Too Many Crafty People in the World

(Or, Too Many Crafts Ideas, Too Little Time!)

We went to a green gift fair this morning. Perhaps it was Des Moines’ answer to today’s San Francisco Green Fest (all I know is, one year I’d like to make it to one of those Green Fests — Chicago, Seattle, SF, I don’t care which one). In any event, although I didn’t buy anything, it was amazing to see what people with ingenuity are re-crafting.

One woman had an entire booth of items made from cut-up sweaters: skirts for little girls (cut off the neckline and arms, hem it, turn it upside down, and now the ribbed bottom of an adult sweater is the waistline of a skirt), and so many felted knit pieces for pincusions, ottomans, pillows, etc.

Another person makes jewelry from cast-off utensils (kind of like these).

And then there were the bowls made from old vinyl records.

My two favorite ideas were the wildflower paper that you can plant after receiving it (that just seems like the most fun idea) and the plastic bag alternative (Impera argues that tupperwares take up too much room in her overly full and heavy schoolbag — she’s right, but it makes me feel terrible that she uses ziploc bags every day for her sandwich; if I were to make a bunch of these fabric bags, maybe I could convert her to using them instead).