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: DeLisa, Pigsey Art & Pommes Frites

Today I have the pleasure of telling you about 3 of the awesome makers who will be vending at our Grand Opening this Thursday night: DeLisa Designs, Pigsey Art & Pommes Frites. They are all super-talented and will have fabulous items for sale.

First up is Lisa Linbrugger of DeLisa Designs, who says:

"As long as I can remember, I have liked making things. I was lucky to have a father who was an artist and could recognize my artistic side. When I was eight he gave me his collection of glass and African beads which he had been collecting and making his own jewelry with. Since then I have loved making jewelry."

You've gotta check out DeLisa's Etsy shop - her work, most of which is sterling silver, is so interesting! I just love this "little painting for your neck!" I also love how multi-dimensional most of her pieces are. I've seen the work up close & it is stunning, and Lisa is a real sweetheart, as well as a talented jewelry designer.



Next, we have Brandy Davis of Pigsey Art, maker of unique, upcycled journals. Brandy is a very funny gal who's always saying wacky things like this:

"I currently am focusing on journals when I'm not loving my squirrels or my dachshund or making fun of my pirate husband."

But on a more serious note, she also has this to say about her work:

"I love tearing apart vintage books and items to make things. The texture and look of vintage items sends a thrill down my spine. It's a gorgeous quality and style that is lacking in many things in current times."

Well said, Brandy, well said. I really like how she intersperses the vintage book pages randomly throughout her journals.




Last, but certainly not least, we have another vintage book lover, Kristen Pumphrey of Pommes Frites (clever, no?). Kristen makes hollow books, pins, magnets, record bowls & more, all of them "reclaimed, repurposed & handmade with love!"

Some of her hollow books are cleverly-disguised flask safes, and include a stainless steel flask. Others are less specific & function well as hidey-holes for your cash or other valuables.

Kristen also makes really cool pin-back buttons & magnets with images from old dictionaries & her favorite fabric, plaid. Another sweet & funny lady, she keeps a blog that always makes me laugh.

Hope you'll come out & say hello to all of these crafty ladies this Thursday!

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.