Things to do with old Greeting Cards

Postcards is probably my favorite idea. Check with your post office to make sure but I believe the minimum size is 3 1/2" x 5" and the max is 4 1/4" by 6".

You can also cut out squares or flowers or whatever from the cards and make them into gift tags.
 

Or make small gift boxes, perfect for earrings and such.

Do a collage and either frame it or laminate it and use it as place mats and/or coasters.

For that matter, just frame a single card if it's particularly pretty or special to you in some way.

You can always use the pics and even the poems and personalized touches for scrapbooking.

Use the cutouts to embellish packages. If you're really green, you can use the funny papers or brown paper bags, throw some card cutouts and there you go.

Decoupage the pictures onto boxes, jars, pots, trays, or wherever else you can think to put them.

I also like the idea of using them as recipe cards.

Cut into strips and make them into bookmarks. The pictures don't even have to make sense, they can just be abstract. Laminate them if you want.

Those are a few ideas I found. Please feel free to share yours.

Presentation, That little something extra

Intimate Weddings shows candies wrapped in old comics but really anything can be wrapped in these. I like that they jazzed them up with buttons and bows.

I also really like this album cover Gift Box idea from Craft Knife.

Martha suggests using extra ribbon and shredded gift wrap pieces as padding when shipping the items just to jazz it up that much more. Man, she thinks of everything.


I think these "tiny treasure cards out of all your leftover and cherished bits" are a great idea.

Green X-mas Ornaments, Wrap and Decor Ideas

I love these shadow box ornaments made from old ornament boxes via Recycled crafts. It makes me think I could do this with old X-mas cards.


Recycled Crafts also have these bows made from old VHS tape, but it seems to me these could be ornaments too. If you did colored vellum behind them and made sure they were well lit, it could neat...something like that anyway.

I found these Soda pop can Star Ornaments on This Next. I thought they might inspire some different designs.















I also liked this StarBurst Ornament from Thrifty Fun, which can be made from the remnants of gift wrapping paper.









Thanks to Belladia for her post on this Martha Stewart Newspaper Tree

Green Gifts For the Skilled and the Not So Skilled

Obviously, everyone can't make these, unless you have a kiln that is. However, maybe you know someone who does or can be inspired by this wine bottle cheese tray that I found on Craftster.

If you're lucky enough to have someone who's good with tools, this side table revamp may be a possibility. I think kids would love it and it seems like everyone has one of these old tables they don't use. Out of the Crayon Box talks alot about how she did it on her site.


Definitely check out So You Think You’re Crafty’s site for tons of great ideas like this ribbon wallet.

Need something for a heavy reader? You can a tutorial on how to make these VHS bookends over at Craft Stylish.




I found this pencil holder made from diskettes that could go with a green desk set.



Here's an instructional video on how to make a very cool & simple throw pillow out of a T-shirt from Generation T:




Then we have Eco Bite's "Eco Christmas Gifts from A -Z" which has a pretty thorough list of ideas

Kids + Recycled + Halloween + Crafts

I am doing a dinosaur theme for my son's b-day and came across instructions on how to make a Milk Jug Pteranodon along with a Milk Jug Tyrannosaurus Rex Skull, among other things. I thought they were pretty good and so I thought I'd share.



I had just mentioned a bunny costume on my blog RnR Reviews, but this one is done from an old shirt and it is super easy- gotta love that! Lucky Beans has a complete tutorial.

Egg Shell Sidewalk Chalk-Yes, chalk made with eggshells. I know it sounds weird but definitely worth trying all the same.

Eco-Artware has a ton of cool eco crafts for kids. They led me to a site Free Kids Crafts, where I found this cute pumpkin jar & the mummy jar as well.

Green Halloween

Remember this Halloween to light with Solar lighting, LED lights, or candles. I say that but I have to mention this:

I didn't know if I should put this in Halloween or X-Mas. It is for a Dexter/slasher party but the chandelier is so beautiful it feels weird putting it here. To make it, they used "Repurposed wine glasses dipped in white latex". If you go to the link, they talk more about how it was done. I just love it!

Now, if you're throwing a party, think digital invites.

Of course there's all kinds of great advise about organic candy apples and pumpkins, non toxic face paints, fabric choices and all that. Honestly, I'm not an expert on that type of stuff so I don't like to speak on it. The goal is to get there, but as it is, I'm far from it. So, if you know better than I, please feel free to add tips. I did find this website, Green Halloween. It has some good tips.

One thing that I think I am knowledgeable about is crafts and I have to say I have always preferred homemade costumes. Even if it's a hand me down, most things can easily be altered and jazzed up enough that they become like new.

While on the subject, I did do a post on my other blog, RnR Reviews about fairy wings I saw done on HGTV years ago. I thought these were awesome then and still do. Halloween, Renaissance Festival, school plays or just because, these are easy and use things you probably have already. While she uses store bought wire, I made some with wire hangers and white hose. I can't stand wire hangers for clothes so I had to come up with something for them. They worked great!

