Some people are so good at turning old bits of stuff into desirable objects it makes me want to cry, but for those of us who were born without the sewing gene, here's a great project that's easy as pie, and will make use of an old pillow case.

Amy from Craft Chi made this one out of an old pillow case she found at a thrift store, that was too old and worn to sleep on, but already looked much like an apron! The pattern to follow is here, and in Amy's own words: "There are a lot of pictures so it may seem complicated, but this is honestly the easiest thing I’ve ever made. It would be a great project to introduce kids to sewing because it’s mostly sewing straight lines. I just included a few sewing tips of things I wish I’d known when I first started sewing that I picked up along the way." [Via Crafty Crafty]

The last posting date is upon us (eek!), we've bought (almost) all our presents and wrapping them up will soon become a priority. But buying reams of paper is expensive, and just think of all those trees - a shocking 50,000 of them each year just for wrapping gifts, according to Friends of the Earth. Here are some suggestions for making last minute, greener wrapping paper of your own, using items you already have at home.

• Use up existing those bits of printer paper you have at home that aren't quite pristine enough for letter-writing purposes. There's a great online template here for making your own personalised paper from the comfort of your desktop, which can then be printed out for use. It uses a fun, online tool called Make a Flake, which will provide hours of fun for bored kids who can't wait for Christmas, whether or not you choose to print their masterpieces.

Our Christmas tree has finally arrived at Shiny Towers, and I was looking for instructions on how to make festive light bulb baubles when I stumbled on this fabulous idea for re-using old-style lightbulbs. Dead bulbs are just the right shape and size for making salt and pepper shakers and all it takes is a little wax, some soda bottle tops and ordinary household tools to make a pair of your very own.

The shakers, which you could also decorate using one of the many tutorials for making bulb baubles, are great fun and remind me of Weebles - the toys that wobble but don't fall down. Follow the jump for step-by-step instructions.

I've just been feasting my eyes on the Sparkleball site, Sparkleball being the oddly-named concept of making festive and funky lights out of old plastic cups. It's a great form of recycling, and you'd be surprised at how easy it is to make them, and just how effective they can look. There's a gallery here showing all kinds of creative ways that they've been used to decorate trees, houses and spots all over the world.

Want to have a go at making your own? Instructions on how to make a sparkleball are here. Follow the jump for a video!

If cats could speak, they probably wouldn't come out with anything particularly fluffy or nature-loving. In fact, it would probably sound more like 'KILL KILL KILL!' but many of us mugs still love them anyway.

Katie's cat Milo is well on his way to being a top green feline, and is already a legend for his cameo roll in our hippy deodorants video. So what makes Milo greener than the average mog? Well, for starters, he doesn't go out so no birds in the immediate vicinity are threatened with extinction — and he does his business on World's Best cat litter, which is an alternative to normal cat litter that can be flushed straight down the loo - it's made from specially processed, organic whole-kernel corn. House cats typically generate about 500 kilos of litter in their lifetime, so if you're going to keep your cat indoor, biodegradable litter is one way of cutting down on this waste.

If that's not green enough for you, there's a growing trend towards teaching your cat to use the human "litter tray", à la Mr Jinx from Meet the Parents. There's even a yahoo group devoted to it. If this idea appeals, follow the jump for a short 'cat toilet training' video that leaves nothing to the imagination...

With a month to go till Christmas, the shops are all full to bursting with Christmas cards in more designs than ever. And as someone with a full-on stationery fetish, I get rather excited about this. So if you're someone who sensibly believes that simply NOT sending cards is the only Green Way, please look away now.

I tend to make my own cards but I'll admit it's handy to have a set of 'emergency' ones for when friends and relatives pop round unexpectedly. This is where shop-bought ones come in handy, but let's stop to look at the figures for a minute: Last year 744 million Christmas cards were sent by UK householders. If all these were recycled instead of being thrown away, it would help to save the equivalent of 248,000 trees. I don't think anyone needs a lecture on how to recycle paper, but if these cards were made from recycled paper in the first place, we'd be saving even more. Add to this a donation to your favourite charity, and the act of card-giving starts to look positively saintly.

