Inhabitots

Build a Last Minute Gingerbread House Out of a Recycled Juice Carton!

Don’t let the holidays get away from you without building this easy and adorable gingerbread house with your kids! While making a gingerbread house from scratch can be difficult and time consuming, this super simple sweet abode was crafted by upcycling a juice carton into a candy dreamland! All you need to do is glue graham cracker ‘walls’ to the outside of an …

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DIY Project: Make A Snow Globe from a Recycled Baby Food Jar!

The most clever party favor my son has ever received was from a boy with an architect mom and sculptor dad. Yet the gift was more kitschy than Kahn, more crafty than Chihuly. In other words, it was perfect for a kid: a tiny DIY snow globe encased in a reused baby food jar (he’s a big brother). Read on for instructions on how they made it.

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DIY Wooden Doll Kit – Paint Your Own Dollhouse Inhabitants!

In search of a family to inhabit your Plan Toys Eco-Chalet Dollhouse? Look no further than the Etsy shop belonging to Brooklyn designers Goose Grease. Known for their custom cake toppers, the small design house also has in its inventory a doll making kit that …

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BOOK REVIEW: Kid Made Modern by Todd Oldham

Designer Todd Oldham’s new book, Kid Made Modern is a kaleidoscopic collection of kid’s crafts and a budding designer’s introduction to the masters of modernism. Kid Made Modern features 192 full-color, eye-popping pages of 52 craft projects that range from simple (Amazing Laces inspired by Jack Lenor Larsen: lacing high top sneakers with unprecedented flair) to more challenging undertakings (Kaleidoscope Movie inspired by Charles and Ray Eames: kids become psychedelic directors of their own animated film). The majority of the inexpensive crafts featured in the book may be brought to life using recycled or readily available household materials — and they are truly engaging, easy to follow, and accompanied by captivating, descriptive, step by step photographs.

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Kid-Sized, Tabletop Cardboard Christmas Tree from Cloud Gate Designs

Whether real or faux, kids love decorating Christmas trees, and we’re sure this recycled cardboard version will be no exception. Cloud Gate Designs introduced their 3 foot tall recycled Cardboard Christmas tree last year, and this year they’re selling smaller 1 foot trees too. The mini version with pop-out …

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Inhabitots’ Greenmarket Recipes for Kids: Sautéed Apples by Sarah Poten

“Try these with ice cream,” says Sarah Poten, Education and Special Projects Coordinator, Greenmarket (CENYC). Or you can try ‘em with diary-free sorbét. A great dessert to finish off our Thanksgiving collection of recipes, these sautéed apples are always in season and sure to please even the most discerning kiddy connoisseurs. Sarah has even included fun nutritional facts about apples — who knew that apples help strengthen bones?

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Inhabitots’ Greenmarket Recipes for Kids: Cranberry Sauce with Maple Syrup by Sarah Poten

Here’s a question Sarah has for our young cooks: “Did you know that cranberries are packed with Vitamin C and antioxidants that are good for your immune system? Homemade cranberry sauce is very easy and fun to make!” Get ready to eat your vitamins in a super yummy way with Sarah Poten, as she shares a kid-friendly Greenmarket recipe for a Thanksgiving staple: Cranberry Sauce with Maple Syrup!

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Inhabitots’ Greenmarket Recipes for Kids: Oven Roasted Carrots and Parsnips by Sarah Poten

Carrots and parsnips… that’s about all you need to make Sarah Poten’s simple and delectable side dish of Roasted Carrots and Parsnips this Thanksgiving. Be sure to review the fun nutritional facts Sarah, Education and Special Projects Coordinator, Greenmarket (CENYC), has included with this recipe after the jump!

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Inhabitots’ Greenmarket Recipes for Kids: Rainbow Salad by Sarah Poten

Sarah Poten, Education and Special Projects Coordinator of Greenmarket (CENYC), has a challenge for our kid helpers: “Find at least one fruit or vegetable of each color at the Greenmarket! Make your plate as colorful as possible for a rainbow of healthy nutrients for your body!” See the color-specified nutrient list after the recipe for Rainbow Salad!

