of the field of textile design came from a chance conversation with a 2nd cousin at my great aunt, 2nd husband’s birthday party! Yes, beware of family gatherings — they can change your life! Susan (my 2nd cousin) was at the event and when I asked what she was up to she described her experience of attending the California School of Professional Fabric Design. It was a lightbulb moment for me. I had never considered textile design as a career or even a field before that day. Needless to say, I followed in Susan’s footprints and attended the school…. and the rest is history. I worked for 5 years designing fabrics and products for other companies before launching Harmony Art organic design.
Her main inspiration comes from the natural world. Harmony loves hiking, likening her walks in the woods to the “trend shopping” trips her employers sent her on when she worked as a designer for other companies. You can read about a chance encounter on a hike that led to a new fabric design to get an idea of how her design process works.
Harmony says she wants her company to be part of the solution and an example to others. She loves nature and the outdoors, and that has really cemented her commitment to creating an eco-friendly product.
You can check out all of Harmony’s designs, including the new arrivals, on the Harmony Art website.
Do you design your own Fab Fabrics? Are you vintage fabric seller? I’d love to hear from you! Hit me up at becky [at] importantmedia [dot] org!
Nearly every time we go out for a walk at the moment, we seem to find a new set of berries aching to be picked. And every time that happens, we kick ourselves for not having a bag with us.
After our discussion about making one earlier in the year, I have a trug-ish basket for gentle, slow foraging but I like the idea of a dedicated small fruit/berry harvesting bag – something that either hangs from my shoulder (possibly across my body for extra stability) to leave both hands free for collecting.
I could just use a long handled shopping bag but after seeing a post about purpose-bought harvesting bags at The Cottage Smallholder, I wondered about making one with a bit more structure than my floppy shoppers – I imagine it would protect the berries/fruit from accidentally squishing and hold the bag open so it’s easy to drop fruit in it with both hands full. (The more structured bag could be used as a general shopping bag too during the rest of the year so it’s not just a one-off use.)
So any suggestions/ideas/thoughts on how to make one?
The shape of the Cottage Smallholder’s one reminds me of a small pop-up laundry basket – a reuse for a (clean) old one of those maybe?
After posting my The Really Good Life post about fishing for fruit with a child’s fishing net, I read about someone making a similar net with an old wire coathanger and the gusset of some old tights — I wonder if another gusset could be used to make a basket – the fabric would be light, quick-drying and smooth on the fruit.
Another idea might be to crochet it – crocheting “net” shopping bags is easy-peasy but I’d have to make sure the holes didn’t stretch so much that the fruit would escape. I’d also have to add the structure to it – any suggestions for doing that? An old record might make a fun base plate but what about something to hold it open at the top?
It is no secret that I love building blocks. I think that they’re a beautiful, versatile, creative, incredibly educational toy. And I think that adults are perfectly justified in playing with toys, too, just so you know.
I’ve explored lots of resources for purchasing sound, sturdy, eco-friendly building blocks, but they’re pricey, of course. And I’ve explored lots of methods for crafting my own building blocks, but without some great tools and some serious woodworking skills, crafting perfect, accurate building blocks is really difficult.
Unless you have a tree in your yard, that is! Here’s a quick tutorial, utilizing a minimum of power tools, for crafting some great building blocks from the simplest material in the world- a fallen tree branch:
You will need:
1. Choose your branches. Narrow branches do work well with this project, so don’t feel like you have to find the thickest, meanest branch in your yard just to make an impression.
2. Saw each branch into block-sized pieces. The most balanced pieces will work out to be perfect cylinders, but these are natural blocks, so don’t get too futzy. As long as your cut is straight, not jagged or curved, then you’ve made a tree block.
3. Sand your cut edge and the corners of each block, and if the bark is crumbly or distracting, feel free to sand that down, as well.
You can seal these blocks, varnish them, or oil them, but I like my blocks bare naked.
We’ve covered reuses for old gift bags in general before but Meri emailed asking about one particular type:
I have a growing collection of wine bags – mostly paper – that are too nice to toss.
How can I recycle them – get them to people who might reuse them?
Most people I know reuse wine bags (and all gift bags) as many times as they can while they’re still in good enough condition to pass on. There is a bit of a tradition in my family to leave gift tags bare or written using a soft pencil to facilitate multiple uses.
If you’d rather not re-uses them yourself and have a number to give away, offer them on your local Freecycle/Freegle list. Scrap stores would probably welcome them with open arms too, as would organisers of local charity events like tombola or raffles, to make the prizes fancier/more mysterious.
Any other suggestions on where to pass them on? And what about reuses for the tall thin gift bags like these?
