Every Day Materials

dorannmwin, I thought I'd share what my wife did with some of my old neckties which she would cut off the broader end, stitch up the cut end and turn it into a cover for our collapsible umbrellas. I find them rather colorful and much better material than the usual covers. Also, the broad opening makes it very easy for us to put our umbrellas into it. Hope this is helpful and you will find it as useful as I had. Have a nice day.

I love crafts too. I had a lot of ideas in my mind. As, of now I can't share yet. I love reading the comments here under your question. Thanks for sharing this question. I a checking your site if you have one about your craft work...God bless

I used to be a Sparks leader (pre-Brownies, 4-5 year olds) and we did a lot of craft projects too Some of the items we stockpiled, besides those you mentioned, were yogurt containers of all sizes, greeting card fronts (any and all occasions), single-serving juice bottles with the lids, egg cartons, ribbon, buttons, etc. We were taking our girls to do some volunteer work at a nursing home and we used the baby food jars and juice bottles to make gifts for the seniors. The baby food jars were turned into candy/mint jars for the gentlemen and the juice bottles held bath salts for the ladies. The girls decorated them with pretty metallic stickers, ribbon, etc... things that were easy for them to handle. The recipients were so pleased :) We used egg cartons to start sets of seeds for planting. Seeds are inexpensive and a few of us leaders already had seeds we'd collected from our gardens. Things like green or yellow beans grow super easy so it's very satisfying for the children. Seed flats made in the egg cartons also work well if you're doing a bazaar/fundraiser for your group. You can also use yogurt cups to start individual plants (like rooted cuttings from houseplants that people can contribute). The cups take acrylic paint well and you can glue on lots of cute decorations (ribbons, beads, even buttons). We did these for Mother's Day.

As an artist, I will say that ANYTHING can be used for crafts!! We use paper or plastic plates (sooo many things you can do with paper plates), cups, bowls, beans, rice, candy wrappers, those clear boxes that berries are kept in, foil, ziploc bags, napkins, paper towels, spoons, envelopes, junk mail, old magazines . . . literally everything!! We had to do a project for my daughter's class - and I used a granola bar box for a small display for her work! With some creativity, you can really make use of anything in the house!

I have used bottle caps to make jewelry also caps(taps) for cans to make bracelets, old pop bottles or other plastic bottles makes good birdfeeders, also bird houses, the plastic rings on bottles make good dangels for windchimes and magazines and paper of anykind are great to make paper beads.windchimes can be made out of old spoons and forks also.

When I went to bible school every year we used to have to save our coffee cans with the lids. Then we had construction paper to use for the outside of the can and I am not sure if these are still made but you know those copper metal scratchers that now look like our bath poofs? Well they used to come in different colors so we would get one to match our construction paper and it would roll down the side of the coffee can. I think my father must have gotten like 4 of em through the years in bible school LOL when my children were toddlers we did a lot of macaroni crafts. I let them make designs on construction paper, always have a salt shaker of glitter LOL thats a must! then for Christmas my kids used to watercolor the long tube macoroni and decorate their own designs for the Xmas tree. I raised 5 so I always had craft time. I now have a 16 month old granddaughter and I am starting her out now little by little. you just have to be as quick as their little minds to keep their interest. Keep the glue sticks around and popsicle sticks. We also kept tinsel around. As my children got older they were lucky enough that I was into ceramics and we had our own kilns so they made many projects for their own gifts, and teachers through the years.

have you tried to make your own paper? you can use old paper - flyers, wrapping paper and toilet rolls and paper towel rolls. its not that hard to make but it is just time consuming. you can also make snow globes out of baby food jars too.

My granddaughter and I do alot of crafts together..we have used the toilet paper rolls etc....how about some inexpensive wrapping paper...and curly ribbon...you could make kites etc with them...oatmeal containers...they are good for drums...

When I was teaching at Sunday school, I had a co-teacher who was so amazing at recycling materials. One of her favorites was the bag of chips. You could cut it up and the designs would be fantastic because they're shiny!