Green Crafts to Honor Earth Day's 40th Anniversary

Happy Earth Day, everyone! What are you doing to celebrate? I've rounded up some awesome green crafting ideas from the blogosphere to share with you. I hope you find them inspiring!

First up, my absolute favorite idea: Jessica Wilson's Garden to Go tutorial, which she shared on the Craft blog. She made pretty little gift jars full of seeds from her garden, complete with costume jewelry-topped lids, to give to friends.

What a wonderful way to share plants & spread the gardening love! As an avid gardener myself, I'd love to receive a gift like this. I'm now thinking of which of my plants I can collect seeds from to make my own jars to give...

Another awesome garden-sharing idea is making your own seed tape. Amber of Giver's Log has put together a fab DIY seed tape tutorial (thanks to Rachel for sharing it on Craft!). Amber's how-to explains how to make the seed tape as well as how to turn it into a super-cute gift.

Seed tape helps a lot when planting those extremely tiny little seeds. It allows you to create nice rows with the seeds evenly spaced. And what a great way to share the bounty of your garden & inspire others to grow their own!

Along with tending the earth in the form of gardening, being a good steward of our planet includes the three R's of course! This next idea helps you reduce the amount of plastic you send to the landfill: reusable food storage bags. Bells and Unicorns, a great Etsy shop with an even better name, stocks their shop with a plethora of reusable bags in lots of sizes & pretty fabrics. They have Velcro closures & a water-resistant nylon lining for easy cleanup. How cute is this "Give a Hoot" bag?!

There are also lots of opportunities to reduce & reuse in the ways we clean our homes. One of my favorite tools is my Swiffer, but I don't like the throw-away nature of the cloths. So I was super-excited to find The Quilting Mama, an Etsy shop that offers reusable cloth Swiffer covers (among lots of other great earth-friendly products).

I bought a set of these covers & I looooove them - I highly recommend them! You just throw 'em in your washer & they're good to go for tons more uses. Here's a tip, though: give them a quick rinse under the tap to remove major dust bunnies before throwing in the laundry; they'll come out of your washing machine a lot cleaner.

Etsy has tons of awesome, earth-friendly products, of course; way too many to list here. A search for "eco friendly" comes up with over 51,000 results!

And now for the grand finale, a masterpiece of recycling (or upcycling may be the more accurate term for these): reclaimed plastic horse sculptures by Sayaka Ganz (via Craft again).

Wowee-wow-wow! I can't get over these. So beautiful, and made from discarded spatulas & the like!

I hope these craftacular ideas inspire you to come up with your own ways of honoring Mother Nature today. Please leave any awesome green crafting ideas or links of your own in the comments - thanks for reading!

Fabulous GO Vendors: Baby Bolt & Craft Chi

More vendor awesomeness! Baby Bolt & Craft Chi are two more local faves who'll have lovely handmade gift items on display at our Grand Opening tonight.

First up is Becka Spellman of Baby Bolt. In addition to the brand spankin' new & awesome trailer bibs she'll have at our Grand Opening, Becka also makes crazy-cute clothes & plenty of functional items to make life easier for parents and kiddos. Pacifier Bibs keep drool in check and the pacifier nearby. Crayon Rolls keep your little artist's tools on hand whether inspiration strikes at a restaurant, car trip, or the doctor's office.

New-Baby Gift Sets, available in custom combinations like this cute little cowboy, are the perfect, stress-free gifts that will stand out at any baby shower. What a great idea!

At BabyBolt you will find designs that combine new, upcycled/reclaimed, vintage, and imported fabrics - resulting in unique, one-of-a-kind or limited-run clothing and accessories.

Becka says, "Through my life I have attempted to find a home in all sorts of arts and crafts. From oil painting to photography to knitting to collage, I never really felt I had found my "thing." Shortly after my son was born I pulled out my mom's old Kenmore and started working on small projects and took a few sewing classes. As I gained skills and confidence, I turned our spare bedroom into my studio."

Come out & say hello to Becka tonight; she is super-sweet & also quite a funny lady. You'll enjoy meeting her and you will love her ah-DOR-able kids' stuff!

Next I'd like to tell you about the multi-talented Amy of Craft Chi, "the universalizing life force of craft." Love that! Amy makes all kinds of things, all handprinted with her original artwork. Her beautiful handmade wares include bags, pillow shams, tees and pretty linen tea towels.

