Re-use, recycle, re-create!
Crafts with kids don't have to be expensive. In fact, you can do great things at low or no cost by using items you might otherwise find in your recycling bin. Take the opportunity to talk to kids about the value of recycling, or the potential to make something beautiful out of what some might consider to be trash. Some famous artists have done great things with miscellaneous materials. Check out Louise Nevelson, and Miriam Schapiro. Try these craft projects with recycled materials:
Also check out more recycled craft ideas in our Holiday section.
That's My Bag
Kids love bags, and now they can design their own using no-cost materials. Make great purses, crayon carriers, toy carriers, gift bags that are personalized and, best of all, recycled.
You'll need: a cereal box, cracker box, or any such box; scissors, a glue stick, paper (construction paper or whatever you like), a hole-punch, and ribbon or yarn.
Cut the top flaps off the box. Now you or your child can cover the entire box with paper. You decide how exacting you'd like to be about this step. Kids will enjoy taking a collage approach to covering the box, but if you are more interested in a tidy look, you can cut the paper to fit, and help the kids attach it. Either way, let the kids cover the box with a glue stick before you apply the paper. Fold the paper over the top edge of the box at the opening and glue around the inside rim for a finished look.
Now punch two holes near the top of each long side. Tie the ribbon or yarn through the holes to make handles for your gift bag.
Now kids can can decorate with crayons, stamps or whatever else they can imagine.
Options: Try a patchwork approach, using squares of scrap wrapping paper. Or cover the box with felt, and glue on buttons or sequins to decorate. If you are using this as a gift bag, write your sentiment right on the box itself.
Simple Stained-Glass:
Using a decoupage technique on an old jar makes a great candle holder. This is a great project for gift-giving occasions like mother's day, father's day and the winter holidays. You'll need a clean glass jar (baby food jar, or any size up to a spaghetti sauce jar), tissue paper (whatever colors you like), glue and a paint brush.
Mix about 3 parts glue and 1 part water in a container. Tear tissue paper into small pieces (about 2" diameter or so is easy to work with). Let kids use the brush to coat the outside of the jar with the glue mixture, then apply pieces of tissue paper, overlapping the edges, in any pattern they want. (This project is a good way to re-use tissue paper from gifts because it does not matter at all if the tissue is wrinkled.) Make sure all the edges are glued down well. You can brush over them with the glue, and it really doesn't matter how messy this gets. Bigger globs of glue will just take longer to dry.
Once they've covered the outside of the jar with paper, and your kids are happy with the design, brush another coat of glue over the whole surface. This will seal all the edges and give it a shiny finish when it dries. When dry, put a votive candle inside and watch how the light flickers through the jar as if it's stained glass. (You can also buy flameless candles at your local craft store.) Tie a pretty ribbon or piece of raffia around the neck of the jar, and you have a nice decoration or gift.
Options: Kids can also add more designs to your piece if they want to. One way of using this idea is to cover the jar with all orange tissue paper, using the method described above. Then cut triangles and a smile from black paper and glue them on to create a jack-o-lantern face. A great window display for Halloween! For a winter holiday decoration, try first gluing red circles (use a hole punch) and maybe some pine needles onto the jar. Use white tissue paper to cover over it, and you'll end up with a piece that looks frosted. Another option is to use this for a vase or treat jar instead of a candle holder.
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Paint-your-own Pottery
Do you have some terracotta flower pots in the garage? These pots are just asking to be painted by your little one. Even if you don't have old ones laying around, you can buy them for a dollar or two and turn them into wonderful keepsakes or great gifts. No need to go to a fancy paint-your-own-pottery studio to capture your child's flair on pottery.
For this project you need brushes and acrylic paint (available in craft stores. Please note that you can't really use washable point for this one if you want it to last. So make sure you protect your work space and use a smock!) You'll also need clear acrylic sealant (you should find this in the same aisle as the paint).
Seal it first: Before your kids are ready to paint, you'll need to brush the acrylic sealant all over the inside of the pot to waterproof it. This is because terracotta is porous, and without sealing it, the dampness from your plant would seep through and ruin the painted surface. You don't have to seal the outside of the pot at this point. If you're using a saucer you can seal the top part where the pot sits.
Once the sealant is dry, you can let your kids paint. What they do is really up to them and you. They can just use a few colors and a brush. Or try sponges, stamps, or other tools for painting. You might even add some sequins with glue, or maybe some stickers.
Seal it last: You do not have to do this, but if you want to give the paint a little more endurance and a glossier finish, you can brush sealant over the painted surface after it has all dried. This will just prevent chipping of the paint.
