Mommy Goes Green

Stubby Pencil Studio is one of our favorite resources for unique, eco-friendly gifts for children.  It’s also a great place to pick up quality choices for your Easter baskets.  Here are a few fun finds:

Washable Markers – I know Kate, the owner of Stubby Pencil Studio, has searched high and low for eco-friendly markers.  So far, these are the best she’s found.  They are non-toxic, made in the USA, and manufactured with 25% recycled plastic.

Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops – we tried these out months ago and totally agree, they are YUMMY!

Sparkle Star Crayons – These multi-colored, star shaped crayons are made from 100% recycled crayons. 

Wooden Bead Necklace – I’m always leary of buying cheap jewelry for my daughter as it’s often found to be tainted with lead.  This wooden necklace relieves my fears as it’s painted with non-toxic nitro-cellulose paint tested and found to be safe for children and non-polluting in natural water sources.

Envirosax Animal Planet Bird – I love Envirosax and this bird bag for kids is adorable!  It would make a great reusable Easter basket.

Wooden Harmonica – every child loves playing the harmonica.  This wooden one is painted with non-toxic nitro-cellulose paint tested and found to be safe for children and non-polluting in natural water sources.

WIN IT!

1 lucky winner will get an Eco Easter Basket from Stubby Pencil Studio with over $60 worth of fun finds:

• Reusable rattan basket
• 6×9 Frogs Ecojot Sketchbook
• E-color-gy Washable markers
• Forest Choice Color Pencils
• 4 recycled cedar Pencils
• Soy Crayons
• Mary’s Softdough Rainbow Tub
• Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops
• Wooden Wind-up Bunny
• Wooden Dragonfly Spinner
• Pack of Color ‘n Kids Easter cards

You can enter to win in any of the following ways:

• Leave a comment telling us what your favorite Stubby Pencil Studio product is!
• Follow us on twitter @mommygoesgreen.
• Retweet this contest.
• Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link.

Leave your comment by Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 11:59pm PST. Contest open to all U.S. and Canadian residents, ages 18+. We will choose 1 winner, at random, and notify them by email. Privacy Policy.

Reusable gift bags are a great eco-friendly and cost saving alternative to gift wrapping and paper gift bags.  They are made of cloth so they don’t get bent up and out of shape like paper gift bags and don’t require extra packaging supplies like scissors, tape, tissue paper or ribbon.

Lucky Crow stocks 24 fabrics, including several organic cotton and children’s prints.  Save money by purchasing a collection of bags.  The gift bags come in 4 different sizes with prices ranging from $4-$12 and are manufactured in the USA.

Living Ethos has a huge collection of fabric choices for gifts from baby showers to birthdays. The bags are cotton and the attached grosgrain ribbon and care labels are made from 100% recycled PET (soda bottles).   While the fabric is imported, the bags are assembled and sewn in the USA. A set of 4 different sizes is $28.

Gratitude Gift Bags come in 4 different sizes and prices range from $4-$8.  The gift bags are manufactured in the USA and a portion of all proceeds are donated to select charities focusing on cancer research and environmental concerns.  Use code ‘PRESS’ for a 10% online discount.

WrapSackscome in 6 sizes and prices range from $4 – $11.  They are ethically sourced in Indonesia where the batik fabrics are made.  You can follow the journey of your wrapsack goes by using their ‘track a sack’ feature.

Bring It In A Bag reusable gift bags are made from natural jute and come in 3 sizes ranging from $3 – $15.  They are lined with a laminate coating to make them easy to keep clean and have a cane handle.

DIY – If you’re crafty, you can sew your own custom gift bags with this pattern from Better Homes and Gardens.

If you’re at all crafty, you should pick up the latest copy of Green Craft Magazine. There are over 100 projects for taking your trash to treasures, from books made out of coffee sleeves to vintage paper decor . To complete the package, the entire publication is printed on recycled paper.

WHERE TO BUY: Find a local store here.

I’ve been toying with the idea of wallpapering the wall behind my bed and was curious about what my wallpaper options are.   Frankly, I’ve never wallpapered anything but I’m always up for trying something new!

What I didn’t know was that most stock wallpaper is made with or coated with vinyl (PVC) - a product I stay away from.   The stinky smell from products made with PVC ( new cars, plastic shower curtains, etc. ) emits hazardous VOCs in your house contributing to indoor air pollution.  Our indoor air is already 5x more polluted than the outdoor air, let’s not add to it with PVC wallpaper!  As I often find, there are better alternatives – vinyl FREE wallpaper.

Mod Green Pod vinyl-free wallpapers use water-based inks on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper and finish the product with a water-based glaze that can tolerate light wiping.  They’ve got some fun prints, check out the photo above!

For more prints, Graham & Brown has 46 wallpaper prints that are VOC-free and printed on paper from managed resources.

I love this Juicy Jute grasscloth wallpaper – it’s got great texture and is made with jute, a natural fiber.  It also comes in 29 different vegetable dyed hues.  For other natural fiber wallpapers, check out raffia or hemp.

Traditional wallpaper paste has a bunch of chemicals, too, so try this great DIY recipe from Annie B. Bond.

• •1 cup flour (wheat, corn, or rice)
• •3 teaspoons alum
• •water
• •10 drops oil of cloves (natural preservative)

Combine the flour and alum in a double boiler. (If you don’t have a double boiler, set a smaller pan inside a bigger one that contains enough water that can be brought to a boil without overflowing). Add enough water to make a consistency of heavy cream; stir until blended. Heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture has thickened to a gravy texture. Let cool. Stir in the clove oil. Pour into a glass jar with a screw top. Apply with a glue brush. Makes 1 cup. Shelf life: 2 weeks refrigerated.

