DIY | Indoor Air Quality Lab

Invite Pollinators into Your Garden with a Bee Habitat share

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is a serious threat to our food future. Bees pollinate around 1/3 of the food that we see on store shelves. If we are going to continue to feed ourselves, we need to protect bees and other pollinators. This bee habitat is a great way for you to help native bees in your area!

There are a lot of factors that contribute to CCD. Habitat loss is one of them. The more land we develop, the fewer places bees have to build their homes. This bee habitat, which I first posted over at Crafting a Green World, is one way that you can make your garden a friendly place for pollinators.

Make Your Garden a Home for Pollinators

You only need a few simple supplies to make your own bee habitat:

scrap wood
a drill
drill bits ranging from 3/32" to 3/8"

That's really it! How you drill your holes depends on the size of your wood. My piece was long and skinny, so I went with a 3/16" bit and tried to space my 3-4" deep holes about 1" apart. Check out this document from the Xerces Society (pdf) for how to decide how deep your holes need to be and how far apart you should space them.

Want more ideas for creating a bee-friendly garden? I've got some tips over at Crafting a Green World!

This is just one way to invite pollinators into your garden, of course! So spill it, gardenistas! How are you making your garden bee-friendly this spring?

Posted: | Categories: bee habitat, Bees, Craft Recycled, DIY, help save bees, Living, native bees, pollinators, Xerces Society, Yard+Garden

Apr

5 Upcycled Art Ideas share

Need to spruce up your walls a bit? Try a few of these sweet upcycled art ideas!

Let's get real, y'all: art is expensive. Big pieces of wall art in particular can really get pricey. Making your own upcycled art can save some cash without sacrificing style! Check out some of these ideas to add a little upcycled decor to your home:

1. Moss Typography Art - Typography art is on-trend, and it's so simple to make your own! Just cut your letter of choice from reclaimed cardboard and decorate away. I love the earthy look that the moss gives this piece of upcycled art.

2. Junk Mail Art - Think of this striking junk mail collage as a jumping-off point. You may not be able to create this piece at home, but I love the way that this upcycle art piece makes you look at junk mail in a new way.

3. Rubbish Rainbows - Take a cue from this craftivism project and colorize your trash to make beautiful art. I think this technique would work well mounted in a shadowbox on the wall, don't you?

4. More Junk Mail Goodness - This is a simpler take on the junk mail wall art idea, and it includes step-by-step instructions on how to use common craft supplies to elevate junk mail to upcycled art.

5. Recycled Wood Fox Art - You can really use any stencil you like to customize this project for your own decor. I love the rustic look of the recycled wood paired with the modern fox cameo!

Posted: | Categories: Craft Recycled, crafty reuse, creative reuse, DIY, DIY wall art, upcycled art, upcycling, wall art

Apr

Spotted: DIY Easter Basket from an Old Paper Grocery Bag share

Want an alternative to a store-bought, plastic Easter basket? Here's a simple way to make your own using an old paper grocery bag.

Lia Griffith uses a simple paper weaving technique to make an upcycled DIY Easter basket from a paper bag. Pretty much any brown craft paper will do the trick. If you order anything on Amazon, that brown packing paper that they use would also work well for this project.

Combine this cute, upcycled Easter basket with some home-grown Easter grass, and you're on the way to a low-impact Easter that saves money and natural resources!

It only takes a few simple craft supplies to make your own DIY Easter basket, and I bet you have all of them in your stash right now.

Tools & Supplies:

a brown paper bag or other large pieces of brown craft paper
pencil
ruler
scissors
hot glue gun
clothespins
ribbon, for embellishment (optional)

Ready to make your own paper Easter basket? Click here for the tutorial!

Posted: | Categories: Craft Recycled, DIY, DIY Easter basket, easter, Easter crafts, grocery bag crafts, paper crafts, upcycling

Apr

5 DIY Moss Decor Ideas share

You know that we love adding a bit of green anywhere we can in our space, and these simple moss decor ideas are a great way to bring a little bit of the outdoors in.

