eco-friendly

Hey, it’s a fellow Arkansan crafty mama! Amy from Positively Splendid has so many wonderful crafty ideas for your home and for the kids, her site is overflowing with creative love. Visually, her blog is fun and colorful, and I absolutely love her designs. Her tutorials are full of fabulous photographs and really make you want to create.

One of my favs is the citronella candle tutorial. She swears by hers, and as cute as they are I almost wouldn’t care if they worked or not. Check out her tutorial here.

I’m the kind of person that when I get my mind to something, I have to do it. Just slightly obsessive that way. I did a post a while back about transforming t-shirts, quite easily I might add, into shopping bags (Martha!)….last weekend I revisited the post , and my mind started whirling and clicking….can I do the same with a kid’s t-shirt? Why, yes you can, and once I get my mind to something…..

Aaron and his friends were outside playing darts that night, so as I had some me time I thought I’d move on my plan. I raided Nate’s closet for some shirts he’d grown out of. This is what I came up with:

The players: a 2 sizes too small pajama shirt, scissors and thread...not show: sewing machine and my imagination

Here’s the how-to…..SO EASY:

Lay flat and line up your seams...then cut off his arms!! Set aside for later.

Sew the bottom of the shirt closed. You can use pins to secure the opening, but I'm lazy like that and didn't.

I used a zig-zag stich for stability, since this is a little boy’s bag we are talking about. I’m not sure if that is the “correct” stich for a jersey, stretch pajama shirt, but it worked!

I even went back over the first row of stiches just to be sure it was good and sturdy.

Then I sewed the armholes shut, but....

I didn’t like how rounded the sides of the bag looked…when you flipped the bag right side out, in the middle of each side there was a bump from where the armpit seam curved out. So I grabbed a sharpie and freehanded some new seam lines and…

...it looked much more bag-like!

So that was it for the body of the bag…pretty simple, huh? You really can make this, cross my heart! On to the creating the handle for the bag.

I took both sleeves and trimmed off the part that connects to the arm hole.

Yes, I used pins to keep the sleeves together...it was around 11 pm at this point and mama was bleary-eyed.

Pin and sew the open ends of the sleeves together to create one long strip of sleeve, with the cuffs on either end.

Pin each cuff onto the top of the bag, below the neck line.

Using a zig-zag stitch, sew the cuff in place, going back and forth several times for stability.

Volia!

 The Hulk bag is complete!

Inside shot

I put a few of his colored pencils and a coloring book inside it and presented it to him the next morning.

Methinks he is happy

Checking out the inside

Yep, I think the boy is pleased

All in all, this took me about 1 1/2 hours, and if I’d had a better plan in the beginning it would have only taken me 30 minutes tops. I REALLY like the results, and I can see myself making several more of these for friend’s birthday gifts and Christmas gifts. As a matter of fact, I’ve ideas of different versions brewing in my head as I type…

Ah ha! Another super cute and NO SEW project! Thanks to Nikki at Salty Pinapple, you can create this super cute portable tic-tac-toe game for your kids or for a birthday present in no time flat. And you probably have all the supplies you need at home, right now, to make this.

So why are you still sitting there? GO CREATE!

Following my post about Knock Off Wooda while back, I have been more inspired to search out furniture projects and redos.

Right now, I am in love with this furniture makeover from The Inadvertant Farmer. She took a much beloved – and broken – 3-drawer dresser and turned it into a credenza to hold her pretty binders and other paperwork. Such creativity! You will need a few simple power tools and some paint, but this is a totally reasonable project for you, yes lil’ ol YOU, to do in a few hours.

And how about that chair next to the credenza, huh? Talk about another precious furniture redo.

I just think it is so nifty that my anniversary falls around Earth Day, celebrated annually on April 22nd. I don’t think we knew about the holiday twelve years ago when we got married, but we were young and there was A LOT we didn’t know.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve embraced the life changes that are the three R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle. I love to second hand shop and use laundry bags to hold my produce at the grocery store. I had a wonderful veggie garden last year, and tried my hand at composting…rather unsuccessfully, but I’m not giving up! 