If you are a scrapbooker or card maker, you are constantly buying new stamps.  Next time you’re in the market for one, check out cork stamps.  They are very inexpensive and made with a renewable resource. 

Craft Express’ cork stamps are all $1 – $2 apiece and come in great designs like flowers and leaves, fleur de lis and scrolls.

They can be used on any porous surface like paper, wood or fabric and make sure to wash them immediately after using so the paint doesn’t seep into the cracks of the cork.

For those of you do-it-yourselfers, you can make your own cork stamps with a tutorial from Craft Chi.

A great Christmas gift for the crafty mama, the Donna Dewberry Cork Stamps with Paint and Idea Book, comes with 9 stamps, 8 paints, a stencil decor spouncer and a book of ideas for using cork stamps.  $40

I came across this recipe from Family Fun Magazine for homemade play dough using ingredients already in your pantry and the color comes from food instead of the typical dyes.  This is a quick option for keeping your kids busy during the rainy and cold winter.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 3/8 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• natural dye ( see options below )

Combine the flour and salt in a bowl.  Add oil and natural dye and stir all together well.  Knead the dough on a floured surfaces for a few minutes and if it’s too soft – add a bit more flour.  You can store the clay in the refrigerator.

Dye options:

• YELLOW – 3/8 cup hot water and 1 teaspoon turmeric
• ORANGE – 3/8 cup hot water and 1 tablespoon paprika
• FUSCHIA – 3/8 cup hot beet juice ( try using the juice from a can of beets )
• BROWN – 3/8 cup + 1 tablespoon of hot water and 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder

Any other natural dye ideas?

Image Courtesy eHow.com

Today you can’t go anywhere without seeing an all-in-one Halloween costume for all ages ( and at all price ranges ).  I can’t recall EVER buying a new Halloween costume when I was a kid.  In fact, most of the pieces in my dress-up box ( yes, I still have one! ) have come from Goodwill or a garage sale collected over many years.  

If you can’t fathom paying $40 for a costume (worn 1x ) or just want to keep the clutter out of your house – get your creative juices flowing and make one.  How easy would it be to pull together a ghost, pirate or princess costume – all from stuff you probably have hiding in the closets in your house.

For lots of ideas, check out these sites:

100 Homemade Halloween Costume Ideas submitted by readers of The Daily Green

Homemade Costumes Gallery by About.com

1Halloween.Net Costume Gallery

Unique Halloween Costumes from Disney Family

Another way to avoid buying a new costume – borrow one!  This year, I lent out 2 of my daughter’s costumes from previous holidays and I’ll be borrowing one from a friend.  With a trip to Goodwill for one additional piece for my husband, our family will be ready for Halloween for a couple dollars!

I love that I know how to sew. Curtains, pillows, Daisy Duke shirt for my 12th grade Sadie Hawkins dance.  Basic sewing but still, sewing.

I recently had some time to get crafty and made a crayon cozy for my daughter.  A cozy for crayons of all things.  But this is brilliant. I don’t know what mom originally designed the crayon cozy but it’s genius. It’s a take anywhere, crayon holder to toss in your purse. The thing I love best about it is that it’s adorable in my purse it’s so green! Instead of wasting those boxes of crayons at restaurants ( you know the ones with 4 cheap crayons that break the first time you use them ), you have your own set in a reusable container. You can make it greener by using one made with organic cotton fabric or filling it with soy crayons. 

For a great pattern to make your own crayon cozy, check out ‘Skip to My Lou‘ .  Alternatively, if you want to buy a crayon cozy, check out Etsy, there are lots of moms selling crayon cozies – you can customize the colors, patterns or add a monogram.

Plastic baggies seem to be a kitchen essential but there’s a downside – they are flimsy, not easily reusable and PLASTIC!   Genius moms have overcome this by designing reusable, food safe bags to replace your Ziploc addiction.  They are great for snack or lunch time holding chips, apples, sandwiches and more.

3GreenMoms – These reusable, colorful cloth pouches are made in the USA from a high quality, moisture-proof German fabric used worldwide in the food industry. These bags are food safe, extremely durable, grease-proof and can even be thrown in the dishwasher.  Many patterns to choose from!  2 for $12.

Rosy und Posy – My favorite finds are always on Etsy and this mother daughter duo has plastic free lunch bags, made with cotton and lined with 100% unbleached cotton muslin.  My favorite thing about Etsy is the customization possibilities so find your favorite fabric and customize an order.  $4 – $6 per bag.

Kids Konserve – Kids Konserve is known for a host of reusable products, particularly for lunches.  Their reusable baggies are made with recycled, FDA approved, non-toxic, non-leaching, recyclable PE plastic. They do not contain Bisphenol-A (BPA) and ire Phthalate free. 13″ round. 5 for $25.

DIY – This blogger has written a tutorial to create your own reusable baggies from fabric scraps – you can download to print it.

FREE STUFF: 2 lucky winners will get a set of regular size and snack size bags from 3GreenMoms! To enter, visit 3 Green Moms and tell us what your favorite print is. Leave your comment by Sunday, June 21, 2009 at 11:59pm PST. Contest open to all U.S. and Canadian residents, ages 18+. We will choose 2 winners, at random, and notify them by email. Privacy Policy.