Tree Hugging Family » homemade-stickers

Homemade Eco Gifts You Can Make for the Holidays!

Jennifer — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:57:39 +0000

Green gifts can cost a little more; but not if you make them yourself. I’m going to give you some ideas for homemade eco gifts that won’t cost too much to make and that people will actually adore. Some are from Tree Hugging Family’s past, and others are new.

If I see any more over the next couple of weeks, I’ll post those too.

Great little homemade green gifts for party hosts:

Pennyroyal, Cinnamon, & Lavender Air Freshener

Flower & Spice Table Toppers via Family Corner

Organic homemade beauty gifts:

Following are some of the organic beauty recipes I’ve posted here over time. These make great low-cost homemade eco gifts. If you’re going to give one of these as a gift, make sure you spice it up. Put the product in a nice vintage looking jar or bottle and be sure to label it. You can make a wonderful custom label on your computer, or for say grandma, have your kids make the label with crayons and markers.

Lemon Bath Cookies

Organic Facial & Body Cream

Organic Cleansing Creams

Homemade Sugar Body Scrub

Homemade eco crafty gifts:

Solar Art Project – if you can find some sunshine, a solar print makes a great gift when matted. Image via Sunprint Gallery.

Make some homemade paper, then bind it into a journal with a beautiful cover. To learn how to make a homemade journal watch one of the following videos – Junk Journal (a pop and his daughter make a journal out of recycled trash!) or Basic DIY Book Binding Demonstration.

Make everyone a homemade reusable shopping bag out of old clothes or fabric you already have on hand.

Yummy green homemade gifts:

Cookie and Brownie Mix In a Jar – replace conventional items with organic.

Cornmeal Rosemary Biscotti or Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

Get Out Those Canning Jars – by the timely Linette who must have known I was going to post about this.

Great homemade eco stocking stuffers:

Homemade Organic Paint Soap for Kids

Homemade Recycled Stickers

[image via here]

Recycled and molded crayons: Grab those broken crayons and learn how to mold them into cool shapes (use holiday molds).

Bonus homemade joke gift for bad co-workers, mother-in-laws, or your lame ex: Homemade Anti-Tree Hugging Beauty: Bacon Soap!

Stay tuned because soon we’ll also be looking at some more homemade gifts (hopefully) plus eco-friendly wrapping ideas. In the meantime, Eco Street had a great post last year -7 groovy handmade recycled gifts to make and give, that has plenty of cool ideas, even for pets.

November current events at Tree Hugging Family – themes, reviews, news, and more…

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Great Summer Projects, Crafts, & Nature Activities for Kids…

Jennifer — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:39:29 +0000

With summer here, maybe you’re looking for something new to do. We’ve posted lots on fun kid activities, so I thought I’d round up a good bunch of stuff that you and more importantly, your kids, might enjoy. Don’t forget, if all else fails, there’s always a picnic at the park.

Nature based fun:

Messy & colorful fun:

Plant based fun:

Recycled fun:

Yummy fun:

Now you can’t say the kids are bored – there are enough projects here to get you going on the path to summer fun.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in June 2008

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Eco-Kid Project: Homemade Recycled Stickers

Jennifer — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 12:35:30 +0000

All kids love stickers but they do come on those little glossy sheets most of the time; glossy sheets that are thrown away when your kids are done. There’s a homemade version that you and your littles can make that creates less waste.

You need:

1 package (1/4 oz) unflavored vegan gelatin (or normal gelatin if you’re ok with that)
1 tbsp cold water
3 tbsp boiling water
1/2 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp extract — I like almond but you can use vanilla, orange, lemon, whatever you like

Creating the stickers:

Put cold water into a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin in. It should sit about five minute.
Add boiling water. Mix until powder dissolves.
Add sugar and extract. Mix.
Grab a paint brush and brush the mixture onto sheets or scraps of recycled paper. Since kids will be licking this stuff be sure that you use paper that is still clean — at least on one side. This is a great idea for how to make use of scraps of paper used in previous art projects.
Let the paper dry for about an hour.

Later if your paper has dried and curled up just set something heavy on it for a bit. At this point if you covered full sheets with the gelatin mixture you’ll want to cut out shapes or strips — really cut whatever shapes you’d like your stickers to be. Use stencils for ideas. You can also keep the stickers abstract if using small bits of scrap paper. One cool idea is to use decorating scissors like Fiskars to give your stickers a fancy border.

Have your kids gather up all their art supplies and go to town. They can decorate the non-painted side with glitter, fabric, paint, markers, glitter glue, buttons, google eyes, and more — whatever catches their fancy.

After kids decorate their stickers they can lick them and they’ll stick to holiday or birthday cards, gift wrap, brown bags, and more. Because of the extract when the kids lick the stickers they get a little taste sensation. I suppose you could also use flavored gelatin instead of extract. I haven’t tried that but I bet it works.

This is the perfect way to reduce waste like holiday gift tags. Have your kids make name stickers instead.

Have fun!

Post from: Tree Hugging Family