Category Archives: Recycled materials

Summer Craft Camp, Again!

Posted in Kids, Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

A rainy week at the lake with the tremendous trio of Zeke, Lila and Allie (my son & niece & nephew) resulted in a craft bonanza. We made and we made and we made. Some projects created tangible results, while others were just about the process, man.

Tie-dye spirals--in process

Tie-dye spirals–in process

The list of our productivity is long: salt dough beads (a blast, and with many production stages so we could drag it on a bit–but the wet weather made the beads kind of soggy); paper beads (less soggy); marble painting (our paintings faded but rolling marbles through paint puddles was very intriguing); and tie-dye tees (and undies for those who just couldn’t get enough tie-dye!).

Salt dough beads--somewhat soggy!

Salt dough beads–somewhat soggy!

Here are some helpful links if you happen to find yourself in a damp summer cottage with a few stir-crazy kids:

Salt dough recipe from Crafting Connections

We used this recycled paper bead kit from Green Creativity but you can make them with skewers with instructions from Rookie

Marble painting instructions from First Palette

This youtube video from Jacquard Products really helped me perfect the tie-dye spiral

I Scream for Ice Cream

Posted in Kids, Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

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In the summer, we try to balance our actual ice cream eating with some pretend ice cream eating. It keeps us slim (sort of)! My seven-year-old and I made these nifty ice cream cone replicas out of toilet paper rolls and tissue paper. Cut a line up the side of the toilet paper roll and curl into a cone shape–hot glue will hold the shape and make sturdy little cones. Then stuff with tissue. Voila. Here are the kids selling ice cream out the half door in our cottage.

Matchbox camera

Posted in Kids, Paper, Photos, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

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This matchbox project was inspired by “cameras” my brother and I used to make when we were kids out of band-aid boxes (back when they were tin, which really wasn’t that long ago, was it?). We taped on a lens and a viewfinder and snapped imaginary pictures. To make this wee version, I covered a matchbox with black paper, except the ends, which I covered in light blue washi tape. Then I folded a strip of paper to make a viewfinder, and sliced off a circle of cardboard from a toilet paper roll to create the lens.

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Inside is the treat: an accordian album of tiny photos. I went old-school for this part—good old cut and paste. I printed the photos on regular printer paper (albeit high quality printer paper) and glued the photos in place.

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Upcycled Books Round Up

Posted in Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

book mobileIn my library day job, I’ve been weeding old books from the shelves. The books aren’t in circulation any more but they’re still hardcover treasures with great illustrations about Arctic explorers and Presidential boyhoods and stuff like that. With some help from The Repurposed Library and a glue gun, I remade some of them into “bookmobiles.” (Repurposed has instructions for dismantling books to make all sorts of upcycled crafts.)

Kids think the mobiles look like birdhouses. I think they look like something that exploded and spilled over in weird loopy accretions. But I like them anyway.

Here are other great ideas for upcycled books (links below):

Row 1, left to right: Nancy Drew book purse by Rebound Designs; party favor pinwheels & keepsake box from bhg.com

Row 2: paper hearts from Too Much Time On My Hands; decorations from an Anthropologie store display; organizer from SCJohnson

Row 3: Artichoke pendant by Zipper8Lighting; book shelf by Lisa Occhipinti in The Repurposed Library; “lace” runner by bhg.com;

Mr. Bunny’s Matchbox

Posted in Free Printables, Free Tutorials, Kids, Paper, Recycled materials by

Mr. Bunny Matchbox 824

This mini-matchbox home belongs to Mr. Bunny. If you (or your kids) enjoy tiny coloring–great for fine motor skills!–here is a free printable of Mr. Bunny’s burrow. Just color and trim to fit your matchbox. Matchboxes don’t come in standard sizes so you may need to do some fancy cutting and pasting. Happy bunnies & eggs & challah bread!