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Earth-friendly crafts are a great way express creativity while helping save the planet. With all the recent alarming news about the environment, especially glacier melting, people are starting to understand that every little bit of caring helps.

Recycled craft ideas are a great way to start off on this earth-friendly activity. However, recycled crafts aren't always totally earth-friendly due to toxic craft paints, plastics, and production techniques.

So for some great, truly earth-friendly crafts, try these:

HOMEMADE PAPER

- This is a fun process that can make really lovely paper for notes, cards, or stationary. Use any type of plain paper, like typing paper, newspaper, tissue paper, or construction paper. This can be a great way to recycle colorful coupons or any junk mail. It can be new or used paper, it doesn't matter.

- Rip the paper into tiny pieces and fill a blender a little less than half full. Fill the rest of the blender a little less than full with warm water. Blend mixture well, until paper is dissolved into water.

- Once the paper is blended, try adding some extra items for color, texture, or better pulp. This is why the blender wasn't filled to the top yet. Lint from clothing dryers works great and adds wonderful colors. So do crushed flower petals, or whole flower heads, vegetable peelings, bright leaves, dried/fresh herbs, fine glitter, and tiny strips of yarn.

- Rip up a new or used tea bag and dump the contents into the pulp. Old potpourri is a great way to add texture and a light fragrance. Feathers that have been stripped of the spine, in other words just the feather hairs, also look lovely. Blend well again.

- For finer additions, like seeds, delicate fibers, or whole petals, do not blend again. For a great double-duty paper, add some tiny flower seeds, so the paper can be thrown into a hole in the garden and flowers will sprout. Do not blend the seeds, just mix them in.

- You will need a screen to make paper. An old picture frame can work for this. Fine window screening will need to be fitted to the frame, making a flat surfaced sieve for the paper and water. If the screen has too big of holes, the pulp is just going to fall back into the water.

- Fill a squarish, flat basin about half way with water. Add 2-4 blender loads of pulp, depending on basin size. The basin should be at least 1/2 foot deep, though up to 2 feet can be used too.

- If the paper is too thin, add more pulp. If the paper is too thick, remove some pulp. Add a cap full of starch

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