I love the fluid patterns Amy creates & her screen-printing technique is impeccable. Amy also keeps a wonderful blog about her craft process that is full of great tips & interesting behind-the-scenes pics.




















In addition to her printed items, Amy sells cute rubber stamps made from her own drawings and screen-printing screens that can be custom-made with your own image on them. She also offers a wide assortment of screens for sale with all kinds of cool images that are ready to use. We carry these in Stella's boutique & they are awesome!



Tonight at the GO we'll be using some totally cool screens on loan from Craft Chi for screen-printing on neckties. It's gonna be super-fun! Join us, won't you?

Fabulous GO Vendors: SoCoDivka Designs & Anne Marie

I have two more amazing designer/crafters to tell you about today: SoCoDivka & Anne Marie Beard. Both of these ladies are exceptionally talented & I know you'll want to meet them!





SoCoDivka founder Shanna Howard says, "I've been creative all of my life—for years I've been painting, drawing, designing, writing, making mosaics, jewelry-making, sewing, costuming, and more—but it had taken a backseat until the last couple of years. Thanks to a Saturn Return and some inspiring friends, I started to make creativity a priority."

Well I'm certainly glad that Shanna has gotten her priorities straight! : )

In case you're wondering about the unusual name, she says, "SoCoDivka is a nickname based on where I call home—the South Congress area of Austin, Texas, and "divka," which means "girl" in Czech. I'm half Czech, and I'm 100% native Texan."

Shanna's work is inspired by mid-century modern, '50s Lucite, Bohemia and whimsy. I just love the look! How gorgeous are these Cherry Candy Drops?!



Speaking of gorgeous, have you seen the *annemarie* Style for the Individual line? Founded by Anne Marie Beard in 2002, these handcrafted bags are full of sass, polish and style. And as anyone who's had the pleasure of meeting Anne Marie can attest, she herself fits that description, too!

Anne Marie began designing handbags in 2002 with the mission of creating beautifully made accessories for women with unique taste. Her Degree in Costume Design from the University of Texas at Austin was the springboard in making her lifelong passion for sewing a business reality.



What I love about Anne Marie's line is that you can order your own custom creation! There are several designs to choose from, such as the Adah Clutch and the Rosie, both shown above.

I'm the proud owner of a Mirella reversible(!) bag similar to the one shown on the left here, & I absolutely adore it. I got to choose the style of bag I wanted & then pick 2 fabrics from her swatch collection. It was so fun, but hard to choose from all of her awesome bag designs & beautiful fabrics! Maybe it's time for a second one...

Along with her beautiful purses, Anne Marie creates fun coordinating Mini Wallets, Cosmetic Bags and Zippy Wallets. They are so cute, and so useful!

Come out and meet these super-chic crafty ladies tomorrow night at our Grand Opening!

Artist Spotlight - SquidInkKollective

Last night I met the lovely and super crafty Lynnea 1/2 of SquidInkKollective at our monthly EtsyAustin team meeting. So naturally I had to check out her goods this morning especially since she'll be joining us for the upcoming Grand Opening of our WonderCraft boutique location February 25th 2010! Come check out her beautiful and unique screenprinted shirts, linens, and accessories.

The Squid Ink Kollective was founded in the fall of 2007 by Brian Maclaskey, who has been studying printmaking since his early teens. Brian was drawing his own cartoons from the age of 5 and grew up on a healthy diet of Robert Crumb, Propaghandi and anti-circus protests. When he's not screen printing, he's working on his own art (see http://conybologna.etsy.com), playing the drums, or making food with Lynnea.

Lynnea Edwards, the other half of the Kollective, was groomed to be a professional musician but decided to learn a more important skill than composing for whenever the apocalypse occurs. She is an entirely self-taught seamster and loves nerding out about fabric weight and different types of interfacing.

Squid Ink Kollective consists of a great team, Brian and Lynnea along with their simple set up of 1 six color manual print press, 1 exposure unit, 3 sewing machines, a whole ton of ink, screens, squeegees, thread, fabric, rulers, scissors, some trusty computers and a printer.

The mediums they have chosen to pursue our artistic creativity in allow them to share their passion with the general public as an accessible alternative to mass production. This company represents the hard work and commitment of artists dedicated to a creative-based living.

To learn even more visit their website at http://www.spiralloop.com

Awesome.