Wishing you all a very special Valentine's Day with this sweet stop-motion animation by our good friend and fellow crafter, Danielle.

via A Rarer Borealis

Need some inspiration to get your week started? Check out these awesome paintings by Nick Gentry (spotted via DudeCraft).

Nick paints these fabulous portraits on old floppy discs... some materials reuse so lovely that I really want to hang one on my walls...

I love how the grid of disks creates such a natural canvas, with different colored plastics and labels showing through, and carefully crafted compositions that place the portraits eyes right on the metallic elements of the disks.

Nick takes donations of old disks to turn into art, which is an awesome way to keep up supplies of media that I imagine will become harder and harder to find in the coming years. And, as he puts it, "your stuff could be in a gallery rather than a landfill." I don't know about you, but I still have stacks (yes, stacks) of floppy disks waiting to be turned into some ingenious project... maybe I'll send them off to Nick instead.

I'm signing off a day early this week to get some rest, but I'll leave you with this adorable DIY recycling bin project spotted over on of paper and things.

What a fun way to keep your recycling separated! I love the quick, sketchy drawings, but this could easily be updated to be a colorful kitchen addition. Hot pink, maybe? Or wallpaper on the fronts? Love.

I'm sure many of you saw these over on design*sponge last week, but I wanted to post them here because they are such a cute, useful project. I save most of our jars for use around the house; as a crafter they always come in handy. But I'm not too keen on seeing all the brand names on the lids of what have become my button jars. And I always get a little jealous when I see people's workspaces that are all matchy-matchy.

This is a great, simple tutorial on using paper scraps to dress up all those jars with a pretty, matchy look. Love.

Look what showed up in my mailbox this week: the very first issue of GreenCraft magazine! I had been asked by GreenCraft's Managing Editor, Amanda Crabtree, to send some of my work for the the premiere issue, and I was thrilled to be included! But I have to say, I was really blown away when I opened up the first issue.

Look ma, it's me!

The photography is beautiful, and the whole issue has a very consistent feel—light, airy photos of (mainly) repurposed projects. I haven't had a chance to really sit down and read it cover to cover (I am not a big reader, much to the disappointment of my librarian mother), but just paging through I've seen a number of projects that I definitely want to try out.

From the GreenCraft webpage: GreenCraft Magazine will provide ideas for repurposing trash to treasure by showcasing projects where waste is repurposed into ecologically chic creations. Last, but not least, to maintain the theme of recycling, the entire publication will be printed on recycled paper.

Right now the focus of the magazine does seem to lean heavily toward repurposing projects. I asked Amanda about that (because I'm nosy—I mean, curious), and she said that much of the issue was driven by the work that they received, but also by the fact that most people have ready access to things around the house that can be reused in crafting, like junk mail or plastic bags. She would like to see the focus branch out in the future to include more crafts made with organic or sustainably-produced materials.

You can find a store that carries GreenCraft on their website. They are also still looking for work to feature in their next issue. The submission deadline is September 15, and you can find all the submission guidelines here. I definitely encourage you to give it a shot!

I was going through my bookmarks and came across this roundup of crafts made from the patterned paper of security envelopes over on iDiY. I love how security envelope patterns are turning up everywhere these days—why let a good pattern go to waste? There are actually two big roundups to check out—the second one is here—that show the wide variety of work people are using those ubiquitous envelopes for.

Here's big-scale inspiration for your weekend, found over at Inhabitat:

The mayor of a city in the Philippines recently announced two new taxis made from 90% bamboo that are powered by coconut biodiesel—designed to be a low-cost, fuel-efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly alternative to motorcycles. According to Inhabitat (this totally took me by surprise) the tensile strength of bamboo is just as good as that of steel, making it a safe, sustainable material for the new taxis' construction. Look at that detailing! Absolutely amazing.

Check out the post over at Inhabitat for more awesome photos.

I'm leaving you with weekend inspiration a day early this week, because things have been crazy busy around here lately and I need to do some catching up both in the real world cosa verde world. (I promise the Selling Successfully column will be back soon! Next up: Branding.)

In the meantime, how insanely cool is this cat bed made from an old side table, some curtain finials, a scrap of trim and a fresh coat of paint? I am in love.

You can see the whole process documented here. Jeff and I once made a hammock & scratching post for our kitties from an old IKEA Lack table, but this just blows that out of the water! I'm going to be on the lookout for elegant tables for the rest of garage sale season.

I love the bright green paint job (it matches Kitty's eyes!) and the pink detailing on the legs. The thought that went into this amazes me—I never would have thought of adding the detail of bedknobs, and the finials are just perfect. Plus, I am, hands down, a sucker for any project that is photographed with a cute cat on it, and this guy sure is hamming it up for the camera.

found via Craft