Cereal Box to Drawer Organizer

Gotta love this simple recycling idea from A Little Hut. While there's no written out tutorial, her pictures provide a pretty good idea of the steps.



And given the normal price of such things, it's absolutely wonderful to find a free, environmentally friendly way to accomplish the same thing. I think these would look amazing covered in some fun fabric.

Shelterrific

While we're on the subject of websites, here's another one that I just came across. Shelterrific lives up to its name, providing great ideas for crafts and purchases for the home. I'm totally addicted, especially to all the great earth-friendly suggestions.

Plastic Soda Bottle Vase Tutorial

Here's a fun (and free!) project available on wikiHow: a tutorial on turning a plastic soda bottle into an attractive vase.

Plastic Bags into Baskets

Craftzine recently featured a pretty straightforward tutorial from The lucky ladybird craft blog on making baskets out of old plastic bags. Very cool. If you like this stuff, check out my older posts on using plastic bags as gift bows and art.

Paper Bag Wrapping Paper

I thought I'd share with you this simple idea for re-use friendly gift wrap.  I did this little wrapping project over the holidays, but it could be used for any time of the year.  I wrapped presents using old paper bags.  I simply cut them up, folded them flat, and used scotch tape for wrapping.  It did take a little more tape than usual because the bag paper is thick.

Since all the gifts were for one person--they were small items--I cut out numbers instead of labels.  I used red scrap paper, punched a hole, and put them through the ribbons for color.  You could also do letters for initials, or shapes, or who knows what else.  I cut them freehand, but you could also buy large stencils at any craft store. 

Junk Mail Art Tutorial

Even if you sign up for those nice services to limit the amount of junk mail you get, it's still nearly impossible to avoid getting some unwanted mail.  So I thought this art project from re-nest was a nice idea.  The post even includes a nice step-by-step tutorial in case you want to replicate it.
 

DIY Business Envelopes to Pretty Envelopes Tutorial

Hi all, wonderful news: my nephew is on the mend! Here's a fun little project from Design Sponge I came across via Folding Trees. All it involves really is carefully turning junk mail envelopes inside out. Check out the tutorial at Design Sponge.

Warning: Your Sunscreen Could Be Killing Ocean Life

This is slightly tangential to the site's theme, but when I read the San Francisco Chronicle article about how chemicals in almost all sunscreens are contributing to killing coral reefs (so rare, so pretty, and so fragile!), I was absolutely horrified.

And it's not just coral; algae and fish are also affected (and maybe even humans). But short of burning and risking sun cancer, or hiding inside, what can we do? Well, the Chronicle also offers a nice list of ocean-friendly sunscreens.

I'm headed out to buy some Burt's Bees sunscreen, since I love their lip balm, and the swimming pool is calling.