Started taking your own bag to the grocery store — but still have a stack of brown bags from last year? Always print double-sided — but annoyed by the paper trash from your co-workers who don’t? Here are a couple upcycling DIY paper crafts that’ll ease your eco-soul while creating something useful:

>> Make eco business cards that double as seed packets by upcycling a brown paper bag. (via Oko Box) Autumn at Crafting a Green World has detailed instructions — including a downloadable template — to get you started. The unique upcycled products will set your business cards apart — and hopefully encourage some urban gardening too. Make sure, though, that your printer’s up to the task. My cereal box business cards did, in the end, injure my printer — though I successfully got it fixed.

>> Make a planner out of trash. (via Re-Nest) I covered eco-friendly planners earlier, but if you have the time to make your own, you’ll have an even more eco AND economically-sensible planner. greenUpgrader provides step by step instructions, PDF templates of weekly and monthly pages, and extra eco-tips for the uber-greens (i.e. “Instead of making the lines & text black, choose light gray to save ink”).

2 Comments