What Mon-stors Are Made Of - #1

I thought it would be fun to add a new series on the blog centered around what Mon-stors are made from. If you've been around for a while, or if you're just discovering Lu & Ed, you may have noticed I say they are made with up-cycled fabrics. But just what does that mean? Wonder no more! This series will show you just what Mon-stors are made of! Rawr!

This week, I'm showing off these XXL PJ pants I found at a thrift store, as modeled by my son (by standing in one leg of the pants, haha!)....

That I turned into this Mon-stor. (sorry for the blurry photo, it's the only one I snapped before I packed it up for it's new home!)

And this tote.

And two plush (only one shown here because I ran out of stuffing, whoops!).

 The tiny scraps of fabric I had left I diced and stuffed the plush monsters with! :) And that is how Lu & Ed is keeping the Earth clean - by using post production and gifted fabrics fabrics, there is no excess air pollution or waste from textile factories and since I use every last little scrap, so there is absolutely no landfill waste from the production of Mon-stors going into landfills. Makes ya feel all warm and fuzzy inside, right? ;)

Tune in next week and see what I've done with these pants!

Make Your Art Business More Environmentally Friendly

I've been wanting to do a post on how to run a more green small business as an artist or crafter for a while now, and finally had the time to do so! It's very important to me to operate Lu & Ed with as little impact on the Earth as possible. I compiled some of my basic practices here and I hope these ideas help other artists make the switch to more economical and environmentally friendly practices!

While there are many ways as an artist and small business owner to reduce waste and make an impact, it definitely requires a 'thinking out side of the (big) box' mentality and searching for eco-friendly sources of materials, alternative shipping options, and production/waste management. Coincidentally, despite what many think, switching to more environmentally friendly habits also saves you money! Here are a few ideas that have worked for me to help turn crafting businesses into a more green operation:

Consider new shipping methods. Flat rate UPS shipping is SO convenient and fast - but it can lead to putting small things in big boxes, and paying more for shipping. Instead, recycle packaging from another source, use a box that fits your product as snugly as possible with proper padding (junk mail works great for this!) and while you're at it, try out first class - typically, packages arrive within 3 days, at the most, 5 days, and it is on average half or less the cost of shipping priority mail. Lowering shipping expenses, which always makes everyone happy. ;) I turn food boxes inside-out and use those for shipping Mon-stors. :)

Tap new venues. Thrift and antique stores are great places to get supplies to make on of a kind pieces of art. For the jewelers out there, think of all the lovely strands of beads hanging around in thrift stores. Clasps can be taken off of bracelets there and reused, along with the jewelry wire. For the artists, thrift stores, flea markets and antique stores offer a plethora of beautiful frames for art - a little sanding and spray paint, and you have a custom frame to put your art in. Plus you can paint over generic, store bought canvases that people have dumped there with some primer and have a blank canvas for a fraction of the cost of buying one at a craft store. For the seamstresses, fabric options are absolutely endless! Curtains, sheets, blankets, comforters, raw yardage, dresses, robes, clothing, pillows. Not to mention the hidden gems you wander upon, jewelry tools, knitting needles and crochet hooks, raw canvases, sewing machines, shears, bags of beads, buttons and thread spools. Don't get discouraged if your first few trips to thrift stores disappoint - remember, they have a rotating inventory, so check back often. And don't limit yourself - I have 4 thrift stores I frequent often in search of new fabrics!

Don't toss what you won't use. Just because you won't use that half full tube of glitter or those little scraps of yarn doesn't mean someone else can't. Donate scraps of unneeded craft supplies to churches, schools, art studios that host workshops, or nursing homes. They will appreciate your donations! If you want to donate craft supplies to the children's ward of hospitals, please check ahead with the hospital staff to find what craft supplies they deem acceptable.

Stop ordering online. If you can, buy it at the store in person, and save the shipping costs, the packaging and the fuel used to mail, distribute and deliver your packages from online stores. By removing the cost of shipping supplies you purchase, you're lowering your overhead costs. Plus this gives you an opportunity to distribute business cards and make connections - you never know who you will meet that will be interested in your art!

