recycled materials - Strollerderby

Crafty: Reversible Fabric-Scrap Headbands

This is the next project I'm going to take on, right here. When I saw Kathy of Pink Chalk Studio's take on these headbands, with their unmatched but totally perfect combinations of fabric, it reminded me of nothing more than my five-year-old's patient explanation of how "see, Mama, the red shirt has a little purple on the butterfly here, so I've got a blue skirt with a purple flower, and then my shoes are silver to match my barrette and my socks have green stripes because the purple flower on the skirt has green leaves. THAT'S matching". Why not encourage that kind of creative thinking with headbands like this?

Crafty: Quickie Table Decorations

Here's a quick little project that you and your kids can make that will not only kill time, it might actually look great on your dining room table. From Courtney at Two Straight Lines, a little crepe paper flower tucked into a repurposed food can, covered with pretty fabric or paper (here, dictionary pages). With a few extra components from the craft store, you're ready to make something that might even qualify as "sophisticated".

I'm imagining a whole row of identical flowers spaced down a long table or mantle, or a grouping of "vases" of various sizes. Time to start saving empty cans.

Posted Sep 04 2007, 09:26 AM by Patti with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: recycled materials, crafts, activities, crafty, two straight lines, paper crafts

Crafty: Turn Daddy's Ugmo Shirts Into Your Daughter's Adorable Dresses

One of the beauties of cleaning out closets and dresser drawers is the opportunity to get rid of the clothes you wore to your first job in the awkward early days of business casual. It is also -- and let's be completely honest here -- a great opportunity to persuade your husband/partner/adorable love of your life to get rid of those shirts you cannot possibly look at one more day of your blessed life together. Now, as if this wasn't fabulous enough, add in the beauty of repurposing those old Hawaiian and print button-up shirts into something sweet for your baby girl. Ta-da! Like a crafty miracle, you can make dad's old shirts into daughter's new dress.

Crafty: Plastic Bag Kites

Did you read this article in Salon the other day about how plastic bags are ruining the earth? We're pretty much committed to reusable grocery bags in our house, but somehow the plastic keeps creeping in at a pretty alarming rate. This kite project is a great way to use a few, but it's going to have to get pretty darn windy to make a dent in our plastic bag collection.

GreenHouse: The Ultimate Composter

Nothing says �I�m a hippy, and I�m proud!� like a composting. Fortunately, being a hippy is hot right now, and so, by proxy, are composters. The bulky, stinky models of yore have been replaced by sleeker, more efficient cousins, making composting a sensible, easy, and fun thing to do in any household.

The process is as easy as 1-2-3: A small, leak-proof countertop crock, stores scraps, peels, shells and whatever else you want to feed it. When it's full, have one of the kids carry it out to this supercool, rotating bin composter, small enough to fit in even the tiniest yards. Scraps get dumped in through a little hatch, which then latches shut, so the whole load can be spun by the hand crank. No muss, no fuss. When used in conjunction with Compost Activator, a load is �finished� in a mere 4-6 weeks, at which point the bin can be removed and dumped into the garden for low-impact, organic, D.I.Y. fertilizer.

Against my husband�s better wishes, my inner hippy can�t wait to order one of these babies and report back to you on it. Whether it is truly odorless remains to be seen, but it can�t stink any more than the fertilizer we�re using on our garden right now, so I�m going to give it a shot. Are you?

Posted Jul 23 2007, 04:03 PM by Alisyn with | with 5 comment(s)

Filed under: recycled materials, Family Fun, green living, greenhouse, gardeningg, low-impact living, composting

A Parent's Trash Is a Toddler's Treasure....at Home and on Vacay

You can throw out labels like "eco-friendly parenting" or even "cheap as hell," but whatever you do, don't throw that junk mail out. And for God's sake, don't put those Thai food take-out containers in the recycling bin! Those things are toddler gold, way better than the $50 singing light-up vibrating plastic ball thrower that blares out the ABCs to the tune of Old MacDonald. And much better than the Elmo doll thingy your mother-in-law was on a waiting list for eight months to buy for your child.

You don't have to be one of those crazy coupon ladies to admit that stuff meant for the trash can actually make great toys for toddlers. I love this article with quick and common-sense ideas on how to create toys for your kids out of toilet paper rolls, cardboard boxes, margarine tub and frozen juice can lids (not that any of you buy juice from concentrate or fake butter...the horrors!), among many other items ready to be tossed or recycled.

