For a night out on the town a cooler than cool bag helps move the evening along smoothly. Bonus points if your bag is also eco-friendly, shiny, and fun. I’m currently loving the eco-bling offered up by the MiniFlare Handbags.

Vintage Violet MiniFlair

Not too big and not too small, these adorable little bags will be a great topic of conversation.

Made of re-purposed license plates, with a recycled rubber handle and bottle cap closure, these bags are not only unique but green. The Vintage Violet above is maybe my fave, but there are other lovely choices as well. See some other great picks below.

Shown in gallery above:

• Vintage Violet MiniFlair
• Cosmopolitan MiniFlair
• Kanji Peace Mini Flair
• Rainbow Fractal MiniFlair
• Winged Heart MiniFlair
• Lotus MiniFlair

Turns out that you’d have to drink around 1,600 cans. At least if you want this bag…

The Masha messenger-style bag is made with 1,600 plus recycled aluminum pull-tabs. Frankly, I wouldn’t have that kind of patience. But the skilled women at Escama Studio do. Escama Studio is a San Francisco based Fair Trade company partnered with Brazilian crafts co-operatives in order to create some pretty tasty bags. Each modern bag is a little more like art than accessory, and all use a crochet technique that utilizes recycled aluminum pull-tabs. They even have figured out how to add colors to these bags. Although, I like the plain old pull tab color myself.

Because I happen to be a messenger bag addict, I like the Masha style bag best, but they have just about every style bag imaginable at Escama Studio.

Facts about the Masha bag:

• Zipper closure with exterior flap
• Fabric lined interior with one inside zipped pocket
• Shoulder strap with hand crocheted liner for comfort

It’s well worth a visit to Escama Studio, and not just to see the bags. They offer very cool tutorials that teach you how to crochet with pull-tabs, fashion tips of the past, how you can donate pull tabs, and more.

+ Escama Studio

In Seven Fabulous Eco-Etsy Bags I noted that I had found six more cool bags to share – that would be happening now…

First up, in total tweed bliss is the Little William bag from Mandinka Designs. Mandinka makes the Little William, and all their other bags, from reclaimed and recycled men’s suit coats. Each bag is a unique combination of jacket parts including sleeves, collars, pockets and even labels. I adore how creative this bag is.

Jennifer Joy Creative has so many bags to adore; it’s really hard to narrow down which ones you might choose. I had to pick two from her shop. Above is the adorable Springtime Bird Coin pouch. Jennifer has so many cute little coin bags, that picking just one was almost impossible. However, when in doubt, going with pink and brown spring bird items can’t be wrong. This coin purse is made with hemp and certified organic cotton and hand-dyed a lovely warm brown with silhouette of a pink bird on a cherry blossom branch.

Also from Jennifer Joy is a Sakura Cherry Blossoms Eco conscious Hemp Purse. At first I was thinking this bag was a little too pink for me, but the more I look at it, the more I adore it. The metallic bronze ink sakura branches really mellow out the color. Made with light weight hemp and organic cotton canvas that’s been hand-dyed the pretty salmon color. Bonus, it closes with some cool vintage buttons. There are two pockets inside, one with a zipper and one that closes with velcro plus a small d-ring for keys. I love the casual shape of this bag.

Two of the things I love best; coffee and butterflies are combined in this beautiful large Shaggy Coffee Tote from Shaggy Baggy. Made with a recycled burlap coffee sack, with heavy outdoor fabric lining the interior. Two interior pockets and a key hook are included.

The Organic hemp canvas Handbag Madison above is very sleek; made with organic hemp canvas, dyed with organic vegetable based dyes and a vegan leather handle. This and other eco-bags available at Taska & Edi.

Lastly, in “let this be an Etsy lesson to you” news, one of the totes I was previously drooling over sold out. Etsy rocks for sure, but you have to be quick or your fave gear sells out. That said, I’m still going to share, not to bum you out, but to show you how adorable Shecological bags are. Above is the now sadly sold out, Corduroy Kokeshi and Japanese Floral Print Bag. Tears…

In good news, Shecological has plenty more where this came from. One other bag I like is the From Russia With Love tote seen above. Me liking this bag is actually odd, because I’ve had this bizarre issue with matryoshka dolls since I was a kid. I saw some animated ones on Sesame Street once and they totally wigged me out. However, they’re pretty safe on a bag. Especially a bag made of 100% organic cotton.

Visit Team EcoEtsy to find more earth-friendly bags, plus other luscious goodies.

Actually, I found about 13 fab reusable Etsy bags the other day, but that would make for a pretty long post, so we’ll start with seven.

Etsy is sometimes the only place you need to find great green goodies. Beautiful, eco-friendly bags, clutches, and coin purses are especially prevalent at Etsy. They have so many to choose from, you’ll have a rough go of it; picking only one. In this post, I’ve got six great options for you, starting with the bag you see above, the Eco-friendly Hemp Messenger Bag with Flying Birds with Pine Tree from Uzura. This bag is lined in 55% hemp / 45% organic cotton, has two inside pockets, and is absolutely adorable.

Uzura is way too cool a shop to only share one bag. I loved every single bag there. The hemp one above is one of my faves, as are these two above, the Eco-friendly Hemp Linen Handbag with Queen Anne’s Lace and the Eco-friendly Hemp Bag with Water Lily. All of Uzura’s bags are printed with unique original designs. I just love them.

For small change, there’s the lovely and perky pink Fuschia Birch Clutch Purse. Made with an antique brass finish, 55% hemp / 45% organic cotton, and printed with environmentally friendly, solvent free inks by the very cool Portemone. Many other great fabric choices available for this tiny purse.

If you’re looking for something a little different and still ultra cute, I’d check out Retrofied. This shop has, among other bag gems, the gorgeous Reversible Hobo Bag – Large – Retro Bird Print and SKAL Organic Cotton. This is 2 bags in one! One side sports  a retro bird print from Moda and the other side is SKAL certified organic cotton that has been tea stained.

The Vibrant Pattern Tote from Upstyle offers a wicked punch of color and lots o’ carrying space and layered fabric protection for small equipment (ipod, cellphone, BlackBerry). Upstyle’s shop uses organic, new remnant or surplus, unused materials when possible.

Last, but not least, the small, but overly sweet, Recycled Sweater Argyle Wallet, Pouch, Coin Purse. How cute and soft looking right?! Thinking Mama uses recycled,felted, soft and fuzzy sweater bits to for this and it’s big enough to hold money, credit cards, business cards, cell phones, mp3 players or little knitting/craft accessories.

Coming up this weekend, six more fab bags from Etsy. Stay tuned. For now though, which bag above is your favorite?

Look how adorable this satchel is! It’s almost enough to make me forget this flu that’s making my life miserable right now. (Almost). Too bad it doesn’t come with hot tea. In any case, this satchel is way cute. It’s hand-scrubbed and pounded by Nepalese and Tibetan villagers, the the felted wool is soaked, heated, and hand-kneaded to soften, interlock, and blend its fibers. There are added hand-stitched leaves and dimensional roses (as you can see) and there’s an interior zipped pocket.

I love all the nice wool accessories around lately. Wool is cool because, when Fair Traded, it’s a good low-impact material alternative, say when compared to leather and plastics. Plus, it’s fuzzy, warm looking, and subtle. It creates a good winter look.

Felted Wool Satchel
+ VivaTerra