Recycling crafts
By Anne18
@Anne18 (11029)
October 15, 2012 4:02pm CST
I'm thinking about making some homemade christmas gifts out of stuff I have in the house....
I have a pile of newspapers, plastic youhurt pots, cardboard ceral boxes, egg boxes, lolly sticks, squash bottles, wallpaper paste, plus other bits that you just get in a house
Any ideas or good websites that I can look at to see if I can make all my christmas gifts for the folks this year?
Many thanks
3 people like this
8 responses
@deazil (4723)
• United States
16 Oct 12
You can use the newspapers to make paper-mache. Here are 2 sites with directions and ideas www.ehow.com and search for paper-mache. The other site is www.buzzle.com/articles/paper-mache-instructions-recipe-to-make-paper-mache.html When we were kids my mother showed us how to make all sorts of things with paper-mache. Here is one thing that I used to really like doing. Blow up a balloon and tie it. Take lengths of string, not thread but thick string, and drag it through the paper-mache glue so that it's coated. Then wrap it around the balloon in a random fashion. Repeat this with many pieces of string. You don't have to totally cover the balloon. You should still be able to see parts of it. You're making like a web of string around it. Before it gets dry sprinkle it all over with glitter. When it's thoroughly dry pop the balloon and it should fall out of the string "cage" you've just made. You can use any size balloon and these can be used for decorations, bird cages (with a fake bird, of course) or instead of glitter you can wait until it's dry, pop the balloon and then paint it. When my son was in kindergarten his teacher had them make maracas out of burnt out light bulbs. You cover the bulb thickly with the paper-mache and when it's dry and hard throw it against the floor until the glass inside breaks. Then you can paint it and when you shake it the glass inside makes a maraca-like sound. Just make sure its covered thickly and is thoroughly dry before you start throwing it on the floor. Hope I've help a little. Have fun!
@deazil (4723)
• United States
21 Oct 12
You're more than welcome! Thank YOU for the BR. I really appreciate it. Hope you have much fun with all the new ideas everybody's given you. I meant to say that when my son came home from school and was telling me how they made the light bulb maracas he was very excited about the part where they kept throwing them on the floor. He was laughing and had a really fun time doing it. I guess being able to throw things really hard, in school no less, is very appealing to kids. He was about 4 or 5 then.
I meant to say that when my son came home from school and was telling me how they made the light bulb maracas he was very excited about the part where they kept throwing them on the floor. He was laughing and had a really fun time doing it. I guess being able to throw things really hard, in school no less, is very appealing to kids. He was about 4 or 5 then.
@celticeagle (159222)
• Boise, Idaho
15 Oct 12
You could paint the boxes and make a kitchen area for girls. Do the same and use the other stuff and the boxes to make a race car or something. And have stuff inside it that they can turn and so forth. Could also make a doll house for girls. Not sure with gender kids you have.
@Anne18 (11029)
•
19 Oct 12
Thanks.. the ideas are very good and I hope somone else on mylot can use them, my children are a bit old for those sort of things now, plus I should have been more cleaner in what I was looking for. I'm wanting to make gifts to give to the cousins and there children, aunts and uncles etc, we can only give token gifts this year so I thought I may try and make some gifts to save a few more pennies
1 person likes this
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
18 Oct 12
I love coming up with ideas to make new crafts and I also love coming up with unique ways that I can use things that are already in the house. When it comes to looking for new craft ideas to make, I will search the internet for craft ideas using whatever material that I would like to use.
You could make a lot of different things with the recyclable materials that you've been saving and I hope that you have a great time with those crafts.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
19 Oct 12
I've written a lot of crafting articles on helium and in many of those I like to feature a material that is reused. For example, this is one that I wrote about using old jeans in crafty ways: http://www.helium.com/items/2320477-unique-crafts-using-old-jeans (not a referral link)
@meowchie (992)
• Philippines
16 Oct 12
Uhmm with those materials you collection, I've tried a personalized photo frame using wet and dried tissues then painted. With the newspaper, I know I've done a little crocodile but cover with wet/dried crumpled tissues :D You can check on the art attack :/ I don't have exact like because I have them on word documents =DDDDDDDD
I started to buy gifts today too. These are for infants - tupper brands' set of powder/cologne/shampoo/lotion
Advance Merry Christmas:)
@GardenGerty (157615)
• United States
15 Oct 12
I do not know of any websites off the top of my head. I see giftsandbags gave you some. I do things like that. The cereal boxes can be cut and papered or painted to hold magazines or other leaflets. There is a magazine that is called Pack O' Fun and I would just bet that there is a website.
@OpinionatedLady (5966)
• United States
16 Oct 12
There are a ton of sites with ideas and patterns.
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/craftsbyproduct/a/trashcrafts.htm
http://www.favecrafts.com/Green-Crafting#
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/craftsbyproduct/a/trashcrafts.htm
http://www.favecrafts.com/Green-Crafting#