This amazingly easy and cute reusable sandwich wrap was made by Betz White, author of Sewing Green and she’ll show you how to make it step by step.

Make some Cloth Snack Bags.

Make a lunch box out of an old Nintendo – yeah it’s true.

Oilcloth Lunch Bag Tutorial – so cool and you can reuse an old tablecloth.

Reusable-Upcycled Lunch bag – made with a reycled bird seed bag.

Make a lunch bag out of old jeans.

Make a sweet as candy Vintage Pillowcase Lunchbox.

Make some other eco-friendly snack bags.

Make your own insulated lunch bag.

Make an ADORABLE burlap bag! So flipping cute you will faint. This one was made of an old coffee bag, but you could use any sort of burlap.

Add in some homemade cloth napkins.

NOTE: Since most homemade lunch sacks are fabric, don’t forget to make some little reusable covers for your ice packs or your bags will get too wet. Basically, make an ice pack cover like you would a snack or sandwich bag.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Kids love arts and crafts, puttering in the garden, and helping out in the kitchen – all of it, messy business for a little one. However, you can let your tot indulge his or her inner mess maker while keeping their clothing a bit cleaner with a great organic apron choice. As shown above Under the Nile makes extra cute natural 100% organic Egyptian cotton aprons in both Denim and an adorable gardening style.

Mimi the Sardine recently transitioned to using only 100% organic cotton in their products, and they’ve got some beautiful organic apron choices for kids. These brightly colored Oeko-Tex Standard certified aprons are made with 100% organic cotton and water based dyes, sure to please both wanna get messy kiddos and green-minded parents.

Last up are the natural looking, adorable Divine 100% Organic Aprons for Kids. Made with 100% organic hemp/cotton fabric and a simple design, these aprons are picture prefect for organic cooking kid fun. Comes in two styles; Meadow Print with little bird and City Monster with little bird.

$20 – Organic Denim Apron via Under the Nile

$13.73 – Organic Gardening Apron via Atlantas Naturals

$20 – Mimi the Sardine Organic Aprons via Giggle

$28 – Divine 100% Organic Aprons for Kids via Hazel Wood Children

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If you’re looking for a fun summer project for the kiddos, you really can’t go wrong with Shains Recycled Fashion Accessories. Shains takes crafty fun to a whole new level with their line of recycled and recyclables bracelets, necklaces, pet collars, hair bands, key chains, and more. Each accessory is lead free certified, and designed to work with Shains colorful array of interchangeable icons and letters.

Because of the small icons, Shains is an inappropriate craft for kiddos under three years of age, but after that, kids are good to go. Shains accessories encourage kids (or adults) to make their own interchangeable and wearable statements with great elements (icons and letters). Shains not only serves up fun, but does so in a eco-friendly manner. Eco-perks of Shains’ accessories include:

• Bracelets & Cuffs made of recycled TRE (Thermoplastic Elastomer, a rubber).
• Elements are made of recycled ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene).
• Packaging is made from recycled and recyclable paper.
• All of the Shains accessories are recyclable when kids are done with them.
• Shainsware, the Shains company, gives back a percentage of net profits to environmental organizations.

Prices on Shains Accessories vary; starting at $1.00 for a 4-pack of icons and $3.50 for one recycled bracelet. The best deals are on the multi-packs though. For example, your child can snag a Recycled Cuff with 60 Elements for $13. Visit the Shains shop for all accessories and prices.

+ Shains Recycled Fashion Accessories

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

What are HappyMais: Natural arts and crafts material made with GM-free certified cornstarch and dyed with non-toxic food colorings. You can use them to build just about any old thing you can think of and there’s no glue needed. HappyMais stick together with water.

Eco-perks:

• 100% biodegradable
• Non-toxic
• For every box sold, the manufacturer makes a donation to the Earth Fund Association.
• If you buy from Peek A Green you’ll get a tree planted for your purchase.

See Cedar’s take on this craft material below – neither of us like talking on camera or being on camera much, which you’ll likely be able to tell.

