A man after my own braaaiiins, Matt Cipov. You can find his zombie prints (and more), printed on paper with recycled or partly recycled content, at his store.

Art by Matt Cipov

Art by Matt Cipov

Art by Matt Cipov

Art by Matt Cipov

Photo by Wired

A Very Special Interspecial Reunion
A lion that was raised by humans, but was released into the wilds of Africa, reunites with his former handlers a year later. What else can Treehugger say but “OMGKITTIES!!!11!!!”

Wired’s Artifacts from the Future: Fusion Food
Possibly coming to a produce store near you: Monsanto’s Cinna-Del, the only GM apple that expresses both cinnamon and sugar, only $26.99 per kilo!

Penguins March into New Patagonian Marine Park
Squawk if you’ve heard this one: The government of Argentina is creating a new marine park along the isolated Patagonia coast to officially safeguard more than half a million penguins and other rare seabirds, according to the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

Peace, Love, Earth: Yeah, Baby
Designer Anna Mkhitarian reinvents that tired hippie standard—the ol’ peace sign—into physical, wearable mantras that, though unsubtle, remind us what our groovy voyage on Spaceship Earth is all about.

Global Warming Wants to Eat Your Flesh
We’d have used a picture of flesh-eating bacteria diligently at work, but all our options made us want to disgorge the contents of our stomachs, so here’s a nonthreatening—dare we say even cuddly?—microscopic look at the insidious beasties themselves.

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Photo by Secret Leaves

Ann Hirschfeld and Sharon Derry are the co-conspirators of Secret Leaves, a charming St. Louis, Missouri-based company that breathes new life into discarded books and vintage papers by transforming them into scrap journals, photo albums, and note cards. I spoke with Ann about her love of old paper, and the growing role the environment plays in running their business, right down to the smallest detail.

1. How did Secret Leaves come about?

Sharon [Derry] had a card/paper arts company called Papeterie, and I worked part-time for her here and there helping to assemble the journals. A little over a year ago, we were talking on the phone and she spoke of her desire to start a web-based paper arts business. She wanted to pursue it full-time but was not interested in doing it alone. She wanted a partner. I immediately said, “Pick me!” We met a few times to discuss her goals for the business and she did—pick me. This was April of ‘06 and we’ve been working together ever since. It seems like we’ve come a long way already.

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Photo by Greer Chicago

Sexier than your iPhone. Designs screenprinted in blue on recycled kraft stock; back is letterpressed in deep brown. You get three each of the four designs. ($8 for a pack of 12, Greer Chicago)

Photo by freshlyblended

Nestled in upstate New York with her husband and a mini-menagerie, Nicole Lecht runs freshlyblended, a one-woman studio that churns out elegant, nature-inspired journals and notebooks deftly assembled from found materials and post-consumer recycled paper. The talented and effervescent Nicole and I chatted about sustainability in crafting, how she became a “green” designer completely by accident, and where cork paper comes from.

1. How did freshlyblended come about?

Well, I actually went to college for Illustration (that’s what my degree concentration was) and graphic design, but in my last year of school, I took a bookbinding class on a whim and totally fell in love with the structural aspect of it. After graduating, I got a job as a book-cover designer for a publishing house, which opened the door even wider for me, so I ran with it and started to do some research about materials and business.

The word “freshlyblended” came about when I was in a local coffee shop sketching and reading the back of my coffee cup. It said, “… from a fresh blend of eclectic ingredients …” I didn’t hesitate with that name because, at the time, I was struggling over how to hone in on my multiple abilities and eclectic influences. freshlyblended represents just that.

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Photo by Remake at Etsy.com

I’m going weak at the knees just looking at Remake’s recycled paper goods, made from mostly salvaged materials, and screenprinted and assembled by hand. Business envelopes are turned inside out, exposing their patterned interiors; discarded folders, alphabetic dividers, and ruled paper are bound into notebooks; everything old is made new again. (From $5, Etsy.com)

Photo by Remake at Etsy.com

Photo by Remake at Etsy.com

Photo by Remake at Etsy.com

Art by Anne Johnson

Inspired by coastal and tide-pool inhabitants, artist Anne Johnson’s beautifully embossed note cards and gift enclosures are printed on recycled and tree-free papers, using water- and soy-based inks. Ten percent of each sale goes to wildlife conservation.

Johnson’s objective is to connect with people through her art and to inspire them to protect wild places and creatures she believes are worth saving before it is too late. Treading lightly upon the earth, she believes, is more than right and responsible—it is the path to the future. ($14.25 for a set of five, PassionFly; $16 for an assortment of six, The Succulent Wife)

Art by Anne Johnson

Photo from Buy Olympia

Photo from Buy Olympia

New from Tenth and Grant, six new notebooks based on the above designs, printed with soy inks on recycled paper and chipboard. Tip: To recycle retired spiral-bound or ring-bound notebooks, simply separate the metal spines from the pages before chucking into the appropriate bins. ($12 each, Buy Olympia)

Related article:
1. Previously New at Tenth and Grant

Photo by Hammocks & High Tea

I’m quite mad for the sharp, clean lines of Hammocks & High Tea’s notecards. Inspired by the “life and culture of the tropics,” the cards are screenprinted by hand with nontoxic inks on recycled white paper. ($4 per card; $18 for a box of 6, Hamoock & High Tea)

Photo by Hammocks & High Tea

Photo by Hammocks & High Tea

Photo by Dauphine Press

Printed using 50-year-old Heidelberg Windmill letterpresses, Dauphine Press’s exquisite notecards marry luscious vintage imagery with modern sensibilities about sustainability.