Options: Put a pack of forget-me-not seeds or some other special flower and give it as a thoughtful gift. Or put a package of candy or coffee in it for a nice teacher-gift with a personal touch. I'm currently using a pot my daughter painted as a pen holder in my office. And an extra saucer (from a pot that was unfortunately broken) is great for holding my rings when I take them off by the sink. Painting pottery with kids has endless possibilities, and when you do it this way, it's very affordable.
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Cereal Box Collage
Cereal boxes, snack boxes, and other cardboard packaging are often very colorful with great lettering and fun pictures. This is the perfect material for a collage project for kids who are scissors-savvy enough to cut thicker cardboard. For smaller kids, you can help them with the cutting, or use thinner paper like magazines and catalogs which also offer a lot of color and variety in their graphic images. As your children cut out images and shapes, ask them to think about them--"What does this look like? What could this become?" Maybe they'll create houses from waffle images or facial features from cereal pictures. Give them the option of using craft-store glue-on eyes and see what kind of packaged faces your kids can create.
Check out the collages of Henri Matisse and Romare Bearden.
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Cute-as-a-button Collage
Here's a good way to use the extra buttons...a collage project. Buttons are colorful and can come in great shapes and sizes that seem to interest kids. Have your kids to pick out some buttons and ask them to think about what they might look like? What would the holes be? What if you could draw a scene around the button--then what would it be? Let them think about where the button might live or what might be around it, and then create this scene by gluing it onto paper and using crayons, markers, even sequins or other found objects to add to the possibilities. Maybe a red button will turn into a ladybug. Maybe four buttons become wheels of a car. Two holes on a button might make perfect eyes on a face...who knows? Let your kids decide for themsleves and have fun building their button collage.
Check out this great button collage by artists Lisa Kokin. Ask your kids to make a self-portrait using buttons and sequins or other materials. Let them think about how these materials can fit together to make the features of their face.
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Recycled Crayons
If your kids have been doing any amount of drawing, you're bound to have bits & pieces of broken crayons. Here's a project your kids will have fun doing (with your help) that will recycle those crayon pieces.
Get a candy mold from the craft store. This is going to be the mold for your new set of crayons. Stars or hearts or anything with a point will be a good choice, as they will be more user-friendly to draw with.
Collect bits of crayons, or break crayons into small pieces. Choose colors that you think will work when blended together (it's really up to you). Put the bits into an old baby food jar or other glass jar (something that you don't need, because you don't want to have to wash out the residue later). Then, put the jar in the microwave. Heat it in 30 second segments and watch it melt. The melting time will depend on how much crayon you are using, so just keep watching and reheating until the crayons are melted.
Be careful removing the jar from the microwave (obviously this part is only for adults). Pour into the candy molds.
Then, put the mold in the refrigerator (or you can leave it out--it will just take longer) until it hardens. Once hardened, you can just pop your shaplier new crayons out of the molds, and your kids can start drawing.
Note: These make a nice addition to a birthday party favor bag.
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Friendly Bats
Here's a cute Halloween decoration you & the kids can make with yogurt drink containers. You will need: a clean (empty) yogurt drink container, or other container that you think would make a nice bat's body, a large black pom pom for the head, black acrylic craft paint, wiggly-eyes, glue, and other embellishments like sequins or black glitter glue (optional).
Paint the yogurt container black. You can't use washable paint for this one because it won't stick to the plastic. If you don't want to use acrylic (non-washable) paint, another option is to just cover the outside of the yogurt container with a piece of black paper. Adding black glitter glue over the paint or black paper is optional, but a nice touch.
While it is drying, you can work on the head. Tacky glue or foam glue will be best for affixing the wiggle eyes to the pom pom (regular school glue will just require more drying time). For young kids, you can ask them "where should the eyes go?" to get them thinking. Older kids will know what do do, and might want to add other details, like the sequin smile and paper circle cheeks you see in the picture. Cut small triangles for the bat's ears (where should the ears go?), and after gluing them onto the pom pom you can bend them slightly to make them stick out.
When the painted body is dry, put a line of glue around the rim of the container. Attach the pom pom and let it dry.
Next, you need to make the wings from black construction paper. You can cut out wings as detailed as you like, and have the kids glue them. but I prefer to have the kids participate in the cutting. One idea is to cut out a rectangle, and then ask your child to cut a diagonal line to turn it into two wing-shaped pieces (How could you cut that into wings? What shape would the wings need to be?) Then you can have them draw lines to decorate the wings, or else just leave them plain. Glue them onto the back of the body, after the paint has dried.
When dry, you can string them up from a light fixture or hook so they look like they are flying.
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