There’s a boy’s set and girl’s set available, which frankly is kind of silly since this is an any gender sort of toy, but that’s how they come. Each set comes with over 700 pieces in various bright colors, sizes and pre-cut shapes to help children with their creations, a natural cellulose sponge, a Mater-Bi knife (made from cornstarch) and a cardboard sheet with pop-out designs – flowers & jewels shapes for the girls or pop-out monsters & insects shapes for the boys. Either set would make a great gift or summer activity. Cedar loves his.

Has your child ever played with these?

[images via Peek A Green]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

1. Make a recycled Cardboard Playhouse like the one shown above from Make Baby Stuff, then break out the non-toxic art supplies and let your little one decorate to her heart’s content.
2. Kool-Aid dyed play silks – kids love play silks. You can toss them up, use them as doll clothing, use them for dress up fun, or fly around the yard with them swooshing behind you. You can find cheap silks at thrift stores OR silk material which takes a little more work because you’ll have to cut the material and mend them, but no big. If you don’t want to use Kool-aid try dying the silks with some homemade juice dye (made from plants).
3. Homemade Organic Paint Soap for Kids – not freakishly bright, but non-toxic subtly colored paints you can make with the kids.
4. Remember all those lame toilet paper tubes? Grab some glue and paste a million of them together to build a log cabin – if you start saving cardboard tubes now, you’ll have plenty by mid summer to build a big ol’ cabin.
5. Build a Bubble-Powered Rocket – with recycled paper and film canisters. This rocket actually lifts off.
6. Awesome collection of old-fashioned, handmade toys from Mother Earth News.
7. And my favorite homemade eco-recycled toy of all time – the amazing Perfect Summer Recycled Dollhouse Project.

What green and homemade toy ideas do you have?

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

1. Donate – many schools, community centers, homeless shelters, and other organizations would be happy to take your magazines. Don’t forget about your pals and family members too.
2. Make a nice full color cookbook on the cheap.
3. Help your kiddos to make a super cool DIY dollhouse.
4. Make some amazing coasters or bowls for your own home or to give as holiday gifts.
5. Grab a piece of recycled plywood, the pile of mags and make a chair or make a cool table.
6. Save them up and during the holidays choose festive pages to wrap gifts with.
7. Make homemade stickers for the kids.
8. Make beautiful homemade jewelry – it looks great I promise.
9. Save them, shred them, and use as packing material for a move or holiday gift sending – the benefit over newspaper is no stains on items. You can also simply crumple the pages for packing material.
10. Make the coolest garbage can you’ve ever seen – ironic because you’re keeping mags out of the trash by making it!

What other ideas do you have for old magazines? Really the possibilities are endless. I’ve got a lot of other ideas in my head right now – tell me yours…

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

She has the most adorable crafty flowers posted. You have to go see. You could do this yourself with the kiddos using recycled home materials (I’m not going to tell you what materials – you’ll have to go look).

Enjoy.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Seriously adorable right!? I love it. It looks so professional and so very in season, yet you could do this at home with recycled and scrape materials. BETTER YET you could so adapt this for any holiday or reason. Like I’m thinking a cool blue and green hanging globe ordeal for Earth Day. It would also be perfect in birthday colors for a pretty decor touch above the birthday table or cake.

Learn how to make this project from one very talented mama, Heather.

[image via Hello my name is Heather]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Remember my green New Year’s goals? One of them was to actually recycle those pesky toilet paper tubes. Well, I had a thought. Maybe I could track down some ways to actually put them to good use. And just maybe, these tips will help you too. I know we have a few other tube slackers here.

First I came up with some of my own ideas (using that old cerebral cortex)…

Baby safety: You probably know this one, but if it fits in a tube, it’s too small for a baby. This has got to be the cheapest child safety tool ever.

Cat safety: Um, Peggy and I chat often, and sometimes, sadly, compare cats to babies. She’s into cats. I’m into tots. In any case, I was thinking, if cats are so much like babies, and something fits in a tube, maybe your cat shouldn’t have it either. Other cat use – rolling toy!

Cord keeper: Roll your electrical cords up, pop them into a tube, and you’ve got a cheap and easy cord keeper.