Watch what you spend. Do you really need to buy more fabric/ribbons/beads/paint/etc? Or do you just want to? Think about your purchases, think about what you already have at home, and consider if this is something you actually need - eliminating unnecessary spending reduces consumption from big box stores, which reduces the energy, fuel and packaging that is used to stock stores. Eliminating unnecessary spending also lowers your overhead costs, again saving you money, and you don't have an excess of supplies just sitting around, which means less clutter, which means less stress. :)  Instead, shop smart for projects that you have in mind, or buy only things that inspire you that you will use in a timely manner. If you can't think of an immediate use for it, don't buy it.

Give it the birds. This is probably only effective if you sew or do fiber arts, but you can take your
scraps of fiber, yarn, fabric, thread scraps, hemp or string and fill a hanging basket or potato sack in your yard for birds to gather nesting materials. You can do this year round, and also add dryer lint. They use it to insulate their nests. :)

Make your own.  Make your own business cards, thank you cards, coupon cards, and other promotional materials. Double points if you reuse paper materials to make them. To make your own business cards, get blank card stock or reuse paper board from your recycling bin, paper cutter, a personalized stamp with your business info (love these custom stamps by AngeliqueInk) and some good jams to zone out to while you work. The paperboard inserts in fat quarters are excellent to use as little thank you postcards! Use a thank you stamp to make a statement then hand write a note of gratitude - or a special coupon code for their next order!

Paper, plastic, or fabric? If you frequent craft shows, consider investing in or making some fabric shopping bags to offer as an option to purchase, to give as free gifts, or use as a buying incentive - free reusable bag with every $15 purchase? This makes you appeal to environmentally aware consumers, and reduces paper/plastic consumption by offering a long lasting alternative to using paper/plastic bags. Also, if you sew, you can make yourself some pretty rad reusable bags to use in all these thrift stores you will be frequenting, and when people ask where you got such an awesome tote, whip out a business card. ;) Here is a tutorial to turn tee shirts into tote bags. Hit up the $0.25 sales at Goodwill and grab a bunch of shirts and turn them into totes!

Supplement.  If you often use polyfil to stuff pillows, creatures, or other things, fluff that stuff up. Instead of tossing your fabric scraps, cut it up and throw it into the polyfil! It beefs up the stuffing and reduces landfill waste!

I hope that you found some of these tips useful, and if you have any other ideas or tips, or if you just liked what you read, feel free to leave me a comment here! :)

Happy Earth Day 2012

Happy Earth Day!!! I hope yours was as awesome as mine! This is one of my most favorite days, a day when we can focus on making positive change and when people band together through individual small acts to create a huge difference! Today it has been very windy and chilly, but the wind died off a bit by this evening so we were able to do our big Earth Day Clean Up! We picked up litter in our neighborhood (which we do every day when we walk our dog, but today we put extra emphasis on it, took a new route and went further into the woods by our house than we normally do, and talked a lot about littering, recycling and eco-systems). At the end, we had about two trash bags full of trash from the woods and fields by our house, and we only walked the equivalent of two blocks. I hope the people who saw us bagging up garbage take it to heart and keep paying it forward and pick up litter when they see it! A little bit of effort goes a long way!

Some photos of our Earth Day clean-up! I apologize for the poor quality, we were using a camera phone. :P We combed the fields and small section of woods by our house, found two grill covers, cat litter bags, plastic food containers, five gallon buckets, lots of fast food trash, and lots more nastiness choking up the growth. We made a pretty good dent in this area, but plan to do another clean up next Sunday! :)

Gauge starting the clean up from his bike!

Gauge and Trace cleaning up a field behind our neighborhood

Me picking up shopping bags and a cat litter bag

This bag had a lot of dryer sheets and dryer lint in it - we took the dryer lint out and threw it back into the field. Birds use it to insulate their nests. ♥

We had a lot of fun doing this today! Looking around with fresh eyes and stepping off the walking trail and sidewalks opened our eyes to environment hazards we may not have noticed otherwise, and from now on we will make an effort to take new routes on our daily walks and veer a little off the path to take our daily clean up efforts a little further! ♥

Last Earth Day, I put up a post about Lu & Ed's green movement. I wanted to write an update about my efforts to continue being as green and environmentally friendly with Lu & Ed as possible! Saving the world and leaving a lasting impression of good environmental habits on my son is very important to me.

