Earth Day Recyled Crafts Round-Up

In celebration of Earth Day, I thought I would create a round-up of some recycled craft projects that we have done over the years. This list is by no means comprehensive, but here are more than 60 projects that we have made using recycled materials. Pulling craft projects together is easier (and cheaper!) than you might realize when you just start to think inside the recycling box. The best things in life really are free. Many craft materials are readily available in your home so now's the perfect time to get creative.

Bubble Wrap:

• A-Corny Printmaking Project
• Bubble Wrap Indian Corn Print Making

Cardboard Tubes:

{Homemade Sidewalk Chalk}

• Advent Wreath
• Butterfly
• Bird Feeder
• Bunny
• Chick
• Christmas Tree
• Holly-Day Wreath
• Indian Corn
• Octopus
• Rainbow Pom Pom Chutes
• Reindeer
• Scarecrow
• Sidewalk Chalk
• Turkey
• Wind Sock

Cardboard Boxes:

{Rainbow Pull-String Pinata}

• Cars Party Pit Stop Game
• Cheer Bear Photo Prop
• Horse Diorama
• Lorax Moustache on a Stick
• Lightning McQueen Pull-String Pinata
• Rainbow Pull-String Pinata
• Sandpaper Letter Rubbings
• Welcome to Care-a-Lot! Sign

Egg Cartons:

• Bat
• Caterpillar (I never wrote a post about when we made these, but they were just like what you probably did as a child. We dressed ours up with torn pieces of colorful tissue paper that were glued onto the caterpillar's bodies.)
• Paint Trays/Organizers (Even if you don't make the egg cartons into something, you can use them for holding paint. You can cut them apart if you are just using a couple of colors or keep them whole if you are using lots of colors or if you need space for mixing. They also are handy for sorting out beads, dyed pasta, buttons, beans, sequins or any other collage material you are working with like we did with the spices for making turkey cards.)

Glass Jars:

{"Sand" Art Jars}

• Centerpieces
• Crystal Snowflakes
• Jar-o'-Lanterns
• "Sand" Art
• Sidewalk Paint
• Snow Globe

Milk Jugs:

• Berry Buckets
• Ghostly Greeters
• School Bus with Working Wheels

Paper Bags:

• Gingerbread Men Paper Dolls
• Indian Corn
• Pumpkins
• Reindeer Paper Dolls
• Rudolph Puppet
• Turkey
• Turkey Puppet

Plastic Bottles:

{Seek 'n' Find Bottle}

• Bottle Cap Stamps
• Bubble Blower
• Seek 'n' Find Bottle
• Turkey Leg Maraca
• Wave Bottle

Styrofoam:

• Pot 'o Gold
• Print Making 

Tin Cans:

• Bat Treat Cup
• Cat Treat Cup
• Rudolph Treat Cup
• Snowman Treat Cup
• Valentine's Day Heart Bouquet

Tissue Paper (saved from gift bags):

• Apple Tree
• Autumn Tree Collage
• Sun Catchers (Easter Eggs are just one example. We've made sun catcher for most every holiday and season.)
• Yertle the Turtle

Various Other Materials:

{Paperback Pumpkin}

• Angel
• Drum
• Frog Craft
• Headband Organizer
• Magnet Craft
• Newsprint Flowers
• Owl
• Paperback Pumpkins, Apples, and Pears
• Tree Frog

Paper Bag Indian Corn Craft

I was trying to come up with some fall craft ideas that we hadn't already done to death, and I realized Indian corn was perfect. We have made several variations of Indian corn lately, (and I have a few more ideas to try) so I will get them posted soon. For now, here is the first version, which we made with a re-purposed brown paper shopping bag.

{By Mia, Age 4}

Materials:

• paper bag (raffia type handle optional)
• scissors
• pencil
• Bingo markers
• glue (optional)
• newspaper (to protect work surface)

Directions:

1. Draw a corn cob on a paper bag. Ours was a shopping bag that got torn and couldn't be used again. (The basic shape for the ear of corn is a long thin oval.) Add corn husks to the sides.
2. Cut our your corn cob and husks.
3. Cover your work surface with newspaper and use Bingo markers to dot on color for the Indian corn kernels. We used orange, red, and purple Bingo markers from Dollar Tree. (If you have yellow or white, those would work nicely, too.) Leave some of the background paper brown to give some extra contrast.
4. If you like, you can use a green Bingo marker to color in your corn husks, which is what Mia chose to do. You could also leave them plain brown, which would look dried out like actual Indian corn husks. Or, if your paper bag has raffia type handles, cut them off and unroll them. Arrange as desired, glue to the paper bag, and trim off the excess so that it looks like corn husks. This is what I did for Logan's.

