Christmas is such a fun and exciting holiday to look forward to, we don't even notice the remaining days and nights with all the preparations, decorations and shopping that we need to do before it dwells in every houses. But before we go crazy from purchasing toys and goodies for your family, friends and relatives, first we need to make sure that the spirit and atmosphere of Christmas can be seen and perceive with all the decorations we made.

Of course, when it comes to decorations PrintGreen will always be one of the best provider of green ways to make all your holidays greener and more environment friendly to celebrate. Previously on my post Green Ways To Make Christmas Trees, we had the idea of making our own christmas trees from real organic plants that can be grown indoor, as well as making a Christmas tree that is made out of cardboard paper materials. Now, we'll be focusing on making small Christmas tree centerpieces but still the green way.

First you need to provide paper materials such as : cardboard or any paper board and used magazines (if you want to use newspapers make sure to get the colorful pages at least). For the tools you need to bring scissors, glue and hand gloves.

To get started, first you need to make a cone using the paper board which will serve as the tree frame. For the cone shape template, you may search it online or create your own if you have the idea on how to make one, circumference may vary depending on your preferences. Once you're done with the tree frame, next would be making the cut outs from those magazine pages. From this part, everything depends on your choice since it's just cutting out small pieces of paper, any shape will do whatever you want. These cut outs will then be paste on the tree frame starting from the bottom until you reach the top of the frame. Now for the base, just cut a circle from the cardboard you provided, slightly larger from the circumference of your tree frame.

Once you're done with all the pasting and gluing, just set it aside and let it rest until all the glues dried out. You can also add glitters and embellishments on your very own centerpiece to make it more fancy and lively. Create as many of these as you want, the more the better, you can even send it as a gift to your friends so they can also have a bit of your creative Christmas projects.

Aside from creating paper made Christmas tree centerpieces, you can also recycle your old toys and small stuffs and use it as your Christmas tree's decorations, instead of the typical flowers and balls you use year after year. Try recycling and upcycling your office supplies in the office and make a Christmas inspired decorations, how about piling up those eco-friendly printer cartridges like a lego and make an office inspired Christmas tree out of it, unique isn't it.

Christmas wouldn't be the same without a Christmas tree, nor you wouldn't fully feel the spirit and the bursting excitement of the coming holidays. The Christmas tree represents the holiday from which all walks of life, people of all ages and races, and even the season celebrates as one.

There are a lot of enjoyable ways to create and decorate your Christmas trees the modern and green way. Instead of using synthetic made trees you can either use a real plant instead or a tree that is made of cardboard materials. Green, easy and unique, that's how you can describe your Christmas tree.

Synthetic, bristly and plastic, that's the usual fake tree that a typical house can have. But have you ever tried using a real living tree, or rather a plant that resembles the shape of a Christmas tree? Do you know that a rosemary can be grown from your gardens and trim it to a nice cone shape tree? A cute, small, nice smelling, organic tree that can thrive indoor, you can also decorate it with colorful balls and lights, but don't get too excited putting a lot of it, consider a weight that your tree can support.

You can also think of any other indoor plant that can be grown and trim to the shape of a christmas tree. Remember to grow your own tree, not cut a tree. Though it requires maintenance to control the growth of leaves and branches, as well as considering the room temperature from where it thrives.

Aside from using a real tree, you can still do it the green way by using cardboard materials that you kept in the storage room. Large cardboard from appliances and stuffs that you bought will do, the bigger the size of christmas tree you want, the bigger the cardboard size you need of course. An artificial tree that is made of hard paper materials will be more attractive than a synthetic plastic made christmas tree. You'll be needing you're creative talent to make this one, since you need to make a pattern of a tree to trace as your guide when cutting the cardboard. Sounds eco-friendly more right?

For the decorations, you can embellish your green christmas tree with small stuffs like toys, candies are really good, and some old junks that can be recycled and turn into christmas decorations. For example, printer cartridges can be used as tree decorations in replace of those hanging balls. Just make sure to clean thoroughly those eco-friendly toner cartridges so you won't get any problems when children try to reach it.

Waste turn into works of art, we've seen and featured a lot of it. Honestly for me they are all mind-blowing, but believe me the rest are yet to come that's why I will be featuring another one.

Aurora Robson, and environmental activist that promotes and raises awareness about plastic waste reduction. The artist explained from a video that featured her creations, “It’s a wonderful opportunity to give people space to reflect on their behavior and on their relationship to matter and material that they come across in their daily lives.”

As an artist and activist as well, she wants to touch peoples awareness and be moved through her wonderful art creations. Helping them realize to use and purchase less wasteful products specifically plastic consumables. Since not everyone of us is aware of the fact that the amount of plastic waste nearly covers a huge percentage of the total waste collected annually.  Each and everyone of us plays an important role in our society and we have the choice to avoid using plastic materials as much as we could.

The passion to protect the environment through her own way, this motivation inspired Aurora Robson, a Canadian-born artist to create art sculptures made from cut-up plastic bottles and some other discarded plastic materials. Her sculptures were sold to support further environmental awareness with regards to waste reduction. Most of her works were featured in Inhabitat and several art exhibits, to check some of her recent creations you may visit her website to see her own sculpture gallery.

You see, there's always a way for us to show our passion and enthusiasm with regards to environmental awareness. There are several waste materials floating on the river streams, piling up on the landfills from which instead of letting them end up on such places, we think of a better way to reuse or recycle those materials and make them useful for a good cause. Waste reduction or eliminating waste is something you can't achieve just by sitting and clapping our hands for those who have done great things for the environment. We should also make our own move to promote and reduce waste materials to end up on every landfills.