In last year's post, I touched on how we had started buying fabrics at thrift stores - sometimes I find raw yardage there (several times with the cut tag still attached to it from the fabric store! Crazy!). My favorite finds are sheets, curtains and blankets that I use to turn into Mon-stors! Sometimes I even snag fluffy robes to make super cuddly plushies. Purchasing from thrift stores reduces a lot of waste that comes from production factories, which is then packaged and shipped to distribution, where it is opened, separated, repackaged and shipped to stores, which throws away the packaging and then has the product on their shelves. A lot of energy, fuel, and waste. Buying from thrift stores reducing the waste from big box factories, plus the lower cost of using found fabrics over new, off the bolt fabrics keeps Lu & Ed Mon-stors awesome and affordable. Today, about 80% of all Mon-stor fabrics are found fabrics! Woot!

Last year, I had just started to recycle boxes by turning food or product boxes inside out to ship in, and recently, if I need to pad a package, I started to use junk mail and fliers to stuff around the product to keep it snug during shipping. Win win on the green scale. :)  While doing this, I have learned that it is the most cost effective way to ship packages, because most boxes sold specifically for shipping tend to be odd sizes, which make the cost of shipping run a bit more. So, my green efforts are also another way to save my monster loving customers money! ♥ I love it! ^_^

I still use the polyfil/diced fabric/thread bits blend to stuff plushes, and I now use my larger scraps to stuff dog beds that I donate to the local animal shelters and rescues, so Lu & Ed is a waste-free operation! I save the fabric bits from monsters and fill bags with them, and when I have enough to use, I sew a large rectangle of fabric and leave a small opening, and stuff the pillow full of scraps, then I sew it shut. It creates a lumpy nesting bed for dogs, that they love to nose around and roll on!  (Cats love them too!!) Here is one I made for Ripley, our dog. Ignore the messy floor around her in the first pic. :)

She tested it out....

Then gave me her seal of approval!

One small change in your habits can make a big difference on your impact on the Earth.  Reducing waste, recycling, picking up litter, composting and being a more conscious consumer are simple ways that help you make a positive impact on the environment, and with every purchase from Lu & Ed, you know you are supporting a green movement with my waste-free production methods and second life found fabric shopping! :D I want to thank you all, as always, for adopting my fun storage Mon-stors and helping me continue to do what I love! I couldn't do any of this without you. ♥  Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

You may not know it,but I'm sort of a hippie and kind of obsessed with saving the Earth. And I bring that into everything I create. And being Earth Day and all, I thought I'd share a bit with you about the Lu & Ed Green Movement!

Obviously, being environmentally conscious with Lu & Ed is really important to me. I started my green movement small, by dicing fabric from each monster into tiny bits and blending it with Poly-fil before stuffing the monster - meaning no waste from our monsters going into landfills - so you can feel as good about your monster stuffie purchase as I do!! :D

Then, Jess and I began to scavenge for high quality fabrics at flea markets, thrift stores, and yard sales - turning gently used materials into fun and colorful monsters!

All three of these monsters were made from one pink fleece blanket found at a thrift store!

Repurposing a shirt, blanket or yardage of fabric, to me, means I'm not buying bulk-made fabrics that are processed in high energy production plants, then shipped to distribution plants which then repackage and deliver to individual stores - which translates to my hippie ears as a lot of energy usage, fumes, and packaging waste. So, though I still shop for new fabrics regularly, every thrifted and repurposed find does a little bit of good to Mother Earth! :)

My most recent efforts to reduce waste is perhaps my most favorite yet - turning cardboard food boxes into shipping boxes for monsters! This cut shipping costs for a wee little baby monster from $5.95 to just $1.39 in most cases! Amazing savings for buyers! And it's giving a new life to an existing box (which I hope they are getting recycled when they arrive at their destinations! ^_-  ).

Every day I try to find new ways to make a smaller impact on Earth. Reusable bags when I go shopping for materials, putting my sewing machine by the window so I don't have to use the overhead lights during the day, small little things like that, over time, will make a positive impact and I hope inspire other crafters to make green choices for their businesses as well!

What green efforts have you made this year?