Upcycled Holiday Tags Made with Gift Bags and Tissue Paper

Even holiday season I try to do at least one homemade project that adds a fun DIY touch to my gift giving. This year I came across an easy upcycled craft using items from my home.  I saw this project as I was leafing through GreenCraft Magazine . With a little color and design modification it was personalized to my taste.  You could even get your children involved in this project. Older children can help cut and write on the tags and they could glue the tissue on the brown bags instead of sewing them.

What you'll Need:

• several old gift bags
• saved tissue paper
• sewing machine
• thread
• scissor

What you need to do:

• cut rectangles out of the top part of the bag where to handles are attached leaving part of the handle in tact ( I used funky scissors but you can use regular ones as well)
• cut rectangles out of the tissue paper. You can use festive colors or keep it neutral.
• sew the tissue paper onto the brown paper bag rectangle with your sewing machine.  If you have fun stitches you can use those.
• write your message on the tags and attach them to your gifts with a ribbon.

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers natural and eco-friendly products for your household. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and her blog.

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Bubble Wrap Fall Tree Project

Have your little ones create Fall trees using left over bubble wrap.  This is a fun and super easy eco-friendly craft for little ones of all ages.

What you'll need:

                   paper: heavier stock paper works best

                              squares of bubble wrap. mine were about 4x4
         paints-yellow,red,orange,brown
 brown markers or crayons

Directions:

1. If you child is older they can draw their own tree trunk, if they are younger draw it for them.
2. Put a thin layer of each color of paint on a left over lid or reusable bowl or plate.
3. Show your child how to take the square of bubble wrap into their hand and dip it into the paint, then dab up and down on the paper in different spots above the tree trunk.
4. Use different colors to create a fun Fall picture. Enjoy!

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers natural and eco-friendly products for your household. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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Natural DIY Weed Killer- Round-Up

This Natural Round Up recipe has been all over the internet so I had to try it.  Not only is Round Up expensive but it also has plenty of chemicals in it that I would rather not spray on our lawn that our children and pets play on.  The recipe is easy and uses common household ingredients. Even though I had heard it worked really well I had to see it for myself and I was surprised at how quickly it worked.  

Natural Round Up will kill everything (including grass) so do not spray it on areas with desirable plants or grass.

Recipe and directions:
1 gallon white vinegar
2 cups epson salt ( other recipes called for plain salt so I think you can use either)
1/4 dish soap
empty sprayer
just mix and spray, let it sit a couple of hours( preferably in the sun)
By the end of the day the weeds should be dead-gone!


The left picture is of a weed before I sprayed it and the right picture is a day after I sprayed it!

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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Five Small Eco-Friendly Changes You Can Make in Your Home

We all need to be reminded sometimes about the easy and affordable (sometimes free) changes that make a difference in your household and help lead your family to a greener lifestyle.

1.Vinegar- Make sure you stock your pantry with this versatile natural and non-toxic household product.   Vinegar has enough acidity and neutrality that it can be used in kitchens, bathrooms, as a disinfectant, polisher, and laundry softener.

2.House plants- did you know that you can improve the quality of the air in your home simply by putting houseplants in your home. They act like indoor air purifiers and increase the amount of oxygen available in your home.

3. Clean your refrigerator coils twice a year, more often if you have pets. Condenser coils are located at the bottom or rear of your refrigerator. If they are allowed to accumulate dust and dirt as much as 25 percent more energy is required to maintain proper temperature. This can be a DIY project-buy a refrigerator coil brush from your local hardware store for less than ten dollars and clean it yourself, it takes 20 minutes.

4. Set the thermostat on your water heater at 120° F. This temperature is normally adequate for home use and will save a considerable amount of energy. If you have a dishwasher check the manufacturer's specifications to see if the temperature needs adjusting.

5. Go paper less. And I'm not talking about the  kind you write on, I'm talking about disposable towels.  The kind you wipe the tables with, clean up spills with, wipe hands with etc.  Instead of using paper towels get some rags of fabric, old wash cloths, make your own cloth napkins and reusable "unpaper towels", or purchase them pre-made.  Since they are made with fabric you can use them again and again. You can actually save money!

