Recycle Crafting and Green Crafting

I'm a little behind on my crafty links for each day of the month, National Craft Month. It was a very busy weekend with spending the whole day Saturday at Crop for a Cause. I didn't get much done but I did have a lot of fun with my friends and I did win one silent auction of some kids scrapbooking supplies for my daughter.

While trying to think of what I wanted to share with you next I came across an article about taking used items and making them into unique art items to sell. They called it Junk Style Art. Recently I have been collecting old sweaters (mostly wool ones to felt) and any unique pieces of clothing to create something new. I have done some re-fashion before and wrote about one of the items in this article: How to Re-fashion a Kid's Sweatshirt. I started researching sites to give me some ideas and found the ones below.

Try these sites for finding ideas on recycle crafting or being a green crafter:

• Wardrobe Re-Fashion - You can pledge to re-fashion used clothing instead of buying new but it's a great source of inspiration.
• Crafting a Green World - Eco-friendly craft projects.
• Dollar Store Crafts - Emphasis is using supplies from a dollar store or dollar section of a store but you can find recycled ideas like this Recycled Plastic Bottle Chandelier.
• Recycled Crafts at Craft Gossip.com - Very cute stuff!

Have fun exploring and getting inspiration.

Crop for a Cause: Making MS a Memory

Hi everyone. Tomorrow I'll be at the Crop for Cause: Making MS a Memory fundraising event. This is the 4th year for this phenomenal 8 hour event where about 200 scrapbookers, paper crafters and even other crafters come together to have fun and hopefully get some crafty work done.

There will be food and prizes and a great silent auction area where over 140 baskets of goodies are up for grabs. Baskets are filled with not just scrapping supplies but dinners, fitness memberships, Chicago Fire soccer tickets, and even a condo package in Hawaii. Check it out. If you are in the Schaumburg, IL area you can stop by and see the silent auction area for yourselves. The auction area is open to the public.

Since I will be here tomorrow, Saturday, March 6, I won't be posting my daily link but I did post 2 for today. Have a good weekend everyone!

Lion Brand Yarn

This is one of my favorite sites to get free patterns for crochet and knit. I've been crocheting ever since I've been a little girl. My mom taught me when I was 5. She also tried to teach me to knit but after too many arguments about how I was doing it all wrong and too many times getting all tangled up I gave up.

Fast forward 30 some years later and in half and hour with much more focus I learned to cast on and do a basic stitch at a quilt show. Although, I did not remember everything that day it gave me the itch to learn more. Luckily, Lion Brand has put these great how-to videos on You Tube. See, You Tube can actually be educational. Who knew?

The video below will show you one way to cast on. I don't do it this way but you can access other video lessons to do much more with your yarn and a pair of knitting needles.

Craft: Transforming Traditional Crafts

Many of you may remember when Craft was this cool new craft magazine that popped up on your local magazine rack at the bookstore. It was so different from all the other magazines. It spoke to a younger generation of crafters who were trending DIY and indie craft styles but it was a refreshing look at the art of craft for those of us not exactly in our twenties anymore. Then you may have wondered where it went.

After about 5 years as a hard copy medium it evolved into an awesome online magazine with a blog, projects, a community section and how-to videos. So, craftzine.com is my crafty link for today. Have fun exploring.

BurdaStyle

Going forward with my crafty site for everyday of National Craft Month I have selected BurdaStyle for today. It's a community of sewers who mostly create their own patterns from Burda's collection or their own then share them with the community. Burda calls it "open source sewing." You don't have to worry about copyrights here and you get a heck of a lot of inspiration from everyone's creativity. And if you don't sew clothes, don't worry they have non-apparel craft projects too.

Fall is Coming

A couple of weeks ago it seemed like October was just about here in Chicagoland already. It definitely put me in the baking mood but we are trying to be a little healthier around here so I got out my 12 Best Foods Cookbook and whipped up a batch of Sweet Potato Muffins. Well, I did have to go to the grocery store first but I had to do that anyway plus I picked out a black bean salad recipe out of the book to go with the grilled steak dinner my dear hubby was planning.

There is nothing like homemade food made from fresh ingredients. The muffins were made from fresh baked sweet potatoes, grated carrot and topped with pumpkin seeds. The salad involved fresh cilantro which is one of my favorite flavors. Great! I'm getting hungry again. Better get back to my craft table.

Project Linus and Other Charities

Just wanted everyone to know that I'm going to be giving away my remaining fleece blankets to Project Linus. I also have a ton of fabric left that I'm going to make more blankets and donate. I do have non-kid fabric that I would like to make lap robes to give to veterans or nursing homes but I don't know who to contact. If anyone has any ideas I would love to know.

Also, I've made a few pet beds (small dog and cat size) that I would like to give to a shelter. I have a couple of places that I am going to call but if you know of something in the Chicago suburb area let me know what you think of those rescues.