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Inhabitots’ Greenmarket Recipes for Kids: Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower

Here’s another question for our child chefs from Sarah Poten, Education and Special Projects Coordinator, Greenmarket (CENYC): “Did you know that Romanesco is a tender variety of cauliflower with a delicious nutty flavor? It’s light green with spiraling fractal-shaped florets that captivate kids and grown-ups alike. Cooking cauliflower in a hot oven concentrates its natural sweetness — think vegetable candy!”

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Inhabitots’ Greenmarket Recipes for Kids: Purple Mashed Potatoes

Sarah Poten, Education and Special Projects Coordinator of Greenmarket (CENYC) has shared 6 vegetarian recipes for Inhabitots readers to try this Thanksgiving. The first one is: Purple Mashed Potatoes. To begin, Sarah poses a question to our kid helpers: “Did you know that potatoes originated in Peru, and the first varieties were purple? These mashed potatoes are delicious, rich in beta-carotene, and you’ll love the amazing lavender color!”

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THANKSGIVING ECO-CRAFTS: Make Place Cards and Letter Art with Alphabet Noodles

Sitting with a hot bowl of alphabet soup, who among us hasn’t tried to string words together from the noodle letters floating within? That urge struck me recently when I opened a box of Eden Organic Vegetable Alphabets noodles and found the letters forming words in lovely, earthy hues of spinach, carrot, beet and annatto. These noodles were begging to be incorporated into craft projects! Thanksgiving place cards and whimsical letter art are two craft ideas using alphabet noodles that are quick, easy, inexpensive and kid-friendly! Keep reading for instructions!

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PIPEROID DIY Paper Robots by Designer Takashi Tsunoda

A PIPEROID is a fantastical cut-fold-connect, paper robot created by Japanese toy designer Takashi Tsunoda. For anime-loving, DIY-experienced kids, it gets no better than this. Full of mischief, each robotic duo comes as a rolled sheet of colorful paper that needs to be crafted in order to be brought to life as a PIPEROID!

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Homemade Green Halloween Costumes for Babies

Now that we’ve announced our Green Halloween contest, it’s time to whip up a super cute, eco-friendly costume for your baby! Craft Apparent blogger and crafting mommy extraordinaire Vickie Howell offers four clever costume ideas for babies, all designed with white snapsuits (onesies) as the base. Shown from left …

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HOW TO: Make Wooden Photo Flash Cards

Flash cards are to toddlers what an Internet searchbar is to adults: a vital gateway and endless opportunity to learn new things. One of the best physical teaching tools a parent can use to educate their child, flash cards teach knowledge hungry young minds how to recognize and correlate objects from the everyday (egg) to the sensational (dinosaur). They foster reading, spelling and language skills, and toddlers love playing with them given their short attention spans and desire to learn on the fly. For all these reasons, we love this DIY tutorial for how to make your own wooden photo flash cards for your kids. Read on to learn more about these clever brain builders!

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Cloud9 Organic Fabrics to Make Baby Clothes, Quilts, & Nursery Decor!

Making homemade baby quilts, nursery decor and specialty clothing is a wonderful way to welcome a new baby — and when choosing fabrics to sew these creations, it’s eco and baby friendly to use organic materials. Cloud9 Fabrics is an independent fabric manufacturer co-founded by Michelle Engel Bencsko and Gina Pantastico. They specialize in printed organic cotton fabric for the quilt and craft market, although the applications for their lovely collection are limitless: cloth diaper covers, soft owl crinkle toys, curtains and more!