   

   {By Logan, Age 2}

Paper Bag Rudolph Puppet

Paper Bag Reindeer Puppet by Mia, Age 3 1/2

This is another one we made last year, and I ended up doing most of the work. We tried it again this year, and Mia did much more of the project. The idea for this craft, which I have made revisions to, came from here.

Materials:

• paper lunch bag
• tape
• pencil
• red craft foam
• scissors
• glue (I like Aleene's Tacky Glue)
• 2 googly eyes
• red pom pom

Directions:

1. Trace child's hand onto red (or another color if you prefer) craft foam (or construction paper) and cut out hand prints.
2. Fold in corners of the bottom of a paper lunch bag to form a pointy nose.
3. Glue on two googly eyes and a red pom pom nose.
4. Tape cut out hand prints to the back of the bag to form Rudolph's antlers.
5. Once the glue is dry, you can play with your puppet or display it.

Reindeer Paper Dolls

After making these gingerbread men paper dolls, I decided we could also make reindeer paper dolls from that same paper shopping bag (which came from my shopping fiasco at the Levi's Outlet, in case you are wondering). This is how they turned out.

Materials:

• paper bag (grocery size or larger)
• scissors
• pencil
• markers (or colored pencils or paint pens)
• sequins (optional)
• pom poms (optional)
  
• glue (if using sequins or pom poms)

Directions:

1. Cut a long strip from a brown paper bag and fold it accordion style. We used a brown paper shopping bag.
2. Draw a reindeer on the top section, making sure that the tip of the nose, tail, and legs touch at the folds. (Tip: I drew our reindeer freehand, but you could trace around a cookie cutter.)
3. Keeping the paper folded, cut out the reindeer, making sure not to cut through the folded paper at the nose, tail, and legs.
4. Unfold your paper and decorate the reindeer. I used a brown marker to add details to the faces, black marker for the hooves, and red marker to make collars with gold sequins for jingle bells. Mia decorated hers with markers, sequins, and red pom poms for noses.

Gingerbread Men Paper Dolls

Here is a cute craft that Mia and I did today. The idea came from a book I got at a garage sale called Look What You Can Make with Paper Bags. That is a quarter that was well-spent.

Materials:

• paper bag (grocery size or larger)
• scissors
• pencil
• white crayon (or colored pencil or paint pen)
• buttons (optional)
• glue (if using buttons)

Directions:

Paper Doll Gingerbread Men Decorated by Mia, Age 3 1/2

1. Cut a long strip from a brown paper bag and fold it accordion style. We used a brown paper shopping bag.
2. Draw a gingerbread man on the top section, making sure that the hands and feet touch at the folds. (Tip: I drew our gingerbread man freehand, but you could trace around a cookie cutter.)
3. Keeping the paper folded, cut out the gingerbread man, making sure not to cut through the folded paper at the hands and feet.
4. Unfold your paper and decorate the gingerbread men. I used a white crayon. Mia chose to glue on buttons. The directions in the book said to use paint, but you could also use a white colored pencil. I would recommend using a paint pen if you choose to use paint.

Paper Bag Turkey Puppet

Just when I thought I was getting tired of turkey crafts, I came up with this idea for a quick and simple way to make a turkey hand puppet. Obviously, we had to try it out, and I was pleased with the final results.

Paper Bag Turkey Puppet by Mia, age 3 1/2

Materials:

• paper plate
• brown paper lunch bag
• scissors
• glue
• crayons (colored pencils, markers, or paint) in fall colors
• yellow or orange construction paper
• red construction paper
• 2 googly eyes

Directions:

1. Starting toward the center of a paper plate, use crayons to color different sections so that it looks a bit like the spokes of a wheel. You don't have to color the portion of the plate that will be covered by the paper bag.
2. Make sure that the creased part of the bottom of the paper bag is facing you. (It will be the turkey's head and you will want to be able to put your hand inside.) Glue the paper plate to the paper bag so that the colored side is toward you.
3. Glue two googly eyes onto the bottom part of the paper bag. We placed ours near the center.
4. Cut a rectangle out of yellow or orange construction paper, fold it in half, and then cut a triangle shape with the creased side as a base. Make sure not to cut on the fold. You will have a 3-D beak to glue onto the bottom section of the paper bag.
5. Cut a wattle from red construction paper and glue it onto the paper bag.
6. Allow the glue to dry completely before playing with your puppet.

Paper Bag Turkey Project

My turkey has Logan's hand prints for wings.

I adapted this idea by using lunch size paper bags instead of grocery bags. In my opinion, this is better anyway, because the bags don't have writing on them and their smaller size means that you finish the project more quickly (which is a plus when you are doing crafts with young children)! Also, I think using lunch bags would lend itself more easily to group projects since you can simply buy a package of them instead of scrounging up grocery bags. I have also made a few other changes to the original project that allow for some fun variations in how you decorate your paper bag turkey.

