I have some pretty exciting news: starting next Thursday, I’m going to be teaching an after school crafting class at the local Elementary school! Of course, I wanted to focus on teaching the kids about crafty reuse. I’m really excited about the chance to show this group of first- and second-graders the treasure trove of craft supplies right in their recycle bin and in nature.
Here are some of the crafty projects I’ve rounded up to share with them (not necessarily in order of appearance):
Any way i can get a template for the starburst magazine craft? Is there a tutorial on the whole project? i couldn’t seem to find it on the website.
Thanks@
Holly
Unfortunately, her post on it seems to be gone, but here’s the gist:
*Roll up 34 magazine pages into tubes.
*Use a needle and thread to stitch the tubes into a circle.
*Cut 2 circles from cardboard (a cereal box would work great).
*Lay your circle of tubes onto one cardboard circle, apply glue generously, and lay the other cardboard circle on top.
* Let it dry, and you’re all done! You can hang it with sticky tack or attach something to the back for hanging.
Hi Becky,
I taught a craft class at my kids elementary school and the first thing we made was a sketchbook from recycled materials. I used cereal boxes for the cover and scrap paper for the inner pages and then sewed down the center. The class involved block printing, embroidery, knitting and sewing so the kids used the sketchbooks to plan future designs.
I’m not sure where I got the original idea from but here are 2 links I just found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TogblAjIeZU
http://mymorningchocolate.com/2010/06/16/recycled-craftshow-to-make-notebooks-with-food-packaging-and-olde-paper/
Hope you enjoy the classes, they look like a lot of fun!
Jo, I love this idea!! I was thinking about doing some kind of simple journal, and this sounds simple and fun. I love it as an ice breaker idea for the first day, too! Maybe they can decorate the covers with collage stuff cut from magazines and junk mail?
I remember as a kid I used to use junk-mail coupons (the ones on newspaper-like material) for papier mache. Another one that might be fun for the kids is to take colorful junk mail and make bracelets using the gum-wrapper linking method. You can follow the instructions here, just make them much smaller, obviously: http://candywrapperpurse.blogspot.com/2007/08/chip-wrapper-purse.html
Great ideas!!
I was going to suggest paper mache, but it was already suggested. At home we always used a flour and water paste for it.
Another idea is to use old magazines/junk mail, etc to make rolled up beads and make jewelry.
Oh, fun! Do you think boys would be into bead-making? I’m not sure what my boy:girl ratio is yet.
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