There are several activities you can do with your kids to celebrate Earth Day, from planting some veggies of your own, donating your unneeded household items to a local resale shop or starting to recycle. Here’s some links to ideas for crafts and outings you and your family can do together to celebrate Earth Day.

Arkansas Earth Day Celebration, North Little Rock April 24th

Laundry Bottle Pet Food Scoops

Tin Can Herb Pots

Coffee Filter Earth

Print some Earth Day Worksheets to color

And here is a link to Earth Day celebrations around the state

Photo from homemade by jill

For all the preggos with a sewing machine, a big tshirt and some elastic…this one’s for you! Check out this easy tutorial on homemade by jill on how to turn a too big tshirt into a maternity shirt. Even if you are not pregnant this would be a great gift for an expecting mama.

Mesh laundry bag = produce bag. Ingenious!

If you read this blog on a regular basis, I’m sure you are by now aware that I am a fan of the 3 R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. I use reusable bags 90% of the time when I go shopping, but I don’t know how to avoid using the plastic produce sacks at the grocery stores. I try to use as few as possible every time I go, and the two or three I do use make me slightly cringe.

I visit Dollar Sore Crafts at least once a day, looking for cheap crafty goodness. I stumbled upon these reuseable mesh produce bags and was, like, “DUH! Why didn’t I think of this before!” I added the mesh bags to my list of items to look for the next time I was at the Dollar Store.

I usually hit the Dollar Store on Cantrell…I can’t walk out without spending $10 or more. I looked in the home organizing section and found a 3-pack of 12 x 12  mesh laundry bags with a zipper closure. I decided these would work just fine as is.

I took them to the shiny Kroger (Kroger on Polk) and filled one with apples. As I was checking out, I wondered what kind of reaction I’d get from the cashier. He said, “Is this a laundry bag? That’s pretty cool.” No problems.

So pick up a pack of these mesh bags and keep them with your reusable bags for your next trip to the grocery store!

My Pollock-in-training's handiwork

I don’t know about you, but I get REALLY excited about my kiddo’s artwork. I study the washable-paint swirls, looking for the makings of an artsistic genius lurking in those messy masterpieces.

I hate to part with anything he’s colored/painted/drawn, so when the pile was so high that the husband began to drop hints like, “Is that really necessary?” I had to come up with a new idea.

He does the majority of his painting on an art easel with a roll of paper, so most of his art ends up measuring 18  by 20 inches. That is just enough paper to wrap a box!

So I took all of his loose artwork and rolled them together, and put them with my rolls of wrapping paper. When I use one for a gift, I try to center the top of the box on a colorful part of the paper for maximum impact. I don’t add any ribbons or bows, and either write the child’s name on the box or attach a gift tag.

I love this idea threefold: it goes along with my 3 R’s obsession, it showcases my budding Signac at work, and allows me to continue to hoard. What more could I want?

I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to hold on to stuff. I particularly like greeting cards, and collect the ones we get all through the year.

I saw some gift tags cut in the shape of initials from cards earlier this year on line or something like that, and thought that would be a great use for my collection. I grabbed up some Christmas cards from my stash for the project, and set out to make some gift tags instead of buying new ones.

Step one

I have a friend whose family has made a pact to create at least one homemade gift for each other this Christmas. Inspired, I decided to go out on the search for some very easy and inexpensive gift ideas, using items you might already have on hand.

Photo from Blue Cricket Design

I have told you of my love of Blue Cricket Designs (remember the Halloween Ornaments? FABULOUS!) so I was not surprised to find this fun little item on her site: Holiday Clothes Pins! It is a very easy project and can be done with a few supplies, by you or your kids. As she mentions, you can use them to make a garland of Christmas Cards, or put magnets on the back to use on the fridge. If you do not have scrapbook paper at home, tear out colorful magazine pages instead…Reuse, one of the 3 R’s! 

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