Celebrate Earth Day: Design for the Planet

For environmentalists, every day is Earth Day. Nevertheless, April 22 marks an occasion for extra reflection and celebration. This week, we'll show you how to make the most of the planet's party.

Tip #2: Wear Your Favorite Place

If you had to convey the essence of the outdoors without using words, what image would you create? The Sierra Club and Shirt.Woot are asking that question to the T-shirt design community and the responses range from humorous to heartbreaking. To participate, submit your own original T-shirt design to Shirt.Woot or vote for your favorite representation. Voting ends on April 19. In addition to the three shirts with the most votes, we'll pick our favorite design and all four organic shirts will be available for purchase at Shirt.Woot.com beginning April 23.

Repurposed Balcony Planters: Shoe Gardens

Forget the bright lights of a stage — big-city dreams are made of cilantro, basil, red lettuce, and tomatoes. This week, we'll show you a few creative, repurposed planters that will green the concrete jungle and put fresh food on your plate. With these space-saving gardens from Alex Mitchell's book The Edible Balcony, your dreams of becoming a big-shot gardener could come true.

Tip #3: Shoe Away Clutter

Got a pile of worn-out shoes you'd like to kick to the curb? Get rid of the messy heap by repurposing them into a fashionably green garden. As for the empty shoe organizer, just hang it on your balcony's wall or railing and grow an array of garden favorites in the pockets. Both gardens will clear space without cramping your style.

--photo by iStockphoto/mtr

Supermodel Josie Maran Talks Makeup and Motherhood

JOSIE MARAN has landed some of the world's most competitive modeling gigs: the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, the Victoria's Secret catalog, and cover after cover of Glamour, Maxim, Self, and other big-name glossies. These days, though, the porcelain-faced beauty, 33, focuses on promoting her eco-makeup brand and raising her 5-year-old daughter, Rumi Joon. A chunk of the proceeds from her company goes to a variety of charities, including ones that help protect polar bears and argan forests.

Q: Why did you start an eco-makeup line?

A: I used to ask makeup artists, "Is there anything that's healthier or more natural?" and they'd always say it's impossible to do. I really wanted it for myself and didn't understand why it couldn't be done. So I did it. 

Q: How?

A: I went to a lot of conferences. I talked to people in the natural-beauty realm about ingredients, and they introduced me to labs. So I went to the labs with all the makeup that I wanted but that I considered toxic and said, "I want all these products but without the bad stuff." By talking to a lot of chemists and the Environmental Working Group, I started understanding what the toxic ingredients are. I worked on my line for three years with four labs. It took a long time because they’d never done that before, pull out those ingredients to make a good product. But it was very well worth it.

Q: So what were the ingredients you didn’t want in there? 

A: You’ve got to pull out the parabens. But I really think the most toxic ingredients in the world are synthetic fragrances. None of my products ever have synthetic fragrances. Or talc or phlalates or . . . there’s a lot of controversy over what is a petrochemical but I do my best not to have petrochemicals. 

Q: What’s so bad about synthetic fragrances?

A: What I’ve read has really scared me. It turns boys into girls.

Repurpose Your Plastic: Milk-Jug Craft Projects

In the immortal words of Mr. McGuire from The Graduate: "I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. . . . Are you listening? . . . Plastics." This week, we'll provide tips on how to reuse and recycle everyday plastic items.

Tip #1: Reuse Your Old Milk Containers

The gallon milk jug may be the mother of all bulky plastics, but there are many ways to reuse the empty container before you toss it into the recycling bin. With just a pair of scissors and a marker, you can turn a gallon milk jug into a stylish quasi-lunch box, purse, or gift box. If your lunch-box needs are already satisfied, don't fret: the repurposing possibilities are endless.

Tip #2: Create a Stylish Lamp from Plastic Cups

Tip #3: Recycle CDs Creatively

Tip #4: Educate Yourself on Plastic Recycling

--image courtesy of iStock/luxcreative

Green Your Winter Camping Trip: Eco-Layers

Snow on the ground shouldn't stop anybody from getting outside. This week's tips will make your cold-weather camping trip enjoyable and environmentally friendly.

Tip #1: Layer up.

Layers are the easiest way to warm up in winter. When it comes to choosing your outdoor gear, go with an eco-aware brand like Patagonia. They make outerwear of excellent quality, but when your Patagonia pieces finally do wear out, the company takes them back and recycles them into new fabric. The company is also part of 1% For The Planet and takes on environmental campaigns.

Tip #2: Build a snow shelter.

Tip #3: Recycle fuel canisters.

Tell us: How do you green your camping trips?

Green Projects for 2012: Recycled Credit-Card Bling

Harness the new year's momentum to transform your tired old stuff into fresh new creations. This week, we're providing ideas for craft projects to invigorate your 2012.