Materials Needed:

Turkey by Mia, age 3 1/2 (includes Logan's foot prints for wings)

• brown lunch bag
• scissors
• glue
• crayons or markers in fall colors
• orange or yellow construction paper
• red construction paper 
• yarn, twist tie, or rubber band
• googly eyes 
• newspaper

Optional Materials:

• pencil (for tracing hands or feet)
• orange or yellow pipe cleaner 
• paint in fall colors
• paint brush
• newspaper (to cover work surface when painting)

Directions:

1. Starting at the top of a brown lunch bag, use crayons (or markers) in fall colors to fill in the top half of the bag. (I folded the bag in half to give us a visual of where to stop coloring.) Mia colored hers randomly, and I colored mine in vertical stripes about 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter.
2. Fill the bag half full with crumpled newspaper.
3. Twist the bag closed and secure with a length of yarn, a rubber band, or a twist tie. (The original directions said to use yarn. I found this to be the trickiest to work with, but it be a logical choice if you are doing this project with a group. Rubber bands and brown twist ties from bread bags worked nicely for this.)
4. Using scissors, cut strips from the top of the bag down to the yarn/rubber band/twist tie to form tail feathers. I followed the lines separating my different colored stripes. Mia just started cutting.
5. Glue on two googly eyes.
6. Cut a triangle from orange or yellow construction paper and glue down to make the beak.
7. Cut a kidney bean shape from red construction paper for the wattle. Glue down near the beak.

Optional Ideas:

Mia's painted turkey has pipe cleaner feet.

Paper Bag Turkey by Mia

• Create wings for the turkey by tracing a child's feet onto brown construction paper, cut out foot prints, and glue onto paper bag. I did this with Logan's foot prints.
• Another option for making wings is to trace a child's hands onto colored paper, cut out hand prints, and glue onto the bag. I used Logan's hand prints on brown paper and two more hand prints on orange paper. After cutting out the hand prints, I layered the orange on top of the brown and trimmed off the excess. Then I glued the orange pieces to the brown and glued the wings to the paper bag. (You could also glue the orange on top of the brown before trimming.)
• To make feet for the turkey, cut two squares out of yellow or orange construction paper. Then trim the paper so that it resembles a crown with three points. Glue to the bottom of the bag.
• Another option for making feet is to cut an orange or yellow pipe cleaner in half. Bend each half so that it has three toes and then glue to the bottom of the brown bag.
• If you don't have googly eyes, you can draw on eyes or make them from construction paper.
• The directions for the original project said to paint the tail feathers after cutting them. I found that this was too difficult for Mia, but it may be something that a school-age child can do. (It might also be easier if working with a grocery bag instead of a lunch bag, but I didn't try this.) I also tried having her paint the bag before cutting, but again this didn't work out too well. She didn't really know where to apply the paint and we had to wait for it to dry. (My opinion is that using crayons is best. It's less messy and you don't have to wait for paint to dry.)
• Another option for tail is to color or paint a paper plate and glue to the bag of a paper bag. To do this, I think you would need to fill the whole bag with crumpled newspaper and close it at the top. Or you could possibly separate the bag into two sections, one for the head and one for the body, and secure it both in the middle and at the top.
• Today (11/17/10) I saw a picture of a paper bag turkey in our local newspaper. It had a plastic spoon decorated as the head, with the handle of the spoon stuck into the front of the paper bag.

Paper Bag Pumpkins

Paper Bag Pumpkins by Mia, Age 3 1/2

Here is a cute and simple craft for kids of all ages. You can easily make a whole patch of pumpkins (or jack-o-lanterns) to decorate your home for Halloween! I expanded this craft idea from the following: http://www.crayola.com/crafts/detail/paper-bag-pumpkin-patch-craft/

Materials Needed:

• paper bag
• orange crayon
• black construction paper
• green construction paper
• green curling ribbon
• newspaper
• glue or tape
• scissors

Directions:

1. Using an orange crayon, color the paper bag, leaving about 2 inches at the top plain brown. (Removing the paper from the crayon and using the side of the crayon makes coloring large areas go faster.)
2. Crumple newspaper and use it to fill the orange part of the bag.
3. Twist the brown section of the bag to form the stem. 
4. Cut leaves from green construction paper and glue (or tape) them to the stem.
5. Cut a length of green curling ribbon, tie to stem, and use blade of scissors to curl the ribbon. (If you don't have curling ribbon, you could cut strips of green paper and use scissors to curl it OR use pipe cleaners.)