Reusing them is definitely a good way, there are recycling plants and facilities accepting used materials and old stuffs that would even pay you for sending those junks. Like for example, in the US there are hundreds of facilities and organizations accepting e-waste and printer cartridges for them to recycle. That's why they have eco-friendly toner cartridges and other recycled consumables that are very cost-effective and high quality.

Storage devices nowadays, mainly USB memory sticks are produced both for function and for fashion. Before when they were introduced in the market and was commercialize their designs totally resembles a stick, but if you'll compare it to the recent USB devices these days, the difference is really overwhelming.

From stick and straight designs down to classic and funky figures with such great aesthetics, these storage devices are really kicking some awesome changes. Since I can't feature all of them in PrintGreen, here's one of those great designs I've found out from Inhabitat that certainly hit my blog's field of interest. A handcrafted memory stick that is created from old film canisters. This 4GB and 8GB capacity USB memory stick are actually made from recycled film canisters transformed into memory storage devices.

Newfocus created these great USB flashdrives from 35mm film canisters, providing a unique and modern alternative to your common style flashdrive devices. Such a quirky idea to use those empty film canisters and make a storage device out of it, though they may seem to be a bit large for a USB, still it is unique and undoubtedly creative. These USB flashdrives are available to purchase, you may check out their shop on Etsy for the prices and shipping information.

If they made it possible to use film canisters to transform into flashdrives, then I guess it can also be possible to use printer cartridges to create flashdrives as well. Aside from recycling these printer consumables into eco-friendly toner cartridges, there are a lot of creative ways and forms to reuse them. You can also apply your own idea aside from transforming these materials into storage devices again, why not create a different thing aside from flashdrives, well it's up to you.

PrintGreen previously featured Orée Board : Wireless Keyboard Created From Wood, as the title says it all. Now I'll be featuring another modern tool that will surely astound you with its aesthetic design and earth-friendly uniqueness. Instead of having a literally lifeless keyboard, why not have a new one that is made out of organic materials.

It's quite common to see a desktop or tablet keyboard that is made of metal, glass or plastic, but to see a keyboard that is made out of wood is something new and unbelievable in a sense that you'll ask if this thing would really work. Now that question was already answered by my previous post, and now you don't have to ask it again to yourself, cause this new keyboard I'll be featuring is definitely working a hundred percent.

Are you tired of using the same old keyboard and you want to be unique, then why don't you use a keyboard made out of wood? Still can't get enough? Then get a wireless keyboard not only made out of wood, but also breaths life. “What if our technology lived and breathed?”, a question that keeps Robbie Tilton wondering.

“If it requires us to water it at night to allow it to bloom? If it were both visually and tactilely stimulating would user interactions change and would their relationship towards the object change?” With all these questions spinning around inside Robbie Tilton's mind, he started by creating a CAD model of a standard keyboard. From a piece of plywood about 1/32" (0.8-mm) thick, in order to achieve a nice wood effect he soaked it in hot water until it curves perfectly. The keycaps are elevated just like a typical keyboard, by using rubber springs instead of metal. With all his great engineering, Apple gets a touch of nature with Tilton's mossy wireless keyboard.

Tilton wanted to use real growing moss on his keyboard but since is hard to find one in New York City, he continued working with his project by substituting the real moss with fake turfs. Well indeed, it still turn out as lively and beautiful as it is. Unfortunately this wireless keyboard is currently not for sale, so I'm sorry if I snap you out of your dream but that's the real deal. You can still have an eco-friendly modern set up by using equipments and materials either made out of organic materials or are nature-friendly, just like using eco-friendly toner cartridges for your printer.

A lot of people are using personal computers, though nowadays, tablets and laptops are often preferred for their portability and high end features still desktops are not yet left behind. Technology as it may seems, evolved and developed in such a way that most of us can't even catch up with the latest trends in technology. People are getting hooked with gadgets and equipments that you really can't resist getting one for yourself if you had the chance.

On the other hand, tradition was either left behind or gone past. I may agree that these cool gadgets and mobile devices are really enticing, but admit it or not, long before these said stuffs were available we enjoyed using and get excited from the old gadgets that we had before. Low tech as they are now called, less aesthetic design as compared to what's latest in the market, but these old styles and architecture makes them more durable.

So why not incorporate traditional design into technology? The idea of combining technology and tradition, emerges the creation of Orée Board a handcrafted wireless keyboard. It was created by Julien Salanave a French Technology Entrepreneur who worked with Compagnon - a traditional craftsman from Southern France, to be able to create an aesthetically crafted keyboard made from a single piece of wood. Since Orée Board is a wireless type of keyboard, it'll be  convenient to use for your desktop PCs, tablets or iPads. 

The Orée Board is absolutely created from long lasting wood materials that come from the trunks or chunks of maple and walnut trees. Exquisitely designed as an eco-friendly keyboard that can effectively be used for computer devices. This wireless keyboard is powered by Broadcom's Bluetooth 3.0 chipset that is connected to the keyboards mechanism.

You'll surely love to have one of this as it is said that the keyboard's key features are fully customizable, like there's an option to choose from three available fonts for the keycaps, and you can even add a personal text to engrave on your keyboard exclusively. 

Julien Salavane explained, “In a world of technology gadgets that are highly impersonal, made of standard materials and designed for rapid obsolescence, we identified a growing aspiration for lasting personalized objects that would have a soul and put people in touch with the most natural material on earth.”

Well, you might wondering if there's also a CPU case or a desktop that is also made from wood materials, then I should tell you that they're existing even before this wireless keyboard was made. But if you're thinking of having a full computer set that is actually made of wood, like your desktop, CPU and printer, then I doubt if anyone has made it possible. Though there are earth friendly printer consumables such as remanufactured toner cartridges and ink cartridges that you might consider.