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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Re-Growing Vegetables Experiment

I was inspired recently by an article from  Wonder How To about how to re-grow vegetables.  It looked like a fun and easy experiment to do at home with my girls.

 We often have left over onion pieces at our home that I don't end up using so I thought this was a great opportunity to reuse it .  Other vegetables we have successfully re-grown in our home are celery, garlic, and romaine lettuce.

 There are several others examples for regrowing vegetables in the article such as carrots greens, mushrooms, and ginger that you might want to give a try.  The article has great photos of each vegetable so take a look if it's hard to imagine what the re-grown vegetable might look like.

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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Father's Day Shoe Box Lid Picture Frame Craft

While I was browsing online recently I came across a neat art project using shoe box lids from Artful-Adventures.  That gave me an idea to make a Father's Day picture frame craft out of a shoe box lid.  This is a fun and easy craft that dads will really enjoy because it is personal.  

What you'll need:

A shoe box lid

paint

another piece of thick paper (card stock for example)

glue

hook or sticky wall tape to attach to the wall

Instructions:

Have your child paint the shoe box lid.

While you are letting the paint dry take your child's hands and make a print of each hand on the stock paper with paint.

After both the shoe box lid and the card stock have dried glue the card stock in the middle of the lid. 

You can write a message for dad in the box as well. 

Put the hook or other adhesive material on the back and you can display your art where ever you like!

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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Easy Kid Friendly Vegetarian Taco Dinner

This is one of our family's favorite easy dinners. What I love about this meal is that it does not contain meat.  My daughters love the fact that they can "design" their own tacos.  We are not vegetarians in our home but we do try to minimize our meat intake each week and the beans are a great protein substitute.

What you need:

• your favorite taco toppings: lettuce, sour cream, shredded cheese, tomatoes, salsa etc.
• can of vegetarian fat free refried beans
• bag of frozen corn
• mild taco seasoning
• hard taco shells or soft tortilla shells

What you need to do:

• chop up all of your toppings
• warm up the refried beans and frozen corn in a pan
• add taco seasoning to pan
• fill the shells with the beans/corn mixture
• have your children add whichever toppings they like

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family such as wool dryer balls, Unpaper towels, and fabric decorations. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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Penguin Potato Winter Craft

We love finding things around the house to create art with.  My younger daughter just loves penguins and I  had her in mind when I found this craft.  We are big into re-using and re-purposing at our home so I used old brown paper bags and cut them up into squares with funky scissors.

** We like to find books on the crafts we are making to turn it into a mini lesson or just some fun reading time so we got out our penguin books after we made the craft.


What you'll  need:

• potatoes- 2 different size pieces. One for the larger black body and one for the white belly.
• non toxic paint-white,orange, and black
• googly eyes, one per penguin
• brown paper bag cut up into squares

Instructions:

• Dip the larger potato piece into the black paint and stamp onto brown paper
• take the smaller piece of potato and dip in the white paint, stamp over the black paint onto the body.
• use a finger to dip into the orange paint and create a beak and the feet.
• glue on a googly eye after the paint is dry

My daughter had so much fun with this project that she decided she wanted to make a whole "penguin family" on another sheet of paper which is what she is doing above.

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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It's Not Too Late for Some Eco-friendly Holiday Tips and Tricks.....

The holiday season is in full swing! Running errands, extra trash, and buying gifts take up a lot of resources. That doesn't mean you and your family have to forgo all of your eco-friendly practices. I've compiled a small list of tips and tricks to keep things eco-friendly in your household during the busy holidays season.


Wrapping gifts: 

• Find a unique way to wrap a gift. Your children can decorate paper or you can use the art work they bring home from school. 
• Newspaper can be used to wrap gifts. 
• Use fabric to decorate gifts, fabric can be stored and reused. 
• Put the gift into a reusable fabric bag and tie it in a bow, it's two gifts in one.

