There’s nothing better than a fresh box of brand new crayons… Runner up is a brand new up-cycled crayon. What the heck is an up-cycled crayon?

Supplies Needed:

• Old Crayons
• Aluminum Cans
• Wooden sticks or dowel rods
• Candy mold or ice cube trays
• Large Pan

Step 1 -
Making melting pots. Use aluminum cans to melt your crayons in. The first thing to do is cut off the tops. You need enough so that they are packed tightly in the pot and will not fall over. But watch out! The top will be sharp.

Step 2 -
Sort the crayons. You may want to remove the wrappers as well. We didn’t, so we had to fish them out of the melted wax.

Step 3 -
Create a water bath. Place the aluminum cans full of crayons into an old pan that has about an inch of water in it. If the cans do not have very much in them, they will float. This is a bit of a pain but the crayons inside will still melt. The wax will get very hot & never heat wax directly on the stove.

Step 4 -
Waiting. The crayons will melt at different rates, the yellow and brown melted first. Some of the inexpensive crayons never melted. You just have to fish them out or work around them.

Step 5 -
Ready to pour. Before you pour the new crayons you need to remove most of the wrappers.

Step 6 -
Time to pour. Lay out some paper and put your mold on top of the paper. Pinch a pour spout into the top of the can, use your dowel rod or stir stick to hold back any clumps of unmelted crayons. Carefully pour into the candy molds. The cans are not hot at all, but the wax is.

Step 7 -
The wax drips and things can get pretty mess, so be make sure you covered your work space or you will have a huge mess to clean up.

Step 8 –
If you need the molds fast to do you next batch put them in the freezer for about 5 minutes. The new crayons will pop right out.

Step 9 -
All Done! Let’s color!

A special thanks to SomArtMama & Instructables for sharing their up-cycling crafts with us!

Composting maybe great for the environment but it’s still a dirty, messy, smelly business with plenty of reasons not to do it. But what if you could called upon someone to handle all the dirty details of composting and make it as easy as 1,2,3?

Introducing… Compost Cab!

What is Compost Cab?
Compost Cab is a way to compost that doesn’t stink. It is a new service about to launch in the Washington, DC area making “reduce, reuse, recycle” simple.

1. Compost Cab provides you with a bin.
2. You fill the bin with what you used to call garbage: food scraps, coffee grounds, all sorts of organic trash.
3. Compost Cab will pick the bin up once a week, leaving behind a fresh clean bin with a new liner.
4. Compost Cab then turns your organic trash into fertile soil.
5. After that it’s up to you: keep some fertile soil for yourself, or Compost Cab can donate it for you to a local, not-for-profit urban farmer who grows sustainable, nutritious food for the community.

The cost for Compost Cab is a simple $8 per week per bin with no long-term commitments.

I absolutely love this idea & can’t wait for Compost Cab to hit Chicago!

What do you do with your old magazines you already read?

Instead of trashing them, Mark Montano made a bathroom trash can out of his old magazines.

You can get a detailed how-to guide in his Big-Ass Book of Crafts, but you basically coil strips of paper together & use hot glue to hold the coils together. The bottom part is one big disk with a bead of hot glue to fill in the center hole.

Thanks Mark for sharing your eco-crafts.

Vintage cake stands are all the rage these days.

Make your own from old missed matched plates, candlesticks, and other fun timeless glass crystal things. It takes only a few minutes & the results are stunning.

Supplies Needed:

• Vintage plate
• Glass candlestick (or an old fashioned tulip shaped sundae dish, or a drinking glass, etc.)
• Crystal drawer pull (this is optional)
• Epoxy glue (slow drying if you are making more than one vintage cake stand)
• Ruler
• Sharpie
• Popsicle stick
• Q-tip
• Something to mix your epoxy in (I used a recycled aluminum tray)

Step 1:
Find the half way point on the back of your plate and place a dot using a Sharpie or other marking device.

Step 2:
Pour your epoxy in a well ventilated area & mix it using a Popsicle stick per the instructions.

Step 3:
Dip Q-tip in epoxy and coat the rim of the candlestick.

Step 4:
Adhere candlestick to back of plate using fingers to press it into place.

Step 5: (Optional)
If you are adding a drawer pull to the other side of the plate, place a dab of epoxy glue on the drawer pull. Turn plate over and adhere to middle of plate.

You can also make two tier cake stands using one small plate and one dinner plate. Just make sure the base is good and sturdy. The last thing you want is your goodies to topple over!

A special thanks to Intimate Weddings for sharing their eco-crafts with us!

Tell the world what you do to make it a better place by wearing this totally unique t-shirt by STAY VOCAL.

Each of these tees is emblazoned with a patch that says, “I make the world better by _______ what do you do?” The fill-in-the-blank design is for you to tell everyone what you are doing to make the world better.

STAY VOCAL is a Green America certified ReUse apparel company. All of their tees come from either thrift stores finds, donations, or are brand new t-shirts that were going to be destroyed because of a misprint or over printing.

Got long sleeved tees? Yeah, who doesn’t. But now with the weather getting warming who’s actually wearing them.

Bethany over at Craftopia created this awesome tutorial with super images on how to up-cycle a long sleeved tee into a cute and trendy one should tank, perfect for the warm summer weather.

Supplies Needed:

• Long Sleeved T-Shirt
• Sewing Machine
• Thread
• Scissors
• Pins

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Step 5:

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Step 10: Finish sewing & done!

Got an old vinyl record you no longer listen to? Don’t toss it, up-cycle it into a fun and funky bowl.