Moss is easy to keep alive and does well in low light, which makes it a perfect plant to bring indoors. Caring for live moss decor is a lot like caring for a terrarium. I was able to keep a terrarium thriving for years while killing countless plants in my garden, so you know this stuff is easy to maintain. Just like with a moss terrarium, you just want to mist your moss decor with water every few weeks to keep it happy.

5 DIY Moss Decor Ideas

1. Centerpieces and Wall Art - Display pretty moss on tabletops and even use it to deck out a mirror frame to give it an earthy look.

2. Typography Art - Typography art is super hip right now, and you can make your typography wall art stand out by covering it in moss instead of paint or decoupage.

3. Bath Mat - Talk about easy to maintain! The water that drips onto this mat will help keep the moss happy.

4. Door Wreath - You can hang this pretty moss wreath on your front door or on the wall inside your home. I think it would look very pretty hung over the mantle of a fireplace!

5. Picture Frame - This is a similar idea to the mirror frames I mentioned above, but on a smaller scale.

Have you created any cool DIY moss decor? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments!

Posted: | Categories: adding green to small spaces, DIY, DIY moss decor, Home+Decor, Living, moss, moss decor ideas

Apr

Spotted: How to Grow Your Own Easter Grass share

Give plastic Easter grass the boot! Learn how to grow your own Easter grass!

Conventional Easter grass is the pits. That low-quality shredded plastic isn't recyclable, so it just sits in the landfill leaching toxins into the soil and groundwater. That doesn't feel like something that's in the spirit of Easter at all, does it?

If you want to grow you own Easter grass, you should get on it as soon as possible. It takes about two weeks to grow, so you can just make it if you start this week! The secret? Wheat seeds! Yep, we're basically growing wheat grass. How fun, right?

You'll want to choose a pretty container to grow your Easter grass, because it's going to double as your Easter basket. My favorite option that Your Homemade Mom shows is brightly colored metal pails with handles. Those are going to feel the most like traditional Easter baskets.

Here's what you'll need to grow your own Easter grass:

pretty "Easter basket" to plant your seeds in
wheat seeds
potting soil
plastic wrap
small pebbles
small plastic tray, if your container has drainage holes

That's it! You can use your home-grown Easter grass as an Easter decor piece or nestle your child's Easter treats right in the grass. Ready to grow some Easter grass? Click here for the tutorial!

Posted: | Categories: DIY, easter, Easter crafts, grow your own Easter grass, growing Easter grass

Apr

Spotted: How to Dye Fabric with Tea share

What a fun project to try over the weekend! Check out how to dye fabric with tea instead of store-bought dye.

Conventional fabric dyes are not super great for the planet. They often contain harmful chemicals that pollute the water and harm marine life when the excess dye washes down the drain. Boo! Luckily, there are lots of fun ways that you can dye fabric without using store-bought dye.

You already know that tea can stain fabric, and you can put that staining power to good use by making tea-based fabric dye. Over at Makezine, Andrew Salomone discovered a cool tutorial for making your own fabric dye from black tea. All that you need to make your own black tea fabric dye are:

black tea
non-toxic white glue and paintbrushes (optional)
undyed or light-colored fabric
pot with boiling water
tongs
sponge and dish soap (optional)

You only need the optional materials if you want to make patterns on your fabric using the resist method they describe. Ready to dye some fabric with tea? Click here for the tutorial from the Textile Arts Center!

Posted: | Categories: DIY, DIY fabric dye, dye fabric with tea, how to dye fabric, tea-dyed fabric

Mar

Spotted: Moss Typography Art share

We love a good piece of moss decor around here, and this moss typography art is rocking our socks!

Carissa at Creative Green Living made this pretty moss letter for her sons' shared bedrooms. The ampersand is going to hang between woodgrain typography art with her boys' first initials. How cute! Instead of styrofoam, the base of her moss typography art is a wood letter, so even the base is a natural material. So cute!

