From Trash to Crafts

The following are suggestions to get you started thinking in the Trashy Crafts mode. I've given brief descriptions and, in some cases, illustrations to make the idea more clear. Keep your eyes open for ideas all around you. Look at craft fairs at what other people are doing with castaways. Magazines and books are full of project ideas using "found" materials.

Egg Cartons

Here are some crafts that use old egg cartons, either paper or Styrofoam (I like paper best, but either kind will do):

• Creatures and critters: Using one or more sections from an egg carton and some pipe cleaners, you can make a whole zoo. If you paint the sections black and suspend them from strings, these make great spiders for Halloween. Add cotton balls dyed yellow to a painted yellow carton section to make an adorable Easter chick.

• Similar to egg carton creatures, you can cut the sections apart and make egg carton flowers, using the carton pieces as the actual flower or the center of a larger flower and adding petals.

• Egg cartons make good holders for crafts in progress (for drying painted Easter eggs, for example).

• Egg cartons (or any other sectioned container) are great for sorting things like beads or any other small parts.

• Fill each well of an egg carton with different colored paints for small projects.

• Start seeds in each well. When they've sprouted, you can cut the sections apart and plant them (if they're the cardboard kind).

• Put flowers you want to dry in silica gel (one in each section) and cover with the gel.

• There are several strategy games that use sectioned game boards, which can be made out of egg cartons.

Styrofoam Trays, Cups, and Peanuts

Here are some crafts you can make out of Styrofoam:

• Use a tray as a paint palette. Cut out a hole for your fingers.

• An adult or older child can cut tray pieces out for stencils.

• Rubber stamps can be expensive, but you can make your own out of Styrofoam meat trays. Clean the tray, cut out the shape, and glue it to an empty film canister, cork, or the end of a large eraser. Press into an inked stamp pad and you're ready to stamp.

• Larger trays from bulk foods make good frames for artwork. You can also decorate them and use them as special trays.

• Cut pieces of Styrofoam into different shapes and decorate to make coasters.

• Decorate Styrofoam plates and use under plants to catch excess water.

• Use leftover Styrofoam cups to grow seedlings (after you've used an egg carton to start them).

Styrofoam cups also work well as paint containers (just rinse them first) and homes for seedlings. Peanuts can be painted and strung together as "beads" or glued on as decorations.

Empty Film Canisters

Here are some crafts that you can make with empty film canisters:

• Stamp bodies (see the earlier Styrofoam section).

• Film canisters make great containers for small things. (Just make sure to label them so you know what's inside without having to open each one.) I like them for holding tiny seed beads when I travel.

• Film canisters make nice, small salt and pepper shakers, perfect for a picnic. Paint and use an awl or nail to poke holes through the top.

So, next time you snap some pictures and send the rolls to be developed, remember to save the containers.

Glass Jars

Here are some fun uses of glass jars in all shapes and sizes:

• Baby-food jars make great snow globes. Larger jars make larger globes. I especially like the shape of the jar that marshmallow fluff comes in.

• Glass jars can be use to hold small candles. Use a baby-food jar to hold a tea light or a slightly larger jar to hold a votive candle. You can also use heavier glass jars for container candles. Place them inside a luminaria. This increases safety and ensures that the flame won't blow out.

• Make a windproof candle lantern. Turn the jar so the opening is right side up and insert a candle into the jar. Attach a wire or cords around the neck, and hang.

• Use glass jars to store kitchen crafts, like dried herbs, spice mixtures, scented potions, and bath salts. You can also place these crafts in decorated glass jars to give as gifts.

Make decorative powdered-sugar or talcum-powder shakers by perforating the tops of the jars and decorating the glass.

Using glass painting techniques, you'll be able to decorate these to make items even more attractive.

Glass Bottles

Like glass jars, glass bottles of all sizes can be used in crafts. Here are some ideas:

• Use them for terrariums.

• You can decorate nicely shaped discarded glass bottles and use them as vases or rooting jars, or as containers for homemade oils, vinegars, bath oils, and many other items.

• Using a bottle cut you can expand the possibilities still further. An overturned bottle with the top cut off makes a minigreenhouse for tender spring seedlings.

Plastic Jugs and Cartons

Here are some creative ideas that make use of clean plastic containers:

• Use them as musical rhythm shakers.

• Use plastic milk cartons to make a dulcimer pick, which are much like a guitar picker only lighter. They're just the right weight and you can cut them in any shape you want. Margarine-tin tops cut into wedges make another good stringed-instrument pick.

• Cut the bottom off a clear plastic jug, unscrew the top, and use as a mini-greenhouse to protect plants outside when it's still cold and plants are tender. (Be sure to remove the jug if it gets really hot and sunny, or the plant will burn.)

• Milk cartons and large plastic containers make excellent planters. A half-gallon milk or juice container can even be cut in half lengthwise and used as a tray to start seeds. Decorate with adhesive-backed paper and be sure to put pebbles in the bottom for drainage.

• Use a clean plastic bleach bottle as a bird feeder. On each side, two inches from the bottom, cut two feeding holes about three inches square. Put small drainage holes in the bottom of the bottle. Hang from a wire threaded through two holes in the bottle's neck. The birds will never know.

Newspapers and Other Scrap Paper

Newspapers and other scrap papers are among the most commonly recycled items. Before you throw paper into the recycling bin, think about the crafts you can create with it:

• Make paper hats.

• Make papier-mâchè.

• Use for drawing.

• Use for making patterns.

• Use newspaper to cover special surfaces (floors, countertops) while you do crafts or household projects for easy cleanup.

• Newspaper makes great gift wrap. The comics pages work especially well; or use the regular printed pages and stamp or stencil them with bright colors.

