10 Earth Day Craft Projects

 

1. Gifting With Newsprint 
2. Decoupaged Door
3. Upcycled Toy Storage
4. Recycled Catalog Mini-Album
5. Recycled Paper Business Card Bookmarks
6. Earth Mini Album
7. "Think Big" Recycled Scrapbook Layout
8. Plastic Bag Skirt
9. Photo Puzzle Blocks
10. Newspaper Scrapbook Supply Storage

 Have a happy and green Earth Day!

Earth Day Project: How To Make a Plastic Bag Skirt

Do you recycle those plastic bags from the grocery store or do you toss them in the trash bin? Have you ever considered wearing the plastic bags? 

This plastic bag skirt is fun for dress-up, an Earth Day project or even a hula party.

Supplies:

6 Plastic grocery bags

Continuous Glue Lines®

Ribbon (2 26" pieces)

Scissors

(Directions are for a small child's skirt. Add additional bags as necessary for larger sizes and glue together with Glue Lines®.)

1. Flatten each grocery bag. The bottom of each bag will now be the top of the skirt and there will be three layers.

2. Measure and cut 10" for the top layers, 11" for the middle and 12" for the bottom pieces.

3. Cut 1" strips into each bag, leaving approximately 3" from the top uncut. With sharp scissors, you should be able to glide through the bags easily.

4. Place the 12" bag on a flat surface, adhere a Continuous Glue Line® at the very top and attach the 11" layer. Repeat with the 10" top layer. This is the front of the skirt. Repeat again for the back of the skirt.

5. Lay the front and back sides of the skirt face down. Adhere a Continuous Glue Line® to the top of the (inside) front piece and attach the ribbon. Repeat for the back side.

To wear the skirt, tie a bow on each side and you're done!

And let me just point out that it was NOT easy to photograph my two-year-old spinning around on a table (and yes, she's wearing an inside-out mesh swimsuit cover-up too):

 

I made an additional skirt for my 8-year-old which required an extra set of bags. Instead of two pieces of ribbon, I used one 42" piece and tied it in the back:

Thanks for stopping by Snap.Scrap.Blog.Tweet!  

Did you get a chance to read my first ecoScrapbook post? If not, go check it out! We can change how we scrapbook (so we don't look like this in the future). I also added new items to my Etsy shop. Let me know what you think. Constructive criticism is welcomed! 

And to top things off, I was also featured over at the Just Perspective blog where I talk about inspiration. You won't want to miss this one either!

You may also be interested in:

• Kids Craft Idea: Upcycled Toy Storage Containers
• Photo Puzzle Blocks: A Perfect Gift for (Almost) All Ages
• How to Make Business Card Bookmarks Using Recycled Scrapbook Paper

Disclosure: This blog post was written while participating on the Glue Dots design team.

9 days of sCRAPs: A Week In The Life (+2 days)

I first heard of A Week In The Life from a tweet that came from Ali Edwards:

@aliedwards: The Basics of Documenting A Week In Your Life http://bit.ly/d7ZMeu

I didn't originally plan on participating in this, but when I was reviewing tweets for my post, The Retweetables: Inspired to scrap, I decided to give it a try. I gave myself two practice days (April 17-18, 2010) and then began an eventful week.

I took the girls to the zoo, roller skated to Michael Jackson's Thriller, experimented with eco-friendly glue, turned 32, photographed a mouse alive and dead, celebrated Earth Day, wrote an article and blog posts, had a kid free weekend, visited my alma mater, cleaned my front porch, organized my closet and ran in my first 5K. I'm always a busy body, but this week (plus two days) was like no other!

The album I created is totally old school where I just took everything and threw it together. It is perfectly imperfect scraps of my week with photos taken from my Blackberry (well, the cell phone thing isn't old school). I printed off tweets, added my to do lists, used rough drafts as background paper and doodled like I would if I was talking on the phone.

This turned into a piece of me. This album was me and I want it to be something that my girls can learn from as they grow older and share with their own children one day. I used stickers with inspirational words and quotes. I jotted down little secrets of life and pieces of knowledge that I hope my girls will learn from and utilize in their daily lives. I can only imagine what they will think of Twitter and blog posts thirty years from now.

I love the look of a messy old school scrapbook with doodles and scraps of life. This project showed me that I lead an interesting life at times and I'm glad I was able to document my tweets and blog posts.

To view the entire scrapbook, go to my Flickr page and see all 17 pages of scraps.

Supplies used:

Cardstock (Georgia Pacific)
Creative Memories Pages
Flyers, brochures, maps
Calendar
Assorted stickers (including Scenic Route)
Cosmo Cricket Journaling Cards
Fancy Pants Journaling Cards
Greeting card
American Crafts Memory Marker
Paper scraps
Melody Ross Recipe Cards
Glue Dots - Pop Up
Fiskars Adhesive Tabs
Party favors
Buttons
Cereal box

The Retweetables: 12 tweets celebrating Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day, I compiled a list of eco-friendly tweets to share with you. Some are crafty, but most will make you think about the world around you. I hope you enjoy these tweets and have a wonderful Earth Day.

