What's better than simply going green?

What's better than just going green?   Today, it's spending time with a green crafter.  In case you haven't met her, her name is Denise, and her blog is called "Green Crafting."  I would be remiss if I didn't thank Denise for taking time away from her busy schedule to allow me to interview her.  So, thank you Denise, for answering these questions, as well as providing all your wonderful art (for those of us who are visual learners) that shows what Green Crafting is all about.

I ask that you not pin any of Denise's art from my blog.  Please visit her, and ask permission to pin from her blog.  Now let's learn more about Denise, whose blog is definitely eco-friendly.

Elizabeth:  How and why did you come up with this idea of Green Crafting,

Denise:  I never thought I would be a blogger, to tell the truth!  I'm actually a
very private person, 

and the thought of sharing my crafting ideas with the world intimidated me at first.

But I've always been passionate about living an Earth-friendly lifestyle.  When I realized that relatively few people on the Internet were talking about eco-friendly crafting,

I decided I wanted to be a voice for the "green" side of crafting.  And that's what I named my blog: Green Crafting.
 
Elizabeth:  What do you mean by Eco-Friendly Crafts? 

Denise:  There is a culture of consumerism in some circles of the scrapbooking world.  However, through my blogging I try to show an alternative point of view.  When it comes to crafting, I think before I buy new supplies, I make use of my scraps, I utilize household items and found objects, etc.  Not just in crafting, but in all areas of my life, I try to take small steps to be a little gentler on the environment.  It's my hope that those small steps will add up and make a difference.

Just as I like to share any eco-friendly crafting tips that I come up with, I also love to get tips from other people.  I am always on the lookout for other eco-friendly blogs and web sites, and I welcome comments and feedback from other crafters and artists.

Elizabeth: Do you have some Eco-Friendly and Green examples and tips you can share with us?

Denise:  I think the 3 R's (reduce~reuse~recycle) are a good guideline that anyone can follow.

Reduce--reduce the amount of supplies you need to purchase by making good use of your scraps.
 
 For example, I arranged a bunch of scraps in rainbow order to make a fun background for a picture in my son's baby book. 

Reuse--your home is a treasure trove of craft supplies.  Canceled postage stamps, fabric from worn out clothing, broken jewelry--these are just a few of the household items that can be transformed into craft supplies.  

I made this birthday card using an old book page, ticket stubs, and an antique milk cap.

Recycle--turning an old item into something that can be used in another way is fun.  Bubble wrap can be turned into a background stamp (and if you clean the ink or paint off right away, oftentimes the bubble wrap can be used again).  Old cereal boxes can be trimmed and painted to make mini album pages or other chipboard shapes.  And who needs to buy stencils when sticker negatives work just as well?

To create the "brick wall" pattern on this layout about my husband, I stenciled with pearlescent paint over the grid-like negative portion from a sheet of rectangular mini alphabet stickers.

Elizabeth:  Please explain your thinking when you came up with 10 on the 10th. You might even want to explain what that means to some who are not familiar with your blog.

Denise:  For a while, it was all the rage for bloggers to create posts with ten photos or a list of ten statements/remarks.  These posts would appear on the tenth day of each month and be called "Ten on the Tenth."  I decided that I wanted to do that, too.  And, to go along with the eco-friendly theme of my blog, 

each of my "Ten on the Tenth" posts shows ways to use up scraps and older supplies.

Last year, I challenged myself each month to create ten projects that used scraps and older supplies,

and I showed these ten projects in my "Ten on the Tenth" posts.

This year, I have taken a slightly different approach.  Now, each month I choose ten items and blog about how I use these specific items to create three projects: 

a scrapbook page, 

a greeting card, 

and one other project (can be a collage, mixed media piece, etc.) like this wall hanging.

Elizabeth:  Are you primarily a scrapbooker, or do you work in other media?

Denise:  Scrapbooking is definitely my favorite hobby.

However, I also enjoy card making, beading, macrame, 

needlework, and drawing.  
Sometimes my crafts "cross over" with each other, which is always fun.


Elizabeth:  When did you start making art and what genre?

Denise:  I think I was about three years old when my parents gave me a giant box of Crayola crayons for Christmas.  The box had 64 different colors, but it seemed like about a million colors to my young, bedazzled eyes.  I was in love.  In love with color.  

And even though, during the ensuing 35 years, I have progressed from coloring with crayons to making scrapbook pages, I am still just as head-over-heels in love with color to this day.

Elizabeth:  Since we now know a bit about your art, please tell us briefly about yourself.

Denise: My family is very important to me.  (I think this is true of most scrapbookers; it's the reason why we want to make fancy albums to showcase all our family photos.)  I actually met my husband because of crayons.  In college, a mutual friend of ours decided to have a "relive your childhood"-themed party and invited people over to watch Disney movies, eat cookies, and color with crayons.  Our romance has been going strong since then, and we just recently celebrated our sixteenth wedding anniversary.  We have one son, and I am a stay-home mom to him.  Before I became a parent, I worked as a teacher, and I still do a little private tutoring.  
Besides crafts, my other hobbies include reading, walking for exercise, and collecting Russian dolls.

I would like to thank Denise for sharing both her truly lovely art, as well as her take on what it means to live green, both in her life and her art.   What a joy it is to find a kindred spirit.  Even though I'm not a scrapbooker, Denise's art speaks to me.  I like her thinking that eco-friendly art in one area spills over into other areas.

I would also like to thank Denise for how easy it was for me to interview her.  She went above and beyond to make sure everything was correct and well documented. 

Denise invites you to visit her blog, Green Crafting.  The address is http://greendenise.blogspot.com or click on any link in this post to be taken there.

Today is Day 19, and I went green interviewing the greenest person I know: Green Denise.  I want to thank Denise from the bottom of my heart for taking time to share her green world with us.  Please thank her, too.