Color Your World Green
September 14, 2007 by Jennifer
There are plenty of eco-slick coloring items for kids and adults to enjoy. With these art supplies you can relax, color, and even learn a few things.
Little Treehugger Sketchbook: a great sketchbook made with 100% recycled, acid-free paper. 80lb weight and clipboard covers make it sturdy enough to carry around outside so that kids can sketch their favorite nature scenes. The paper comes in four colors (orange, yellow, green, and blue)
Soy Crayons: if you haven’t used soy crayons yet you’re in for a treat. I haven’t used this brand but the ones Cedar and I have used are smooth as silk and very vivid in color; much nicer than petroleum-based crayons. Soy Crayons are made with soybean oil and certified by the Art & Creative Materials Institute to be nontoxic.
You can find the Soy Crayons and the Little Treehugger Sketchbook at this area of Progressive Kids.
Groovy Coloring Book: I want to get these coloring books asap. I love them. I have some mandala coloring books and they really help you chill. In case you didn’t know mandala art is not only fun but it’s a holistic healing tool. Coloring has been used in therapy for patients with cancer, dementia, anxiety, and more. These books are extra slick because they’re made on recycled paper and have reclaimed binding.
The one issue I have is that the website they’re on makes it sort of troublesome to purchase the books — you have to email and then make payment arrangements but the company; Trillium Artisans creates eco-sensible and fair-trade products (in my hometown Portland, Oregon) using high quality reclaimed and recycled materials. They state that they promote, “A triple bottom line of people, planet and profit for all.” So, they’re a great place to support despite the odd ordering process.
Another great choice of coloring colors are natural bee’s wax crayons. I love bee’s wax crayons because you can blend them in amazing ways. This set from Art House is nice, made from bee honeycombs, and break resistant.
Next up today is the amazing Donna Atwood Designs. Wait until you see…
Here’s the one I want…
These coloring books are made on 100% recycled paper, educational, and just beautiful. Atwood has two other great coloring books and more items like postcards at her site. There’s also a sample page from one of the coloring books so her site is well worth a visit.
If you just can’t wait to get coloring or are low on funds try…
Rustle the Leaf, a site with plenty of free earth happy coloring pages to download. Just remember to use your own recycled paper to make them (both sides) and recycled ink cartridges — then you’re in business.
Recycled ink cartridges. That’s something I have not tried recently. Do you mean having your existing cartridges re-filled? Or buying already filled recycled containers?
Actually, I did buy some re-used cartridges years ago from monks (the company is ran by monks) and my printer stopped working almost immediately. Maybe it was going to die anyway. Surely, their products can’t be that defective if they are still in business. I’ve just been cautious about it since then.
I mean re-filled cartridges. Many places do that now so there’s almost no excuse not to. Or you can recycle your used cartridges at most office supply stores and buy new ones but then there is the added energy consumption used to make new ones — so that’s a consideration. The monk situation is very interesting.
Yes, I think Walgreens also refills them. I’ll try it next time!
I think some Walgreens will even give you one free sample? I know that they recently had a totally free sample day so that people could try it. BUT I bet if you asked they’d allow one free refill — to see if you like the quality.
Hi! I just came across this great post – thank you so much for featuring our Groovy Coloring Books!
I just wanted to let you know that we do have a PayPal shopping cart on our website for easy ordering – the only reason you would need to contact us is if you would like to specify the color you would like for the cover of the book, as it is produced with 24 different cover designs. If you don’t really care what cover you get, then it should be very easy to add it to your cart and purchase it. Thanks again and I hope that will make things easier!
Christine
Hey Christine; I’ll take a look at your site again this weekend and make a change to the post. Before I did not see a checkout area; just the contact message. Thanks for the heads up and for stopping by