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EcoSystems’ mini-Bamba Schools Kids on Sustainable Design

At only 4.25″ tall, the mini-Bamba by EcoSystems isn’t meant for sitting. The doll-sized collectible, a 1/6th-scale replica of the original Bamba armchair, arrives as a flat sheet of laser-cut bamboo plywood, with individual components that snap together with rare-earth magnets for tool-free assembly. The mini-Bamba even includes etched pictograms designed to teach children the …

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NEW! Recycled Cardboard Collection from Designer Ben Blanc

We had the pleasure of interviewing designer Ben Blanc on Inhabitots, and we’re excited to report about four new recycled cardboard projects coming out of his studio. Blanc shares, they “have just been released at the NYGF which I designed exclusively for Cardboardesign.” There’s a clever room divider (“Each piece is a single die cut shape that the user can slot together to form a wall”), a set of scratch ‘toys’ for kitties that I think could pass as toys for kiddies (“I’m sure they would look great in a kids room”) and a fold up Cardboard Shark and Puppet TV set specifically intended to inject creativity into playtime activities.

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Kids Create Art on Vintage Chairs for Sea of Shoes ‘Chairity’

Remember the couch that Pamela Bell, founder of Kate Spade, let her children and their friends attack with fabric markers? After spotting the multihued, graffiti-festooned sofa in the pages of Vogue Australia, Sea of Shoes blogger Jane Aldridge and her mother were inspired to do the same to raise money for the Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas.

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HOW TO: Make Photo Puzzle Blocks

The summer vacation, or staycation may be over, but the fun has just begun with these crafty two-sided photo puzzle blocks! Photojojo offers a great tutorial on how to make your own puzzle blocks, so you may turn your precious snapshot memories into a game, conversation piece, and coffee table decor. Using just a few household materials and some eco-friendly Uncle Goose Alphabet blocks, (or any alphabet blocks begging to be upcycled) you can whip up this family memento in no time. Great variations on the puzzle blocks would be to give them as gifts to new parents, using their newborn’s picture, or as birthday presents for children featuring the lucky recipient in a prized photo.

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DIY: Backyard Hideaway Made from Old Windows

Give old windows a fresh new outlook by turning them into an outdoor hideaway! We spotted this clever upcycling project at Design Sponge and thought building this backyard escape would be the perfect way to round out the summer. A Swedish reader of Design Sponge submitted this project when she was left with a pile of old windows after having new ones installed in her home. What could have been sent to a landfill instead became a unique, inviting backyard dwelling where kids and adults alike may escape a hectic household to read a book, play a game, or sneak a snooze.

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DIY: Knit-It Kits by The Little Experience

With summer vacation in full swing, even the best-laid plans may go awry when it comes to staving away the “I’m Boreds,” especially when your kids are cramped into airplane or car seats. Whip out one of The Little Experience’s Knit-It kits the second you sense the rumblings of a meltdown. Crafty types ages 6 and up will soon be lulled into speechlessness by the relaxing rhythm of knitting and purling. (An instruction manual shows them how). Packed with everything you need to stitch together a bashful elephant, a trio of mice, or a pair of fluffy sheep, each kit will keep your child busy while honing his or her fine motor skills. The packaging even hides a secret surprise on the inside: Cut up and assemble the box into a swing for your elephant, cheese for your mice, and a pen for your new wooly friends!

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DIY: Free Downloadable Paper Foldables by Bryan Green

For DIY fun on the fly, you can’t beat Bryan Green’s free downloadable papercraft toys, which include a kitty with its head in a cone, a necktie-wearing sheep, and a bull pinata that can be filled with real candy. Assembling this three-dimensional cast of quirky characters couldn’t be easier: Simply print, cut, fold, tape, and voila, you have a great rainy …

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Inhabitots Visits the New York Renegade Craft Fair

As an admirer of all things handmade, I wouldn’t have missed the 5th annual, Etsy sponsored New York Renegade Craft Fair this past weekend for anything. A haven for makers and all of their clever, inspiring wares, walking through the well attended fair granted us a peek into the minds of the most creative craft makers on the circuit. Here are some highlights from the fair…

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‘Beasts of Waste’ Birthday Party

Planning a birthday party for an eco-conscious tot can be tricky when you consider the wastefulness and toxicity of commercially available plastic wrapped games and favors—many of which do little to encourage creativity. Thankfully, there are incredible, imaginative and sustainable alternatives for birthday party fun. Inspired by Carolien Adriaansche, ‘Beasts of Waste’ involve a close-up visit with nature’s creatures, and a hands-on activity of beast-making from household waste. If you’re lucky enough to be in The Hague, Carolien can host an all-inclusive party for you, otherwise, follow these DIY Beast of Waste party instructions after the jump.