Holiday Lights:

• If you haven't already done so upgrade you festive holiday lights to CFL or LED, you will use about 75% less energy. 
• Some home improvement stores even give you a coupon or discount for trading in your old incandescents. 
• Don't forget to use a timer on your lights.

Decorating:  

• A different option for a tree is to buy a living tree. Sure it's a little more complicated but you can enjoy the tree for many years to come in your backyard. 
• Decorate with nature; go outside and get berries,branches,leaves and put them in vases instead of buying decorations. 
• Use fun cloth napkins instead of paper ones. They brighten up any table and are easy to throw in the laundry.

cooking: 

• Whether you are cooking for a small or large group allow your oven to multi task.
•  Bake several items at once and use glass and ceramic cookware. Food will cook quicker and you can reduce your cooking temperature. 

Buying gifts: 

• Buy less, focus on quality instead of quantity and create thoughtful home made gifts. Buy used, shop consignment sales for used toys. Many are in great condition. 
• Shop local and online ( Etsy of course!)

Cards:

• If you send cards opt for online cards or recycled paper. 
• When you are finished with your cards send them to St.Judes.  They accept new and used cards all year long. Check out their guidelines for specific details.

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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Re-Purposed Spool Holiday Ornaments

I do a lot of sewing these days and therefore I have a lot of empty thread spools. I've been saving them because I knew that eventually I would come up with a project for them.  After a little bit of surfing on the internet I found some great ideas.  I wanted to find a craft that my girls could participate in and with the holidays coming up I came across a great idea, holiday ornaments.  I found the tutorial on the Thirfty Fun blog and modified it slightly to adapt to what we have in our home and what my girls enjoy using to craft.

What you'll need:

• left over gift wrap paper
• empty thread spool
• glue
• pipe cleaners
• scissors
• small bell ornament

What you need to do:

• Measure a piece of wrapping paper around the spool and cut paper wide enough and long enough to cover the body of the spool.Glue the paper strip to the spool.
• If you would like to cover the top and bottom of the spool with paper as well you can do that by cutting 2 little circles and gluing them on. 
• Thread the pipe cleaner into the bell and fold it in half.  Thread the pipe cleaner through the spool hole. Bend the 2 sides of the pipe cleaner into semi circles so they meet in the middle and twist to secure them together into a circle. 

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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Bath Time or Water Play Cork Recycled Sailboats

      Here's a fun crafty way to to make a new water time toy. Most items can be found in the home and with a little adult help this sailboat can be hours of fun.

What you'll need:
large skewer or toothpick
left over corks
string
hot glue gun
triangle piece of foam

Directions:

• A parent will need to hot glue gun 3 corks together along with hot glue the string from the 3 corks to the last cork which will be the handle.
• After the glue is cool stick the skewer into the middle cork
• have the child cut out and decorate the foam triangle
• Stick the foam triangle into the skewer at the top and bottom
• Have fun floating your sailboat in your water table, bath tub, or large dish

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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Re-purposed Glass Jar Jack-O-Lantern Fall Craft

This is a fun and relatively quick Halloween craft project you can do with your children.  Save a few glass jars and you can make a whole row of jack-o-lanters to decorate you home.  The directions are simple and you can keep this craft and reuse it again and again for many years.

You will need:
masking tape
clean glass jar
paint or foam brush
orange acrylic paint ( non-toxic and washable)
battery operated tea light
Modge Podge

Directions:
Cut the masking tape into simple Jack O -Lantern face pieces( I made all triangles) and stick onto the jar.
Paint the jar with the orange paint.
after the paint dries pull off the tape pieces
cover the entire jar with Modge Podge so that the paint won't chip.
Put the battery powered tea light in after it's all dry.

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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No More Plastic!

In our home, we avoid plastics. It is not an easy task at all, but with the handmade market places exploding with products...it is becoming easier.

But first, I came across this video, which by far has been the most convicting for us.