More good news is that recycled ranges are no longer restricted to a couple of basic designs on mud-coloured paper in the corner of shops full of otherwise jolly Christmas fare. Follow the jump for a roundup of the best recycled cards I've seen this year and where to get them.

If you'd like to show a little more respect to the planet (and your neighbours) than these guys did, we've got some great ideas coming up for green and ethical ways to make your home look festive this Christmas. From recycled wreaths to fairly-traded ornaments and low energy eco-lights, it's all in our guide, which we'll be bringing you between now and Christmas. Our first installment is all about wreaths.

Wonderful wreaths
The 'rules' on when to put up decorations don't seem to apply to Christmas wreaths...they are always the first festive sign of the season and are popping up all over the place, so if you haven't spotted any yet the chances are they'll soon be coming to a door near you. So with the green light to go ahead and decorate, what's the best sort to get?

We came against a question this week at Shiny Towers that really seems to divide people: What's the greenest type of Christmas tree?

Some say a plastic tree is greener because it doesn't involve killing a tree, or putting aside heaps of land to grow them. Others argue that a real tree is greener because (a) trees = good, plastic = bad and if you keep your tree alive after twelfth night, all the better. Personally, I would never want a plastic tree in my house, and I would hate to give up that fragrant and beautiful aspect of Christmas that is the tree. So, I've done fair bit of research into finding green ones to justify my whim. This is what I discovered...

You tree's upbringing...
The first consideration is how your tree was grown. In the UK, the Forestry Commission is the best source for sustainably-grown trees: for each tree grown, another is planted, and its Norway Spruces now all have Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. This means that everything possible is done to ensure the trees are grown and harvested sustainably. And they are readily available: you can find your nearest Forestry Commission tree sales centre here.

In today's Guardian, Lucy Aitken talks about the ethical shopper's worst nightmare: Greenwash. We're all aware that the claims to greenness made by many companies are at best, exaggerated, but how clued up are we really about being tricked into buying eco-friendly products that are anything but?

Firstly, if you've been taken in, don't panic. Marketing bods do everything in their power to make us believe the stuff they sell us is greener than freshly-cut grass, so you shouldn't be ashamed to admit it when you buy the latest bit of 'green gear' only to twig later that it came in yards of plastic packaging, or was transported halfway across the world to get into your eager hands. There is even an award for the worst examples of greenwash, whose 'winners' will be announced later this month.

So, if it's happened to you and you'd like to prevent future mishaps, we've prepared a brief guide to detecting greenwash before it hits you in the pocket. Follow the jump for the rest of the tips.

1. Watch out for over-use of jargon.

By and large, companies that make the most noise about helping the environment are the ones that are actually doing the least, and those that do make a difference will be honest about what they are doing and - crucially - what they're not. Two companies being very honest about their efforts at the moment are Eurostar and BSkyB.

It made me sad to think of all that food going to waste when I read this story last week, so I've been thinking about what we can do about it. Here are some suggestions for creative and fun ways to use leftover food, and some simple ways to stop it going bad in the first place...

• Take leftover food into work. There's almost always one hungry person in the office who'll appreciate it! And last night's mashed potato can feel very comforting at your desk, while others make do with supermarket sandwiches...

• There are lots of recipes out there specifically designed to use the food you didn't eat last night, and they're not limited to bubble and squeak! Check out Leftover Chef, which has a great tool that let's you search for recipes using different leftovers.

• Got lots of leftover bread you're not going to eat? This can be a great excuse for a walk to your local park where you'll soon meet some very appreciative birds and ducks.

Follow the jump for more ideas!

Want to cut down on the potentially harmful chemicals that can easily build up at home? Here are some simple steps you can take to make your home a toxin-free haven!

