Arts &  Crafts

Creative Uses for Boxes

• House – Make a dollhouse and design it with windows and doors.

• Mailbox – Make a small slot in a shoebox and then decorate it with a cardboard flag.

• Car – Make a fast car with cool racing stripes! Use jar lids for headlights.

• Rocket – Design a rocket ship with magic markers and plastic bottles for rocket boosters.

• Kitchen – Make a kitchen sink, oven or refrigerator.

• Horse – Ride a horse with yarn mane.

• Puppet show theater – Create a scene on one side of the box, cut out the stage, and add hand puppets made from socks or paper bags.
  
  

Creative Uses for Plastic Bottles

• Maracas – Put dried rice or dried beans in a bottle, glue on the cap, and shake, shake, shake.  Cover the bottle in colored paper, crepe paper or yarn for an extra special maraca shaker.

• Glitter Ball – Add glitter, corn syrup and a little water in a bottle, and then glue the cap on.

• Lava Lamp – Add canola oil, water, and food coloring to the bottle, and then glue the cap on.

Creative Uses for Paper Towel Rolls

• Napkin rings – Cut out several 2-inch wide rolls and decorate with pretty paper, crayons, stamps or markers.

• Rain maker – Cover one end of the paper towel roll with plastic and tape, add some beans or rice, then cover the other end with plastic and tape.  Then, shake, shake, shake to hear the rain sound.
  

• Telescope – Decorate the roll with markers or paper, tin foil or colored plastic wrap.
  

• Antennae – Tape to boxes for creating big bugs, spaceships, or robots.
  

• Building logs – Cut notches in the rolls to make them stackable.
  
  

Creative Uses for Tops & Lids

• Flowers – Trace different tops and lids to create symmetrical flowers.

• Stamps – Use the lids as a stamp for painting designs.

Creative Uses for Bubble Wrap

• Bee Hive – Paint a piece of bubble wrap with gold or any other color paint.  Then press the painted bubble wrap on black construction paper, gently pat down and then lift up the bubble wrap to see the bee hive.  Decorate the construction paper with colored or cutout bees.

• Bubble Stamp – Cut a shape out of the bubble wrap, dip it in paint nad press on construction paper.  Or tape bubble wrap to a plastic bottle, dip in paint, and then roll out like a continuous stamp.
  
  

Creative Uses for Packing Peanuts

• Seahorse – Dip the packing peanuts in paint and press on construction paper to make seahorse prints.

• Texture – Can glue and paint packing peanuts for a 3-D artwork.

Creative Uses for Magazines

• Beads – Make jewelry with magazine beads.

• Collages – Cut out cool magazine pictures to design collages.

• Cards – Add magazine pictures or phrases to handmade cards.

• Pictures – Frame a few beautiful magazine pictures.  This works well with old calendars too.
  
  

Creative Uses for Paper Plates

• Make a Mask – Cut out eyes in the center of the plate, decorate the rest with crayons or markers, some yarn for hair, and then glue on a Popsicle stick to hold the mask up.
  

• Maraca – Fill the plate with beans or rice, cover with another plate, and tape both together.  Decorate with crayons or markers. Then shake, shake, shake to some music.
  

Creative Uses for Paper

• Paper mache globe – Inflate a balloon, dip paper in glue water, then place the paper on the balloon and let dry.  Repeat several times until the layers are thick and strong.  Then you can pop the balloon before painting the round world.
  

• Origami – Use leftover paper or decorative junk mail and fold into origami shapes.
  
  

Creative Uses for Sponges

• Stamps – Cut sponges into shapes, such as circles, diamonds, or even animals, and use them for making stamps art when painting.
  
  

Creative Uses for Egg Cartons

• Paint and use egg cartons to store a rock collection.

• Paint and use egg cartons to store beading materials.

Creative Uses for Maps & Puzzle Pieces

• Decorate the outside of a frame by gluing on leftover puzzle or Scrabble pieces.

• Decorate the outside of a frame by gluing on a junk mail map or other attractive wrapping paper.
  
  

Nature-Inspired Crafts

• Leaf collage – Collect autumn leaves and glue on paper or a wreath.
  

• Pinecone bird feeder – Attach a rope to the pinecone, roll the cone in peanut butter and then coat with birdseed before hanging it up on a tree for the birds.

• Paint rock animals, such as a ladybug – Find a river rock or smooth stone and paint it.  For a ladybug, paint the rock red, let dry, then add black dots and glue on eyes.
  

• Stick frames – Tie four small sticks together with twine to create a homemade picture frame.
  
  

• Eco-Crafts at Kiwi Magazine