This is a take on a tutorial that I wrote for Green Upgrader back in 2010. I made these sunflowers for a girlfriend’s bachelorette party and was so happy with how they came out, I thought I’d share the tute with you guys!

Not only do conventional flowers have a limited shelf [...]]]>

This is a take on a tutorial that I wrote for Green Upgrader back in 2010. I made these sunflowers for a girlfriend’s bachelorette party and was so happy with how they came out, I thought I’d share the tute with you guys!

Not only do conventional flowers have a limited shelf life, they often aren’t very eco-friendly. Unless you’ve found a flower shop that stocks local or organic flowers, chances are those cut flowers were shipped from far away and grown using nasty pesticides and chemicals to keep them looking fresh. You can skip the guesswork with fabric forever flowers!

Burlap is an eco-friendly fabric that I’ve talked about at Crafting a Green World before. You can find burlap new at some fabric stores or ask around at your local coffee shop to see if they get their beans in big, burlap sacks. Often, they just end up tossing those empties, so they’ll be happy to let you take one off of their hands.

This tutorial is for one flower, and you can make as many as you like!

To make your burlap sunflower you’ll need:

• a 4″ square fabric scrap in a cheery print (I went with this bright polkadot vintage fabric).
• a 3″ square of recycled felt in yellow or orange
• a 2.5″ square of burlap
• Pinking shears and regular fabric scissors
• sewing machine and red (or contrasting) thread
• vintage button with 2 holes (not 4 holes)
• embroidery thread and needle
• A stick or nice sized twig from the yard

Here’s how to make your sunflowers:

1. Use your pinking shears to cut your 4″ piece of fabric into a 3 3/4″ circle.
2. With regular fabric scissors, cut your 3″ piece of felt into a 2 3/4″ circle, and cut the burlap into a 2 1/4″ circle.
3. You’re ready to stack your flower! Lay down your 3 3/4″ circle, right side up, stack the felt circle on top of that, then stack the burlap on top of those. Pin.
4. Head to the sewing machine, and use your zigzag stitch to sew around the outside of the burlap. This stitch serves two purposes: keeps the burlap from fraying and assembles your sunflower head.
5. Now, use your machine’s straight stitch to sew an astersik shape across the burlap (see the photo above).
6. To attach your flower to the stick, grab your vintage button and your embroidery thread. Thread your needle, and start from the back of your flower’s head. Push the needle through just off-center, then feed it through one of the holes on your button. Feed it back through the button and push the needle through the face of your sunflower head. What you should have now are two loose threads hanging off of the back of your sunflower head, and a button sewn to the center on the front. Use those loose threads to tie your flower tightly to your stick.

That’s it! I displayed my burlap sunflowers in a vase that we had at the house. They’d also look lovely in a mason jar (maybe full of beans or lentils?). Really, you can show them off however you like!

Related Posts:

• Easy Eco Home Decor: Painted Burlap
• How to Make a Pillow Sham
• Turn old Toothpaste Tubes into a Toothpaste Holder

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post tags: burlap, burlap sunflowers, craft project, DIY, fabric flowers, fabric sunflowers, how to

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This is something that’s been rattling around in my head for a while, and I thought it might be worth spilling it all here and seeing what you guys think. I write in a lot of places about how to be green, and I get a lot of pitches from companies [...]]]>

This is something that’s been rattling around in my head for a while, and I thought it might be worth spilling it all here and seeing what you guys think. I write in a lot of places about how to be green, and I get a lot of pitches from companies who want me to review their newest green product. But what does green really mean?

Over at Feelgood Style, we talk about green beauty and fashion, and every time I get a pitch from a cosmetics company, I find myself wondering if they’re green enough. One company makes cosmetics that come in fully compostable packaging, but they use artificial “fragrance,” which can mean any number of toxic, artificial chemicals. Are they green? What about a company who’s recipe is totally free from mystery ingredients, but their packaging is plastic?

I’m even running across this as I start my fall garden! I avoided products from Scotts (even “organic” ones), because they’re a major distributor for Monsanto’s RoundUp. Not familiar with RoundUp? It’s a pesticide, and it’s terrible for the environment. You can read a bit about some of the problems with RoundUp here.

Right, so! In my effort to avoid Scotts, I picked up organic seed starter from Burpee, only to learn that 3-5% of their seeds are from Monsanto. Is 3-5% a small enough number? Am I being green by supporting Burpee’s organic line, when I’m also supporting a company that sells genetically modified seeds?

How to be Green

Some companies are making a genuine effort, while others are just greenwashing. So many companies co-opt the word “green” as a marketing gimmick, that it’s hard to suss out who’s really making an impact and who’s just trying to break into this growing niche of green consumers. It’s up to us to read the labels, do the research, and see beyond the marketing.

But I think if we really want to get at the heart of how to be green, it’s about more than what we buy. It’s what we choose not to buy and what we choose to make ourselves. I think the key to really being a green consumer is to…consume less! That can mean just opting out of the newest and shiniest thing. It can also mean using your crafty skills to reuse what we have and turn it into something new.

My friend Kelly Rand has said many times that she thinks handmade can save the world, and I think she’s really got it right. I also think that handmade can mean different things for different folks. Maybe that means planting and nurturing a food garden, instead of buying produce from halfway around the world. Maybe it’s cooking a meal, rather than ordering wasteful takeout. Or turning an old t-shirt into a reusable shopping bag.