Make kid gear: Need pretend binoculars, a telescope, a big ol’ marble run? You can make all these and scads more with toilet paper tubes. All you need is a little imagination.

Casual napkin rings: I’m not a napkin ring user. Frankly, I think they’re overkill, but you could make some.

Get published: Not typical, but since we’re talking tubes, I figured I’d mention that I wrote an entire post about toilet paper tubes here, and guess what? Someone put it in their book. Yup, it’s true. Write about tubes and maybe get in a book. It could happen. At any rate, if you like me, it gives you a reason to pick up the book now.

Then – I ran out of ideas, so I looked to the web (more brains, more ideas):

For anyone:

• Wrap small gifts
• Gerbil toy
• Make a kazoo
• Make an awesome modern fruit bowl
• Germinate seeds – I can’t believe I didn’t think of this.

For kids…

• Puppets
• Rain Sticks
• Party Poppers
• Dinosaur bone (actually it says you need a paper towel tube, but since we frown on paper towels around here, I’m gonna say, tape two tubes together.)
• Totem Pole

For criminals:

Break into locked laptops

For people with WAY too much time on their hands:

I found this totally bizarre idea at the Mothering forums. Someone said, “Tape a bunch together so that the outcome is about the size of your t.v. screen. Attach this to the screen, turn on the t.v. (sound off). It creates a neat kaleidoscope effect.”

Wow. Really this sounds like something a bunch of twenty something guys might do after a night of too much bad keg beer and Pink Floyd. I’m not judging, I’m just saying. If you’re really so inclined, I bet kids would find this experiment very interesting.

What will you be doing with your tubes this week? Note that after I spent all this time on these tips, if you say “recycling” I’ll just die.

OR post your own toilet paper tube reuse tip in the comments.

[image via stock.xchng - altered by miss Jennifer]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

I actually meant to get this post up in time for Christmas, however, things got crazy. Still, I decided to go ahead and post in case you’re planning a green New Year’s Eve bash (or you can bookmark this post for next year’s holiday season).

Here are some green candle holiday or party arrangement ideas…

First the candles:

You want clean burning candles of course. Great choices include soy candles or beeswax candles. If you’re looking for safe, green, and long term candle light, go with LED candle lights.

Arrange your candles:

Use glass: Recycled glass candle holders are a super eco-friendly choice. Even if you can’t find recycled glass, glass is still an eco-smart choice. Arrange glass candle holders on a table, or on a tray or plate. Place recycled glass beads or rocks around the candles.

Use real rocks: Which look just as good as glass, it’s just a different sort of mood. For a casual family-minded get together, you could even have your kiddos paint the rocks.

Use pretend crystals: This is a great New Year’s eve decor idea. Place your candles in a wine glass, bowl, or on a elegant platter. Sprinkle recycled rock gravel in pretty colors around your candle. The best place I’ve seen to get crystal looking recycled rocks is Recycled Rocks! They have really cool glass rocks in various sizes and beautiful colors, such as…

4-6″ Glass Rocks in Cobalt and Pink (many more colors)

Recycled Glass Gravel in Clear and Avon Blue (many more colors)

Glitter up with stolen art gear: If you’ve got kids, you most likely have the supplies you need already to create a shiny candle arrangement – no buying anything new. Grab some acid-free glitter and a short, squat silver or tin tray (think trays look better; as in under an inch sides. Place one or two larger candles in the center of your tray, place smaller candles around the large ones. Fill in the bottom of the tray with glitter and some random glitter stars.

Use natural items: I recently saw this really pretty idea for floating candles in bowls or glass of water, along with cranberries. It’s a cool idea and without the holiday greens (that you’ll see if you visit the link) you could use this idea for various winter holidays and events.

You can also arrange flowers in your floating water with candles, or place any sort of pine cones, greens, flowers, or fruits around candles on a plate or tray. Decorating For Autumn: Fall Tablescapes and Floral Arrangements – is autumn based, but is actually a good general tutorial about how to make natural arrangements. Plus common mistakes are discussed. It’s a good read if you’re looking to incorporate nature into your candle arrangements.

[Various candle images via stock.xchng, unless otherwise noted]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family