Green Arts and Crafts

Arts and crafts are a fun past time that both children and adults enjoy. But you can take your love of everything homemade and artsy one step further by making eco-friendly green arts and crafts. Give back to the environment by making earth-friendly products from recycled materials. This is an especially good idea if you run or are planning on starting an arts and crafts business – promoting your business as green is a great way to encourage even more clients to buy your products. You’ll tap into your regular market plus gain customers who are socially conscious. Living green is an increasingly popular trend, and the arts and crafts world is no different. Plus, using recyclable materials means keeping your costs down and, hopefully, your profit up. Remember, not every single part of your arts and crafts need to be green, but just incorporating some green materials and habits is a plus.

Use conflict-free gemstones for projects that need a bit of bling and sparkle. If you’re making jewelry, use reclaimed scrap metal, or sell the scraps from your metal once you’re done making the accessories. Clothing-makers can repurpose knitted clothing and accessories to make brand new clothing. Even edible materials, like gelatin, honey, eggs and flour can be used in making some crafts.

Once your arts and crafts are created, polished and ready to be sold, shipped or stocked on your store’s shelves, make sure that the packaging you use is sustainable, too. Since it’s easy to utilize green packaging, there’s no pointing this aspect of the business. You can manipulate origami paper into small boxes for miniature keepsakes or pieces of jewelry. Some packaging can also be reused for another purpose, multiplying your environment consciousness. For example, Twist sponge packages can be reused as a bird feeder.

If you need help thinking of ways to use recyclable materials in order to make great arts and crafts, head to the library or book store to peruse some helpful books. The books “Found Object,” “Altered Art,” “Eco Books” and “Altered Paper Jewelry” are great options with tons of suggestions. Create a designer-looking handbag with help from the book “Making Vinyl, Plastic and Rubber Handbags.” You can use out-there items like shower curtains and random rubber kitchen appliances to make a great looking handbag of your very own.

While setting out with the goal of making earth-friendly products (likes herbs and spices), it can be tempting to use anything and everything that can be altered into a craft. However, it’s important to know which products are safe to reuse and which will do more harm than good. The “Green Guide for Artists” is an excellent book that will explain which products are safe to use again and again, and which ones are toxic and should be left in the trash. The book also has recipes for glues, adhesives and natural dyes.

Unsure of what to do with the remaining recyclables you collected but didn’t use for your original project? Create a makeshift robot!