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3 Eco-Friendly Baby Wipe Choices

Diapers are usually given the most attention and thought when it comes to greening baby’s changing regime. But baby wipes are equally important in terms of caring for baby and the health of the planet. Most disposable baby wipes contain alcohol and potent perfumes that can be very irritating to a baby’s delicate bottom. Many brands of baby wipes are also saturated in liquid solutions which leave excessive moisture on baby’s bum… and where there’s moisture, diaper rashes may soon follow. Here are 3 great, eco-friendly choices of baby wipes, which will be kind to your baby and easier on the earth.

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DIY: Recycled Catalog Dollhouse

For those of us still receiving paper catalogs at home (get yourself off of junk mail lists here), here is a fun way to turn all those glossy, full-page rooms into modern play spaces for hip dollies. Leanne over at SeetheWoodsandtheTrees has posted a smart tutorial on how to use a glue stick and scissors to turn recycled cardboard and home catalogs into a well designed …

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HOW TO: Recycle Baby Socks Into Bunnies, Chicks and Eggs!

If you live with babies and small kids, you may also live with heaps of outgrown clothing, slated for hand-me-downs. With spring cleaning and re-organization underway in most households, why not revisit those old clothes and give them new life as recycled crafting materials? As a new mom with twins under a year old, I have approximately eleventeen zillion pairs of wee socks waiting to be repurposed (or at least moved out of our basement).

We are all familiar with cute sock puppets and sock monkeys, but what about tiny bunnies, chicks, and eggs? I have yet to come across a good reuse project for baby socks, so I put this DIY tutorial together with simple materials found around the home. Buried in the mountains of baby clothes, were also several adorable but too-small hats. With this crafty project, however, a hand knit hat finds new life as a nest for upcycled peeps.

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Mahar Drygoods Vintage Tie-Dye Eggs Kit

This Easter, even your eggs can wear their Sunday best. The Mahar Drygoods Tie-Dye Eggs Kit will make your eggs the best dressed finds in the hunt; and it will make even the least crafty among us seem like divas of design. We’re amazed at the clever recycling of vintage ties to create these unique, egg masterpieces via the transferring of their design to the egg’s shell. Each kit has enough materials to decorate 24 eggs, and includes recycled vintage ties, fabric wrappers, twist ties and simple, kid-friendly instructions. Household items such as tongs, white vinegar, scissors and a cooking pot, round out this eco-friendly way to decorate your Easter eggs.

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DIY Project: Glass Jar Frames

I obsessively save my glass jars. I won’t throw them away, which is a good thing, because my city doesn’t have facilities for recycling glass. So, I’m stuck with a  bunch of empty glass jars, hoping that someday I’ll be able to use them for a neat DIY project. Well, that day has arrived! The folks at Photojojo have come up with a really cool way to recycle glass jars and create keepsakes at the same time! These Glass Jar Photo Frames are ingenious! Just grab an old jar and cut down a photo so it will fit inside. Turn the jar upside down, and you’re done! A half-pint jar was the perfect size for my son’s wallet-size school picture, and an old alfredo jar fit a 4×6 inch photo with just a bit of trimming. Surf on over to Photojojo for complete instructions.

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DIY: Make Your Own ‘Owly’ Plush Toy

‘Hoo’ wants to enjoy a fun DIY project? Menina, a crafty, elementary school aged, DIYer offers simple instructions on how to make your own plush version of our handsome Inhabitots mascot. She calls her creations ‘Owlies’ and even lists them in order of ‘birth.’ She also fashions her owls using simple, sustainable materials: “We chose wool (recycled skirt and pants).” Okay, so maybe she had a little …

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