• Bleach is a powerful corrosive substance, so try to use it very sparingly, if you use it at all. The sort that contains phosphates can upset the balance of natural systems in rivers and lakes, so you should always try to buy phosphate-free varieties, e.g Selden ACT toilet cleaner. Alternatively, white distilled vinegar can be used to disinfect, clean and deodorize. But be warned: NEVER use bleach and vinegar together, as the two can cause a reaction releasing toxic chlorine gas.

• When decorating, always buy the right amount of paint for the job. Alternatively, choose a paint that does not contain volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), like the range from Oliver Heath. VOCs are solvents that evaporate during use (hence the horrible smell associated with painting), can damage the environment and affect human health. B&Q has introduced a handy labelling system that tells you a product's 'VOC count'. There's some great info on the nasties found in paint here, as well as some great tips on where to dispose of old tins if you do over-buy.

I know some of you super-organised people out there will already have started thinking about decorating your homes in anticipation of the festive season - and I imagine the suddenly rather wintery weather may well have been a catalyst! If you like to go overboard in the run-up to Christmas, but aren't so keen on the idea of the usual plastic, planet-pillaging decor, keep reading... Instead of tinsel and baubles, use potted poinsettias, rosemary, thyme and sage, branches of mistletoe and holly wreaths. Eschewing a tacky plastic tree is also better for the environment, as well as being far more aesthetically pleasing. If you look after it properly, you can use a living, potted tree year after year, and it won't get tatty round the edges like its artificial counterparts, or shed its needles like a cut tree.

If you need further inspiration on what to use and how, there's plenty of help out there. For instance, leafing (ho ho) through the latest Royal Horticultural Society Diary of Events this morning, I spotted a flower-arranging demonstration entitled 'A merry floral Christmas' taking place in Lawrence Hall on Greycoat Street in London on the 9th November - the demonstration takes place at 2.15pm, and is repeated at 4.15pm. If you're considering getting yourself a living Christmas tree, these tips should help you keep it healthy.

With all those prickles, you might be mistaken for thinking the humble hedgehog can easily fend for itself, but it seems the once-common garden creatures are finding it harder and harder to co-exist with humans.

A steep decline in their numbers has recently led the UK's wildlife experts to add hedgehogs to the Biodiversity Action Plan for threatened species. What can you do to be a better host and prevent a further drop? Here are a few (pointy) pointers:

Hedgehogs have traditionally been welcomed in gardens because they provide excellent pest-control. But use of chemical pesticides has driven them out, since some are poisonous to them, despite the fact that 'hogs have developed immunity to a number of toxins that other garden critters can't handle. Avoiding the use of pesticides as much as possible will help create a kinder environment to this far cuter form of pest control.

Rubbish can be a real hazard to hedgehogs. Make sure you keep anything that hedgehogs and other small creatures could get tangled in sealed up in bins, particularly netting of all kinds, plastic containers, empty food cans, yoghurt pots, plastic mugs, etc.

Here’s another important piece of knowledge needed to make our central heating systems efficient and green for the coming winter. According to the National Energy Foundation good heating controls are vital for a green system. Even if you have an A rated energy efficient boiler, if it’s running too hot or for too long, or when people are not in the house, energy is being wasted. It’s probably safe to say that even super efficient boilers are less green than switched off boilers.

According to the NEF, good controls require a minimum of four things:
• an electronic timer or programmer that allows separate switching of heating and hot water
• a room thermostat wisely positioned in the right place
• thermostatic radiator control valves (TRVs) which turn radiators off when the room has reached the right temperature
• separate thermostatic control on the hot water system (if you have a hot water cylinder)
There are also a host of other funky extra gadgets which you can add to your heating system to boost your green credentials, which I’ll try to cover shortly. Keep an eye out.

Related stories: Does energy rating on central heating matter? | Video: Non global warming to keep you cosy all winter

Find out how to handle the new floppy plastic saving eco-pak from Waitrose. They're not as easy to get to grips with as you might have thought, but with a bit of practice and following our simple tips, they're a good way to save on packaging.

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