Tip #4: Make jewelry from credit or gift cards.

If you've resolved to spend less in 2012 or have simply drained all your holiday gift cards dry, now's a good time to cut up the plastic and make a unique piece of jewelry with it. With the help of a few tools, those expired credit cards, gift cards, and membership cards can be reincarnated as a bracelet or a pair of earrings. Now when's the last time bling actually helped your budget?

Tell us: How do you reuse plastic?

Green Projects for 2012: Sew a T-Shirt Quilt

Harness the new year's momentum to transform your tired old stuff into fresh new creations. This week, we're providing ideas for craft projects to invigorate your 2012.

Tip #2: Turn old T-shirts into a quilt.

Whether they commemorate favorite bands, athletic achievements, or world travel, it's hard to part with those cherished tees. But if your collection has outgrown your closet, considering turning well-worn shirts into a unique quilt. Design ideas abound: Craft, Instructables, and Craftstylish all provide instructions.

Tell us: What do you do with old clothes?

Craft Alert: How to Make a Cassette-Tape Purse

Embarrassed by your obsolete musical collection? Let it sing a new tune as a clever purse. CONSTRUCTION TIME: 2 hours

Recently, a woman was arrested for keeping 95 cats in her house. It may seem incomprehensible until we each consider our own hoarding streak: Many of us have hundreds of cassette tapes packed up in boxes. OK, so maybe the neighbors aren’t complaining about the smell, but the detritus of our earlier musical phases is a nuisance in its own way, taking up space, perhaps, in your closet and psyche. You probably don’t even own a cassette player anymore.

If this sounds like you, consider making a cool cassette-tape purse using little more than glue and some felt. It may not make much of a dent in your collection, but it'll be liberating to stop revering the tapes as tokens of the past and see them instead as materials for reinvention. The hardest part will be sorting through them and deciding which to use.

What you'll need:

° 12 cassette tapes
° A flush saw 
° A file or sanding block
° Quick-acting craft glue
° Felt or other fabric (a ½ yard is plenty)
° Belt, rope, or strong ribbon 
° Two small screws and corresponding acorn nuts
° Scissors
° Fabric chalk
° A tape measure or ruler

Use the cartridges as they are to show off your sophisticated taste in '80s music. Or if you prefer not to advertise how uncool you were as a teenager (Amy Grant’s Christmas album?), you can cover them with stickers and decals.

If you’ve never known a world sans CDs and iPods (or if you jettisoned your cassettes long ago) but still want to try your hand at making this hipster accessory, don’t fret: Cassette tapes are easy to come by. Just ask around. Diving into your aunt’s trove might tell you a lot about her younger days —  and, just maybe, why she became a crazy cat lady.

Click below for step-by-step instructions: 

--Wendy Becktold / based on a project by Tami A. Walker on instructables.com.

Green Your Feet: The Sock-ratic Method

To go green, you've got to start from the bottom and work your way up. This week's tips, then, are about how to take steps to minimize your literal footprint.

Tip # 4: Buy the right socks.

Typical cotton socks come from pesticide-laden fields. And they get stinky and soggy with the slightest perspiration. Consider, then, organic cotton and bamboo as alternatives. The latter regrows rapidly: Some species gain 4 feet of height per day! Bamboo also contains a natural bug repellent, which means it’s usually grown without pesticides, though there's some controversy over the chemicals used to process it. If you don’t want to splurge on bamboo (it can be pricey), check out Parker Legwear, which makes the official sock of the Sierra Club. Their cotton is 100% recycled, and blended with spandex and nylon to fight off sweat. By using recycled yarn, Parker saves almost 1,300 gallons of water and 500 kilowatt-hours of energy for each ton of materials produced.

Tell us: What are your socks made of?

Green Your Feet: Friendly Footwear

To go green, you've got to start from the bottom and work your way up. This week's tips, then, are about how to take steps to minimize your literal footprint.

Tip #1: Invest in earthy shoes.

You probably know about Toms' buy-one-give-one model. Other shoemakers are following that company's lead, so when it’s time for new footwear, choose an eco-brand. OAT shoes, for example, biodegrade to 90% in six months if they're in ideal soil (don’t worry: they need microbes to do so, so they won’t disintegrate on your feet). Simple Shoes are made from hemp, recycled paper, cork, bamboo, old tires, and other stuff that was once landfill-bound. For designer kicks, look to Beyond Skin, whose vegan high heels use faux leather. For more eco-shoe ideas, click here.

Tip #2: Compost your clippings.

Tip #3: Don't pick up hitchhikers.

Tip #4: Buy the right socks.

Tell us: What's earthy about your feet?