Materials You Will Need:

• Old Vinyl Record
• Oven Safe Bowl
• Baking Sheet
• Oven
• Hot Mitts

Step 1:
Preheat the oven to about 200-250°

Step 2:
Place the record on top of a oven safe bowl that is on a baking sheet as shown in the picture below.

Step 3:
Place it in the oven for 5 – 10 minutes. After a few minutes it should look something like the picture below.

Step 4:
Take it out of the oven and immediately start to mold it to your liking, it will be hot but so be careful.

If you have two of the same shaped bowls you can press the bowl down on top of the other, this method produces the best results in my opinion.

Step 5:
Let it cool for at least 10 minutes.

These crafty bowls work well as fruit bowls, catch-all trays, or containers for potted plants.

A special thanks to The Backseat Kiss for sharing their eco-crafts with us!

While many eco-enthusiasts have incorporated recycled bottles into their decor, the Thai monks from the Sisaket province have taken it to a whole new level.

The Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple or the “Beer Bottle Temple” is about 400 miles northeast of Bangkok in the city of Khun Han close to the Cambodian border. Construction started in 1984 using Heineken bottles (green) and Chang Beer bottles (brown). The monks were able to clean up the local pollution & create a useful structure that will be a visual reminder for years to come.

Thanks to Greenupgrader for these spectacular images.

It’s best to let your clothes air dry but, sometimes we’re in a hurry & end up using the dryer. I know, I’m guilty of this.

To compensate and ease our mind of shame, why not create something new from all the lint that was accumulated.

I found this super neat tutorial on Instructables by author Ashley Amber that provides step-by-step instructions to make natural paper from dryer lint.  You can then use this unique & beautiful paper for gift tags, note card or even as gift wrap.

Supplies Needed:

• Lint
• Warm water
• Wood frames (you can use two wood picture frames) or cardboard
• Window screening
• Scissors to cut the screening
• Staple gun or hammer and nails
• Tub
• Blender
• Fabric

Step 1 – First Soak the Lint
The first step is to soak the lint in warm water for at least 30 minutes. This helps the lint to break down so that it’s easier to blend during the next step. You should soak the lint in warm water until it becomes saturated and soft, the longer the better. If you have the time then soak the lint over night. You can also add other ingredients to be soaked in the water like shredded paper or leaves. Both paper and leaves will give the lint paper more body in the end.

Step 2 – Make the Deckle and the Mold
While the lint is soaking you can make the deckle and the mold, integral parts of paper making. The mold is a frame with screening (like window screening) in the center that is used to catch the lint. The deckle is a frame without any screening. It is placed on top of the mold and gives the paper smooth edges.

Both should be the same size.

The deckle and the mold are used together: the mold on the bottom (screen facing up) and the deckle on top.

You can choose to make the frames with old wood pictures frames, or even cardboard covered in duct tape (so that it is water proof.)

Make sure the screening is pulled tightly across the frame.

To add the screening to the mold, use a staple gun or nails.

Step 3 – Blending the Lint
The next step is to liquefy the lint in a blender.

Scoop one cup of lint and put it in the blender, then add water to fill the rest of the blender until it is close to the top.

There should be more water than lint in the blender. Blend until it is smooth and mushy.

Step 4 – Pour the Mush in a Tub
After the lint is blended to a fine mush, pour it into a tub. I used my kitchen sink. You can also use baby bathtubs, large pans or buckets. Just keep in mind that the mold and the deckle will need to be able to fit in whatever you choose to use as your tub.

Keep blending and pouring mush into the tub until there are a few inches of mush.

Then it is time to use the deckle and the mold. Place them into the water with the mold on the bottom (screen side up) and the deckle on top.

Pour the Mush in a Tub

Step 5 – Sifting
Sift the mold and the deckle in the water until enough lint has been evenly collected onto the screening.

Remove the mold and the deckle from the water and let it drip for a few seconds. Then remove the deckle.

Step 6 – Off the Mold and onto the Fabric
Now place the mold face down onto a piece of fabric so that the lint is on the fabric.

Use a sponge to press the lint onto the fabric and to soak up excess water.

Then slowly lift the mold off of the fabric so that the lint is left.

Step 7 – Last Step
If you are making multiple pieces of paper, then place another piece of fabric on top of the lint and repeat the process. Once you are finished you can add books on top of the stack of fabric to flatten out the paper and press out the water.

After several hours (mine took about 6 hours indoors) remove the books and allow the lint to completely dry.

Once the lint is dry, you have your very own Lint Paper!

Thanks again to Ashley Amber & Instructables for sharing their eco-crafts with us!

I live in an apartment within the city and I never thought composting would be possible for me without having a backyard. Well, times have changed & composting is no longer limited to backyards.

The Worm Factory 360 is one of the first composters that can be used indoors or outdoors allowing year round production.  Composting with worms allows you to turn kitchen scraps, paper waste & cardboard into nutrient rich soil for your plants. Plus The Worm Factory 360 is odorless making it great for apartments, kitchens, garages, porches and more.

How does it work?
Simply add a handful of worms & your organic waste to the bottom tray. The worms will start processing the food. Once the bottom tray is filled add another tray. The worms migrate upward to the newest food source leaving the bottom tray full of nutrient rich compost.

As waste is broken down, moisture filters through the system, taking nutrient-rich particles with it. This makes it possible to harvest organic liquid fertilizer right from the spigot.

Why is it better than traditional composting?
With a thermo siphon air flow design, the Worm Factory 360 increases the composting speed. Now you can produce compost much faster than traditional composting methods. Master Gardeners agree, worm castings are one of the richest forms of fertilizer that you can use.

Check out this video which is a preview of the instructional DVD for setting up & managing the Worm Factory 360 worm composting bin.

Buy your Worm Factory 360 today!