Graphic designer Trish Kinsella, who founded the Petaluma-Calif. based company in 1999, wrote to let me know that Dauphine primarily uses Crane & Co.’s 100-percent cotton papers, which are made from the reclaimed cotton by-products of the garment industry. (No new cotton is grown for manufacturing any of the papers.) Also preferred over virgin-tree options: Neenah Paper’s Classic Crest 100-percent post-consumer recycled papers. “Their mills are even wind-powered, which is an added bonus,” Kinsella says.

Her favorite sustainable papers are known as “offcuts”—smaller pieces of paper left after a larger sheets has been cut to size. “Most shops just throw them away as they are too small to fit through their larger presses again,” she says. “But because of the nature of our printing technique, we can use them.” Dauphine also sources offcuts from larger print shops who “don’t have the time or the purpose” to find alternate uses for their offcuts. (From $10.50 for a set of six, Dauphine Press)

Photo by Dauphine Press

Photo by Dauphine Press

Photo by Heidi

Although Heidi’s luscious giftwrap isn’t made from recycled paper (how about it, Heidi?), the designer does have some great ideas on how to use up scrap pieces of wrapping paper you might otherwise toss into the recycling bin.

More creative ideas here.

Related article:
1. Simply Green Giving

Photo by Rod Morata/Getty Images

Call me Scrooge McScroogypants and cluck your tongues, but I stopped mailing out Christmas cards when I was 11 or 12. The heavens opened one day to the sound of fatigued angelic wailing as an epiphany descended upon me: I figured that if I liked you to begin with, you’d get more than a pithy holiday greeting once a year. (And if I didn’t like you, well, you probably thought I was a stuck-up poopyhead anyway so why bother keeping up the pretense? Also, you look like a booger.) Plus, I decided I’d rather be eating too much sugar or parked in front of the TV watching cartoon specials till my eyes bled rather than deal with writer’s cramp, which, for a 12-year-old, is like asking you if you’d prefer some freshly torched creme brulée to an enema from a linebacker-girthed nurse named Brunhilda. And I’ve never looked back.

With unchecked deforestation responsible for myriad natural disasters, not to mention the exacerbation of global warming, being a cheapskate slacker Grinch-in-training makes you a stand-up citizen of the planet. (2.65 billion cards bought in the United States each year alone.) Holiday e-cards abound online, as well, with animation set to music that has evolved far beyond the tinny MIDI tunes that made you want to claw the inside of your eyeballs. If you’re not satisfied that your abundant well wishes (sincere or otherwise, I don’t judge) will not be sufficiently conveyed through the ether, choosing recycled-paper options will help you tread more lightly during the holiday season. Or, the short version: Blah blah blah recycled Christmanukkwanzaa cards.

The New York City-based Green Street Greetings prints it cards on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper that has been processed chlorine-free, using soy and vegetable-based inks. More green do-goodedness: Its Web site is hosted on a solar- and wind-powered server and the company’s overhead is offset by TerraPass carbon credits. You can pick from Greene Street’s selection of images or submit your favorite photo. The only catch is the minimum quantity of 50 cards. (From $3.95 each, Greene Street Greetings)

Also printed on 100 percent post-consumer recycled card, the cards at Doodle Greetings are likewise processed chlorine- and acid-free. (No word on the type of ink used, however.) Packs of cards come in a gift box made from 100 percent recycled paper. Variety packs are also available. (From $4.95 for a set of five, Doodle Greetings)

Embedded with flower seeds and printed on with soy inks, the handmade, tree-free Grow-A-Note greeting cards by Green Field Paper can be planted in soil and watered to produce seedlings. Cards printed on the company’s Hemp Heritage paper are also available. (From $3 each, Green Field Paper Company)

The San Francisco-based GirlyWhirly uses only soy inks on its simple yet boldly designed cards, which contain anywhere from 20 percent to a full 100 percent of post-consumer recycled content. You can also request a custom design. ($1.95 each, Girly Whirly)

Global Exchange brings you these 100 percent tree-free cards made from recycled cotton rag paper and hand-embroidered with a globe on the cover. Blank inside. Fairly traded from artisans in Jaipur, India. ($16 for a set of five, Global Exchange)

Anne Johnson has created gorgeous note cards of a desert tortoise in a wintry scene for The Succulent Wife. Printed on recycled/tree-free papers with soy-based inks, 10 percent of profits go toward land conservation. ($18 for a set of five, The Succulent Wife)

You’ll find more card-purveyors using recycled content at Conservatree. For ideas on what to do with those paper cards you’ll likely be receiving this year, check out Danny Seo’s Christmas-card village, as well as these 3D paper stars from Dub & Sam.

Good on Paper has a new zen-modern line of cards printed on 100 percent recycled cardstock with vegetable based inks. Très chic, no? ($4.25 each/$18 for 8, Good on Paper)

[via Design Sponge]

New yummies from Tenth and Grant, made from recycled paper/chipboard and printed with eco-fabulous soy-based inks, available at BuyOlympia.com.

I really dig these passport holders by FoxMachine as a crafty way to reuse paper ephemera, but not keen on the possibly vinyl¹ contact paper unless it was thrifted or repurposed.

¹What is contact paper made of? I’m not having too much success on Google. I actually have a roll of the stuff from yonks ago.

I always get giddy when my love of sustainability and aesthetics collide like one BIG, ‘SPLODY COLLIDEY THING. Portland, Oregon-based art collective Tenth and Grant has a gorgeous line of note cards printed by Pinball Publishing on 100 percent, unbleached recycled paper using soy-based inks. (Available at BuyOlympia.com for $2.50 a pop.)

Carson Ellis, whose lovely and poignant illustrations grace the Web site and album covers of The Decemberists is responsible for the monkey business above.