recycled crafts – the long thread

April 22, 2012

Earth Day Crafts

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you may wonder why I don’t write about crafts with my kids as much these days. Well, they are getting older and I am busier, but they are still making things constantly, mostly on their own now. I need to share more of their creations. But almost all of their craft projects are made from recycled materials. I just heard one of my daughters the other day trading something with the other for a large cardboard box that had come in the mail. My older daughter has a “Main Street” running through her room with her cardboard houses and stores for her Bebichhichi dolls. And the younger one had a friend over for a playdate to make cardboard Barbie cruise ships. Cardboard and a little imagination goes a long way, as we saw with Caine’s Arcade.

Anyway, for Earth Day I thought I’d share some of our crafts from the past using recycled materials. Pictured above:

Grow Paper

plantable-paper

Try this plantable paper project that I posted over at Alpha Mom in celebration of Earth Day. Homemade paper with embedded seeds for planting. These are just the right size to use as gift tags or add to a gardening themed Mother’s Day gift.

March 18, 2010March 18, 2010

Brown Bag Bird’s Nest

Check out my bird’s nest project over on Alpha Mom. Made from shredded paper bags and glue, this is a messy and fun project for the kids.

February 23, 2010

Cereal Box Books

I made these cereal box books with my five-year-old last week. Very similar to my cereal box journals from last year, but your kids can sew these themselves. The instructions are over at Alpha Mom.

January 25, 2010February 11, 2012

A Colorful Valentine’s Day Card

make-it-monday

crayon-card

We’re planning ahead for Valentine’s Day. Since it was a gloomy weekend, the kids and I made some melted heart crayons for my first-grader’s Valentine’s Day cards. If you haven’t ever tried this project, it’s simple with great results and is a nice way to recycle broken crayons. We followed the directions from Marie at Make and Takes. The only advice I have is that the brighter colors look much better, so hide the browns, blacks and dark blues from your kids. I also used a knife on one batch to cut the crayons into even smaller bits, which I think worked well.

crayon-hearts

I made two versions of this card. One can be used without the crayon in the center, and the other has an open middle to attach the crayon. We used foam adhesive tape to attach the hearts to the cards. Simply click on an image below to download the .pdf file, print it out on card stock and cut. We also used a corner punch to create rounded corners.

My daughter is going to send the crayons with her own drawing below, which we scanned in and will print out. That way she can decorate them as much as she likes, but if she gets tired of it, they are still done. I’ve got another idea for my five-year-old’s valentines because she really requires that everything be covered in glitter. The teachers will love that.

child's-valentine