1. @Isleen72: We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. ~Native American Proverb #EarthDay

2. @ElmersGlueCrew: Happy #EarthDay! Take the Elmer’s Glue Crew 40 Day Challenge: http://ow.ly/1Az3t Also find them via #40earthdays

3. @EcoDiscoveries: How to Go Green: Earth Day : http://ow.ly/1BEvg> the history, Activities, and tips< #earthday #green

4. @matthiasrascher: The ’70s Photos That Made Us Want to Save Earth: http://bit.ly/d1LhRB #Eday40 #EarthDay #eco

5. @myEARTH360: Hooray #Chicago #13!!! RT @GOOD: America's least wasteful cities http://su.pr/2chn38 #eday40

6. @stunetii: Facts 4 #Earthday: 50,000 acres of forest eliminated daily. http://bit.ly/9UMOSB #eco #eday40

7. @LisaBeres: 8 tips for eco-friendly eating on Earth Day: http://ow.ly/1BweX #eco #natural #organic

8. @SMcLaughlin: In honor of #EarthDay, this tweet is printed on 100% recyclable, biodegradable post-consumer content using only soy ink. RT to recycle it...

9. @Whslibraryrocks: 30 Westlake teachers signed up for the Teach Paperless for Earth day pledge which is featured in the NyTimes! http://tinyurl.com/262yq5m

10. @cesarmillan: Earth Day is 4/22! Today: Instead of trashing old linens and towels, donate them to a local shelter. Your trash may be a shelter dog's bed!

11. @whitneytrujillo: RT @momtrends: 10 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day with Your Kids @ http://look.ac/d6MyC2 from Momtrends

12. @Lifetime365: Reusable shopping bags made out of tank tops? Yup. Check it out for Earth Day on Thurs! http://bit.ly/9CTBW7

11 ways to be an eco-friendly scrapbooker

How can scrapbookers be eco-friendly and consume massive amounts of paper? The arts and crafts industry has begun to take steps toward greener scrapbooking options by offering supplies using recycled and sustainable resources. Scrapbookers now have choices to allow room for eco-friendly crafting. Here are eleven simple ways to become a green, eco-friendly scrapbooker:

1. Save paper scraps.
2. Decorate scrapbook pages with gifts.
3. Keep layouts warm with old clothes.
4. Dig into the recycling bin.
5. Shop at green craft companies.
6. Stock up on recycled paper.
7. Add recycled plastic to scrapbooks.
8. Stick things together with eco-friendly glue.
9. Use non-traditional scrapbook albums.
10. Create a recycled craft space.
11. Become a digital scrapbooker.

Read the entire article, Green scrapbooking: Ways to be an eco-friendly scrapbooker, here.

On a search for eco-friendly adhesive

Walking through a craft store, searching for eco-friendly glue was not a fast and easy task. My goal was to find scrapbooking adhesive that was safe for both the environment and photographs. What I found was Amazing ECOGLUE: The Earth Friendly Power Glue.


I grabbed the bottle and read the packaging. Nowhere did I see anything about the product being acid-free, which left me unsure if this "Amazing" glue could be used for scrapbooking. I bought it anyway since it was non-toxic, safe for kids and "bonds like an industrial adhesive." If I couldn't use it for scrapbooking, this 2 fl. oz. bottle of glue would still be useful for other projects like fixing a broken hand-carved Willow Tree sculpture.


The white ECOGLUE reminded me of the same stuff my seven-year-old uses for her craft projects. I was surprised by how quickly it bonded with the broken wood pieces. The glue dried clearly and the baby was back in daddy's arms.


Clearly, this ECOGLUE project was a success. It works on wood and according to ecoglue.com, the craft glue also works on stone, metal, ceramic, glass, Styrofoam and more. Eclectic Products offers a variety of environmentally safe glues for general crafts to extreme and industrial projects. Visit www.eclecticproducts.com for more information.

After finishing my project, I contacted Eclectic Products to find out if ECOGLUE for crafts was safe for scrapbooking. The customer service representative said that the product was acid-free. Even though ECOGLUE can be used for paper-crafting, I'm not sure if I would use it on photographs. Maybe another experiment is in order...

The Green Stack: Scrapbooking with DCWV's recycled cardstock

In a recent post, Green scrapbooking & an eco-friendly mini-scrapbook, I mentioned that I purchased DCWV's Green Stack: 70% Recycled Paper. Below are four 8x8 layouts I created using this stack, as well as paper scraps, buttons, leftover ribbon and string. All the quotes came from Meditations on the Earth: A Book of Quotations, Poetry, and Prose.

Maumee River, Fall 2008:

Maumee River, River Road:

The mantis I found on my front porch:

Polar bears at the Toledo Zoo:

Come back tomorrow to see how I turned a kitty litter container into storage for my scrapbooking supplies. Don't forget to follow me as EcoScrapbook on Twitter, where I tweet about eco-friendly crafting and scrapbooking.