Halloween For Green Crafters

I've been looking up Halloween crafts that can be made from things most of us crafters already have or even things that you wouldn't typically think of as being a craft item.

Here are some examples:

Pom Pom Spider Cutouts - Who doesn't have some pom poms lying around? If not, then I would think these could easily be made out of numerous odds and ends around the house.



Candy Corn Family-Ok, I don't like that they're made into people; but using Styrofoam to make candy corn, I do like that. I'm just gonna have to figure something else to make from them...maybe if they had scary faces or something.



Pumpkin Luminaries from pop bottles-I don't know that the instructions are "green" but I'm sure they can be made in a eco friendly way.



I also found some links for ghost luminaries, monster jug heads, and even more eerie luminaries

Grocery Bag Ghosts

Garbage Bag Spiders

Green Picnic Supplies

Just in time for 4th of July. Thanks to Gaiatribe for her link to Chow's article on "Environmentally Friendly Picnic Supplies". Features include:

Palm Leaf Dinnerware:

Biodegradable plates are a natural and renewable resource. Naturally discarded sheaths of the leaves of the Adaka palm tree are collected from the forest floor. No trees are cut down. The plates and the disposable cutlery are even compostable!

Seventh Generation's Recycled, Unbleached Paper Napkins.Greenwave Tableware: 100% biodegradable products

Eco Gifts for Father's Day

I realize this is short notice but better late than never I say. There are actually a lot of great eco gifts out there for Father's Day now. I'm just going to share a few things I liked in general, Father's Day or not. I realize some of them are on the pricey side, but I think it's interesting to show what people are coming up with.

"World’s first suit made from recycled PET bottles" by Bagir (see Treehugger's full list here)


"Ultimate Hammock made from recycled soda bottles" at Gaiam (Alternative Consumer full list here)


Bottle Cap Lures

Eco-Friendly Golf Balls made of 100% renewable materials (Quazen's full list here)

New sites & various recycled crafts

Well, I finally got my copy of Green Christmas from the library. Extremely late, but it turned out okay because I didn't love the books ideas. Some of the tips were too green for my liking. I mean I'm not going to cut out Christmas to go green and I don't think you have to. Mind you the book doesn't say that, but after so many extreme tips, you begin to feel like it's implied.

The most useful tips I got from it were actually web sites I had not heard of, like Crafting A Green World. I have only begun looking over this site, but I've already found some great stuff.


I especially liked the rag pillows and Brown Paper Bag Recipe Cards.

Another site I learned about is closely related to a post I did on cardboard crafts. It's called Fold School, love the name by the way. It has some directions on building what is supposed to be stable cardboard furniture. It's not the biggest selection, but for someone with a lot of cardboard and time on their hands, it could be fun. I'd add some fabric or paint to it if it were me. Let me know if you try it and I'll do the same. As it is right now, all my boxes are going toward packing.

From Crafting A Green World, I found some other great sites on their blogroll. Again, I know it's late but I just had to post about these glittery recycled bulbs I found on Craft Chi. How awesome are they? Not to mention these cool fabric masks. I can tell I'll have to re-visit this site often.



There's also instructions on making this very handy pencil case out of mailing tubes, a bag made from a printed sweater and a jewel case pen holder below.

Go Green This Valentine's Day

One big way to go green on Valentine's Day is to cut down on the hoards of Valentine's cards. If you want to do cards, by all means please send eCards. Not only do they save the trees, but you can find tons of decent choices out there for FREE!

I like to bombard my husband with ecards all year long to cheer up his days and let him know I'm thinking of him. On my ecard quest today, I came across Care2 eCard. Though their selection is somewhat small, Care2 makes donations to environmental nonprofits with every ecard sent. To review, that's free, smile on loved ones face and helping save the rainforest. No downside there. What are you waiting for? Send an ecard already!

Late Christmas Finds

I came across this on Instructables.com and had to post it. I know it's late but I'm all for doing Christmas crafts after Christmas. Goodness knows, I never have time before Christmas. I don't know how easy this would be, but looks interesting none the less. Get instructions here.

I also like to shop for gift wrap, etc. after x-mas and was really glad to find recycled gift wrap out this year. I hope you all got some. If not, there's probably some still floating around. Most places are 75%-90% off now.




The one to the left is for displaying X-mas cards. I've probably said it before, but I am determined to do something like this because they're piling up.

This, not that

My husband and I went out with some equally environmentally conscious friends the other day and they mentioned that we should take the stairs instead of the elevator. It may sound completely stupid of me, but I'd never thought about the energy the elevator takes. It's just one of those things you're so used to doing without thinking about; but now I know and can't blame ignorance any longer. So, I'll be taking the stairs from now on. It's not like I can't use the exercise anyway.


Another thing we may not think about but you should really use the microwave over the oven--it uses much less energy.


Use plastic milk containers over cartons because the plastic can be recycled and the wax cartons cannot.





Speaking of milk jugs, Family Fun has some interesting ideas about re-using them for Halloween, among other things. Check it out here.