These tips are not only great for home (as evidenced by the untouched bath toys sitting sadly on the side of the tub for months and hastily, happily replaced by hummus tubs and the perineal squeeze bottle) but are also wonderful ways to avoid packing tons of toys on vacation. The hotel room can become a place to scavenge for toys-to-be and the best part is, the plastic cup "drums" and ice bucket "swimming pool" for shampoo and conditioner "people" all get replaced tomorrow! But whether you're at home or away when you whip up a fabulously entertaining shoebox and rubber band "guitar," do remember that once played with, this trash -- I mean toy -- is destined to become just as prized and permanent as all the other cluttery, crappy toys you actually paid money to store.

Posted Jul 09 2007, 09:03 AM by Jessica Ashley (Sassafrass) with | with no comments

Filed under: recycled materials, toys, toddlers

Ecofriendly Crafts: Turn Your Kids' Clothes into Cute Totes

It's been a week and a day since the last time I posted an idea from Craft Chi (are you saving your wine corks? I am!). If she keeps up the pace I may have to put her on my payroll, because this is another excellent idea for people with an excess of adorable clothing that's no longer wearable.

This tote is made out of a girl's dress (and includes an optional section made of quilted fabric, but you wouldn't need to bother with that). Think of it: all those dresses that you're too sentimental to part with, just gathering mildew in a box in the garage. Why the heck would you not make one or two or twelve into a handbag? She uses contrasting fabric for the binding, but you could use a sash or store-bought trim, or a piece of another item of clothing, or whatever you want.

I love that it's handmade, I love that it's an automatic keepsake, and I love that it repurposes something that may otherwise sit unused in obscurity for decades. Guess what all the grandmas and aunties are getting for the holidays this year.

(photo from Craft Chi)

Posted Jun 06 2007, 01:27 PM by Patti with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: clothing, recycled materials, sewing, crafts, activities, craft chi

BioUPgrade: Pee-soaked Disposables as Fertilizer?

I'm not entirely sure what to say about this concept, introduced by Dutch design firm Qenep in the new book SuperUse. Basically, those little absorbent gel beads in disposable diapers can, once saturated, be repurposed as plant fertilizer. I can only assume, based on my personal observation, that ordinary lawn grass doesn't benefit from the high dose of nitrogen like other plants might. Please don't ask me for details.

The idea of using nitrogen-rich urine as a fertilizer isn't totally off the wall, there's a ton of information out there about it. It's interesting, and I'm almost sorry that we're about to say goodbye to diapers forever around here, because we're big gardeners. Incidentally, if you use washable menstrual pads you can also soak them, then use the nutrient-rich soaking water on your plants. And now nobody's ever going to eat anything out of my garden, are they?

After hearing about the downside of recycling disposable diapers outright, a concept that's been tested in a few areas, it does seem like there might be some possibilities here. But in a country that can barely handle the idea of babies breastfeeding in public, I seriously doubt it's going to take off.

(via Daddytypes)

Posted May 19 2007, 09:27 AM by Patti with | with 4 comment(s)

Filed under: recycled materials, diapers, daddytypes, urine, qenep, superuse, disposable diapers

Mr. McGroovy's Cardboard Crafts for Families

If you've ever secretly wished you had the funds and the balls to buy one of those elaborate and expensive playhouses for ~~yourself~~ your kids, this might just be the project for you: a castle made from eight refrigerator boxes, which you can paint as you please. Not much for royalty? No problem, there are several other design ideas.

Mr. McGroovy's is a parent-owned microbusiness that sells reusable plastic rivets, similar to fasteners you might see in an Ikea flatpack, designed to hold cardboard together for children's play. You can work from McGroovy's free project ideas or come up with your own, and they even give you tips on finding sources of free cardboard. According to their website, Mr. McGroovy's is for the children--they believe in the importance of creative play, and their product is designed to help encourage that.

I know just how I'll furnish my my kids' castle, too.

(via boing boing)

Posted Apr 17 2007, 03:28 PM by Patti with | with no comments

Filed under: recycled materials, crafts, activities, products, boing boing, mr. mcgroovy's

Soiled Diapers as Fuel? Poo Power Isn't What It's Cracked Up To Be

Peed-upon disposable diapers may be able to pay it forward in the form of garden fertilizer, but it doesn't look so promising for a Japanese company's experiment in repurposing poopy diapers and turning them into a fuel source.

Daddytypes did a little digging and has the full scoop: if you see a story about the revolutionary discovery of poopy-nappy fuel cross your feed reader, don't get too excited. Japanese diapers are paper, not the plastic/fabric/noxious gel bead type found in the US. And they don't seem to produce a heck of a lot of energy anyway.

