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

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