Typography art is super hip right now, and I love this natural take on this trend. Want to make your own moss typography art? It's easy peasy! You will need:

Wood Monogram (or ampersand)
Hot glue gun and glue
Preserved Sheet Moss
Pencil or chopstick

Got your materials at the ready? Click here for Carissa's tutorial!

Posted: | Categories: DIY, Home+Decor, Living, moss decor, typography art

Mar

5 Green Cleaning Recipes for a Healthy Home share

A few weeks ago I attended the Georgia Organics Conference and did a demonstration on how to make your own green cleaning supplies and DIY beauty recipes. It was an amazing weekend, and I was thrilled to see so many people interested in ditching store-bought chemicals in favor of homemade, natural cleaning recipes.

Making your own green cleaning supplies is cheap and easy, and today I wanted to share a few simple recipes that anyone can make. Whether you're a green cleaning pro or totally new to homemade cleaning supplies, the recipes below are totally doable.

5 Green Cleaning Recipes for a Healthy Home

1. Homemade Wood Polish - This recipe has only two ingredients, and I bet that you have one of them in your kitchen already! Julie gives a couple of wax options, and you can find both beeswax and candelilla wax on Amazon if you can't find it locally.

2. Homemade Soft Scrub - Another two-ingredient recipe, this works great for scrubbing the tub, shower, and tile.

3. All Purpose Cleaner - I shared this recipe at the conference, and it's definitely a staple in our house!

4. Homemade Cleaning Wipes - Skip the bleach-soaked wipes and make your own reusable cloth cleaning wipes at a fraction of the cost.

5. Homemade Laundry Soap - This recipe gets your clothes just as clean as the soap at the store, and it costs only pennies a load.

Do you make your own green cleaning supplies? I'd love to hear your favorite recipes in the comments!

Posted: | Categories: DIY, green cleaning, Living, spring cleaning

Mar

Spotted: Homemade Wood Polish share

Spray-on wood polishes are convenient, but they contain toxic propellants and harmful chemicals. Polish wood the non-toxic way with this wood polish!

Over at Crafting a Green World, we just wrapped up Spring Cleaning Week, and this wood polish recipe from my co-editor Julie Finn rocked my socks. It's a two-ingredients recipe that's totally non-toxic and leaves your wood furniture just as shiny as the spray-on stuff.

The recipe has only two ingredients, but there are a couple of extra tools and supplies that you'll need to make your own eco-friendly wood polish. I bet that you have most of the supplies that you need right in your kitchen.

Wood Polish Tools & Supplies

beeswax or candelilla wax
olive oil
small glass jar
small crock pot
measuring cups
essential oil (optional)
printer and paper (optional, if you want to use her printable label)

Got your supplies at the ready? Click here for Julie's detailed tutorial!

Posted: | Categories: cleaning, cleaning supplies, DIY, green cleaning, homemade wood polish, how to make wood polish, Living, wood polish

Mar

5 Ideas for Upcycled Bike Parts share

We love riding bikes around here, but as with anything that works hard, bike parts break and wear out. Rather than toss them in the trash, though, there are lots of fun ways that you can upcycle those old bike parts into something usable and new! Check out these ideas, and I'd love to hear about how you're reusing your bicycle parts, too!

5 Ideas for Upcycled Bike Parts

1. Bike Frame Shelving - Hit your local bike shop for old frame pieces that aren't usable anymore for biking and turn them into an awesome shelving solution!

2. Bike Chain Bracelet - Check out the video above for a tutorial to turn an old bike chain into a statement jewelry piece.

3. Hunting Trophies - How cool are these faux hunting trophies made from old bike seats and handles?

4. Bike Tire Headband - Turn an old bike tire into a cute hair accessory!

5. Coffee Sleeve - Got a busted tube? Turn it into a cozy to keep your coffee warm with less waste. These are also great on reusable ceramic mugs to add a little extra insulation.

Posted: | Categories: bike crafts, bike part crafts, Bikes, Craft Recycled, cycling, DIY, upcycled bike parts

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