Damn. One of the most sustainable and renewable resources we've got, and it isn't worth shit.

Posted Mar 30 2007, 09:28 AM by Patti with | with no comments

Filed under: recycled materials, environmental issues, diapers, Japan, daddytypes, alternative fuels

Foldschool: DIY Cardboard Kids' Furniture

Hey, another reason not to push the potty training thing with my toddler: I need the diaper boxes to make furniture! Foldschool offers free downloadable patterns and instructions to create three different pieces of kid-scaled cardboard furniture, using supplies you may very well have lying around the house. There's the rocker at right, a chair, and a stool that could easily double as a side table (for your child's mocktails, perhaps).

Looking at the sample pattern, I can already tell it's going to take me a few false starts before I get anything to look like the pictures (unless I turn production over to my spatially-gifted partner). But decorating the finished products? Sign me up for that. Stickers, glitter, paint, cutout pictures--we're going to have some damn fine cardboard d�cor up in here.

(via Craft)

Posted Mar 21 2007, 07:23 PM by Patti with | with no comments

Filed under: recycled materials, crafts, activities, furniture

All Over But the Wrapping: Last Minute Giftwrap Ideas

Yeah, we haven't even started. I've been wrapping gifts to deliver to friends on a case-by-case basis, but the majority of them are still unwrapped, in shopping bags out in the garage, and the rolls of paper are still in the trunk of my car. Once I bring them in, I'll be obligated to find something that the girls can do to "help" so I won't have to keep reminding them that scissors and tape are Mama Toys. Oh, I could let them help for real, but then the presents would look as though Santa had a team of wild dogs instead of reindeer, and I still have some of my pre-parenthood dignity intact.

I'll start by printing out some of these gift tags and letting the kids go to town with markers, crayons, and colored pencils. Anna Maria's cute dress-shaped tag will keep them busy for a good long while. More gift tag links are here at Lifehacker. Also via Lifehacker, beccajo's great idea for printable wrapping paper at her Curbly blog, which looks so cool for smaller packages and would also be a great coloring project for the kids.

Here's another gift tag idea at Pink Chalk Studio: break out the safety scissors and glue sticks and use paper scraps to make these little trees (you can find the tags at any office supply store), and I love Beth's environmentalist wrapping job, which Parent Hacks reworks as an excuse to thin your child's art collection (Parent Hacks also suggests assembling everything before you wrap it, which I heartily endorse).

Whatever you wrap with, check out the instructions for Japanese gift wrapping techniques at Whip Up. You may never go back to the old way.

Posted Dec 23 2006, 02:06 PM by Patti with | with no comments

Filed under: recycled materials, crafts, activities, kid art, holiday, linklove, gift wrap, gifts

Cover Your Butt: Four Sustainable Ways to Pants Your Kid

My girls are deep into a dresses-only phase--at least, my four year old Molly is, and 2.5 year old Daisy just wants to do whatever Molly does. So even though I'm a little skirtsy myself, I sometimes find myself fighting pants envy.

Katurah of Luckybeans started me down the road today with her beach pants tutorial. As a devoted teeshirt surgeon, I am always relieved to find a new way to chop up old dot.com freebies, and when it's a kidcentric project it's even better (how many halter tops do I really need?).

I love the idea of these soft, comfortable shorts and can't wait for summer (although, who am I kidding? I'll be making beach skirts). But what with the weather outside being frightful and all, I had to hunt down some winter warmth.

Kath's pants instructions at her Handy Home Projects blog (currently not updated, but you can find her posting at whipup.net) are easy enough for a novice seamster to follow. At right, Whitney of rookiemoms shows off a successful version of Kath's pants pattern made from a recycled teeshirt (hey, maybe I don't have to wait for summer to burn a few shirts!).

Michelle at Green Kitchen serves up some wicked cute trousers made from the arms of old sweaters--cute, cozy, and environmentally sound.

I think these might pass girlie-girl muster in my house, since they could almost pass as the only type of pant with the Four Year Old Girl Stamp of Approval (that would be yoga pants, because Molly has apparently gone Hollywood). Make them from 100% wool sweaters and they're also great covers for cloth diapered kids. So, if the Doctor Huxtable sweater Aunt Jane sends for Chanukah this year just "happens" to get shrunk in the laundry...

And the pants de r�sistance?: Tammie at Head Full Of Pixies empowered her son Jack to design his own underpants. Now that, I think my little skirts will buy.

Posted Dec 09 2006, 12:03 PM by Patti with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: clothing, recycled materials, sewing, crafts

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