"A Wake Up Story" by Healthy Child, Healthy World

I know that this conviction isn't the same for everyone, but for those wanting to live a more natural life, it seems to be a step we eventually all take.

We began our transition in the kitchen, shying away from plastic food containers and plastic wraps.

The bathroom was also pretty easy...we buy our natural soaps (or make some of them) in the bigger containers to avoid too much platic waste and really think if we need this new product. I switched to the Diva Cup and mama cloth.

Dining was also easy, instead of plastic plates, we bought Corelle. We believe that if kids are lovingly taught to take care of things, they will. Sure, a plate or bowl will break, but Corelle is inexpensive enough...and after all, it is a learning process (not to mention just a plate).

Kids stuff, however, was hard. Not only are we bombarded by plastic toys in the stores, our family, doesn't seem to understand it. We teach the girls to be grateful for the gift they received but we then try to pass it along.

Big toys are plastic, little tiny toys are plastic. 

Lets face it, alternatives aren't cheap!

Thankfully, Etsy can help.

I was browsing through the members list at Etsy Kids (it is about the time we start buying Christmas gifts...we spread out these purchases)...and found  Re-WoodToys.

I love the simplicity these toys evoke.

I have been a favorite of Applenamos for quite sometimes and I know that several of their items will become Christmas toys (we have 3 girls, a baby on the way, 2 nephews and another niece or nephew on the way)

If you are taking the long road to plastic free, please check out these stores (and more) on Etsy. Without Etsy, I don't think we would have been able to make the change ourselves.

Sometimes it isn't cheaper than plastic, but what is more important?

Jacki can be found blogging about natural living, parenting and homeschooling over at Crafted by Mama. She is on Facebook and Twitter. Her shop, Crafted by Mama, sells kids clothing and a little something for mama. She recently opened her reusables store Green Mama Shop to provide reusable, earth friendly items for home and family.

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Ways We Are Greening Our School Year....

The new school year is upon us and with two children in Elementary school I have been trying to think of different ways to make our school year a little more eco-friendly.

Here are some ideas that we will be focusing on this year:

Clothes- We buy a lot of our clothes at local consignment sales.  I try to buy brands that I know will last through two girls so that my youngest can wear the same clothes as my oldest. 

Supplies- We try to reuse anything from last year that is still in good shape. Did my oldest use the 4 dozen pencils last year that were on her supply list? No, we have about 3 dozen left over from last year that we will use again.  We also try to buy natural and non-toxic supplies.  When shopping for supplies make sure that you check your labels and all your supplies are PVC free. This vinyl is identified as a #3 plastic or has the letters "V" or "PVC." Also look for scent-free and water based items.

Litter Free Lunches- most of the items we use to take lunch to school in are reusable.  We use reusable sandwich and snack pouches, stainless steel bottles for drinks, fabric napkins, and cloth lunch bags to carry our lunches in. I also ask that they return the utensils I put in their lunches so they can be used again as well, creating less waste. If you are shopping for new lunch bags be aware that some vinyl soft plastic lunch bags still contain lead. 

Travelling to and from school-We are fortunate to have our school in our neighborhood.  We can choose to walk to school or take the bus.  Unless there is an unforeseen circumstance we will be walking to and from school everyday.

Do you have any tips for greening the school year? I would love to hear what other people are doing.

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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Natural and Eco Friendly Summer Activities For Children

At our home we are always looking for new activities in the summer time, especially ones that are natural and eco-friendly.  Summer is a time to explore the world around us and what nature has to offer.  Here are some eco-friendly and nature inspired activities we have done with our family late spring and early summer. At the bottom of the post I have also included a list of 5 blogs/sites that have great ideas for families. Have a safe and green summer!

Taking a hike







Participating in a 1 mile kids run









Growing our own veggies










                                                               Feeding giraffes at the Zoo

Building a fairy house

  A camping trip

Visiting a petting zoo

  

• Inhabitors
• Woman's Day
• Huffington Post
• teachhumane
• Sustainable Santa Cruz

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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