We all have the power to make these small changes, and I think the real way to be green is to do our best to reduce our impacts however we can.

Does that make sense? I sort of feel like I’m tossing out a half-baked idea here, and I’d love to flesh it out with you guys. What does green mean to you?

Related Posts:

• IF: Summer Crafts!
• How To: Build a Spiral Container Garden
• Unusual Planters Made From Everyday Items

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2011. | Permalink | Comment
Post tags: be green, DIY, environment, garden, green, handmade, Hippie, how to be green, recycle, recycling, repurposed, reuse, upcycling

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You guys! After weeks and weeks of planning, designing, and way more waiting than I wanted to do, everything I needed to make my custom grocery tote kits are finally here, and I spent all day today getting them ready, photographed, and up on Etsy!

The sewing kits contain my brand [...]]]>

You guys! After weeks and weeks of planning, designing, and way more waiting than I wanted to do, everything I needed to make my custom grocery tote kits are finally here, and I spent all day today getting them ready, photographed, and up on Etsy!

The sewing kits contain my brand new Happy Apple or Happy Pear fabric and detailed instructions so that you can make your very own, custom grocery kit.

I am super duper excited to be launching these babies! They’re up in my Etsy shop right now, and I’m going to bring a batch to The Beehive sometime next week! When they’re available at The Beehive, I’ll announce it over at my Facebook page.

Related Posts:

• How-to: Repair a Torn Paper Lamp Shade
• How-to: Make an Asymmetrical Wrap
• Easy Eco Home Decor: Painted Burlap

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2011. | Permalink | Comment
Post tags: craft kits, DIY, Happy Apple, Happy Pear, new product, sewing kit

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Summer is HERE, ya’ll! It’s time to fire up the grill, tend to the garden, and of course it’s time to get your summery DIY on! Here are some crafty projects for your cookout and for your garden. Have you been working on any summer crafts? I’d love to hear about them in [...]]]>

Summer is HERE, ya’ll! It’s time to fire up the grill, tend to the garden, and of course it’s time to get your summery DIY on! Here are some crafty projects for your cookout and for your garden. Have you been working on any summer crafts? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

1. How cute are The Creative Place’s upcycled cocktail umbrellas?
2. I’ve been admiring this recycled six pack cookout caddy from Design*Sponge for years. It’s so simple and sweet!
3. I am in love with these firefly candles from Urban Sherp. Wouldn’t they be lovely for some summer evening porch-sitting?
4. Spruce up your summer garden with a simple set of clothespin plant markers!
5. You’d be the queen of Saturday if you showed up at a cookout with a batch of TINY PIES from Explore the Cabin!

So spill it, crafty peeps! What have you been making during this scorcher of a summer?

Related Posts:

• What does green mean?
• IF: Summer Indie Craft Experience
• Friday Roundup: Summer Shade

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2011. | Permalink | Comment
Post tags: crafty garden, Crafty Pals, DIY, Friday Roundup, garden, handmade, inspiration board, Inspiration Friday, reuse, Roundups, summer, summer crafts, summer DIY, upcycling

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A pal on Twitter recently mentioned that she was digging my kitchen organization ideas, so I thought I’d round up a few more for this week’s inspiration board.

We’re still slowly reorganizing our kitchen, so I’m always on the lookout for cute ways to keep things organized and eco-friendly. What better way [...]]]>

A pal on Twitter recently mentioned that she was digging my kitchen organization ideas, so I thought I’d round up a few more for this week’s inspiration board.

We’re still slowly reorganizing our kitchen, so I’m always on the lookout for cute ways to keep things organized and eco-friendly. What better way than to make things yourself, right? These are some storage solutions that you can whip up from reclaimed materials!

Clockwise from the top left we’re lookin’ at:

• Etched glass storage jars at Lifehacker. Keep those bulk items in order.
• Magnetic baby food spice jars at The Little Apartment. Store those spices out in the open, so they’re easy to find.
• Chalkboard paint storage here at Glue and Glitter. Know what’s in those drawers and cabinets.
• Hooks from reclaimed silverware at Readymade. Perfect for reusable bags or dish towels.

Have you guys done any cool DIY kitchen storage projects? Share away in the comments!

Related Posts:

• IF: Summer Crafts!
• IF: Summer Indie Craft Experience
• IF: DIY for the Kitchen

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post tags: DIY, diy kitchen storage, handmade, inspiration board, Inspiration Friday, kitchen storage

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The squee-ing that happened when I ran across this clothespin plant marker photo on Flickr startled my cats.

I love every single thing about this! The clothespin is brilliant, the artworks is adorable, and I’m totally digging that they used a bamboo skewer to stake it into the ground.

I happen to have [...]]]>

The squee-ing that happened when I ran across this clothespin plant marker photo on Flickr startled my cats.

I love every single thing about this! The clothespin is brilliant, the artworks is adorable, and I’m totally digging that they used a bamboo skewer to stake it into the ground.

I happen to have a surplus of clothespins right now, so this is going right onto my to do list! The only thing I might do differently is scavenge sticks to use as stakes instead of skewers for my plant markers, since sticks are free. Of course, I will share photos of how they turn out!

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by quinnanya

Related Posts:

• Clothespin Plant Markers
• How-to: Repair a Torn Paper Lamp Shade
• How-to: Make an Asymmetrical Wrap

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2011. | Permalink | Comment
Post tags: DIY, DIY plant markers, plant marker, plant markers

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