• Save greeting cards from any occasion. These can be used in decoupage or cut-and-paste projects. Decoupage is the traditional art of decorating with cutout paper.

• Usually, a product is used to both adhere the paper to the object and to coat the paper and provide a hard finish. Several finishing coats are applied.

• Seed packets often have beautiful illustrations of vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Save them and use for decoupage projects for the kitchen.

• Leftover paper bags make luminaria, masks, and puppets.

Instead of always asking which paper to buy for a project, ask yourself which paper you can reuse.

Old Clothes

Before you give old clothes to a local church or Goodwill, think about these crafts ideas:

• Remake into other clothes. A full skirt, for instance, can become a straight skirt or a shell blouse.

• Make doll and teddy-bear clothes.

• Make into rag rugs.

• Make a scrap quilt.

• Make pillows. You can either use one piece of fabric or make patchwork pillows out of many different pieces. Take the two back pockets off an old pair of jeans, glue Velcro across the tops with fabric glue, and sew both sides together to make a coin purse.

• Denim is strong, and can be patched together and decorated to make aprons, jackets, vests, and tote bags. Cloth diapers can be used for cleanup and polishing. Retired T-shirts can, too.

Carton Boxes

Empty carton boxes have many uses in crafts:

• Boxes in different sizes make great building materials for forts and castles.

• Use boxes for dioramas.

• Make individual settings for miniatures.

• Attach several boxes together to make a dollhouse.

• A large appliance box becomes a playhouse. Cut windows and doors and decorate.

• Make play furniture from sturdy cartons.

• One box makes a puppet theater. Cut out the bottom and suspend a curtain from a cord.

• Use cut-out corrugated cardboard as a base for ornaments.

• Heavy cardboard can be used as wreath forms. Materials can be glued to the cardboard or it can be covered with moss.

Tin Cans

Don't throw away old tin cans! They make wonderful organizers and crafts materials:

• Turn a coffee can with a plastic lid into a bank by decorating the can and making a slot in the lid for coins. Create desk accessories. Use two or three cans the same or different sizes. They can be separate or you can attach them. Decorate one for pencils, one for pens, and one for markers.

• Coffee cans in different sizes can be used for a canister set. There are infinite ways to decorate them. One of the most interesting decorative ideas I've seen uses belt leather, sisal cord or string, and bridle rings.

• Groups of cans in different sizes can be spray-painted and glued together, then mounted on the wall with a nail through the cans into the wall stud (or a toggle bolt if there's no stud). Use for storage.

• Cans from hams have an interesting shape. With both sides removed and a hanger added (the following illustration uses a wooden bead and a wooden drapery ring), they make graceful lanterns, bird feeders, or whatever else you can think of.

• Coffee cans make excellent planters. Cover the cans with any durable material, then punch six evenly positioned holes at the top along the rim. Knot the end of some heavy cord (rawhide strips or whatever else you have on hand) and make them long enough to hang as planters.

Miscellaneous Materials

• Not enough ideas for you? Here are a few more, all using recycled materials:

• Use the cardboard from a shirt box to make place mats. Decorate and laminate them.

• Large pieces of broken glass can be cut with a glass cutter and made to fit a smaller frame. You can also sandwich two pieces of the same size together to make a floating frame or dried-flower ornament.

• Milk or juice cartons (with plastic or wax coating) or cream cartons can be used as molds for candles. Just peel them away when the candle has hardened.

  Many objects, such as discarded watering cans or flower pots, can be made into clocks. Decorate and drill a hole for the clockworks and insert the turning mechanism inside the hole. You can put the clock face on the outside and attach the hands.

• Interesting works of art can be made of assemblages sprayed all one color. These can be from any odds and ends. Decorate and paint six juice or soup cans, then attach them in a six-pack. This can hold paint brushes, tools, or even silverware for a buffet. Or you can plant a mini-herb garden in it.

  Use a cereal box or other box as a magazine holder. Cut off the top at an angle, then cover the box with adhesive-backed paper.

• Cigar boxes can hold anything. They can be decorated in a variety of ways, including wood burning (burning designs into wood using a special tool with various tips), decoupage, or painting.

• A discarded lampshade can be recovered with wallpaper and a pin-pricked design, or covered with ribbon suspended closely together between the top and bottom wire rings.

• Brown paper bags make puppets, sacks for Halloween, and luminaria.

• Scratched holiday ornaments can be reused. Remove the metal neck, then remove the metallic finish by dipping in a solution of bleach and water. Rinse and dry and fill the ornament with confetti, potpourri, sand, shells, or whatever. Replace the metal neck and hanger. Add some ribbon and tiny dried flowers with glue.

• Wire hangers can be covered in various ways (ribbon, batting and fabric, string) to make decorative hangers that are kind to your clothes and pretty to look at. Or hangers can be cut and the wire itself reused in other crafts.

• Lamps can be made out of almost anything. Take an interesting tin, vase, or teapot and fit it with a lamp assembly, available at any hardware store. (Be sure that you use the proper drill to make any holes for your lamp assembly.)

• Wood turnings, finials (an ornament at the top of a piece of furniture, lamp, or other decorative trim), and other small parts from furniture, lamps, etc. can be used for all sorts of things, from miniatures to decorative trims.

  I've even seen wood turnings, cabinet knobs, and empty thread spools turned into an imaginative chess set and toy soldiers. Another chess set was made out of discarded Tinkertoys and wooden beads, then painted. Cardboard mailing tubes can be cut into short sections and made into ornaments.

• Broken china pieces can be applied in an interesting mosaic pattern to a flowerpot or recycled table. You'll need tile mastic, which is an adhesive especially for tile, to hold the pieces, andafter it's dry you'll grout in between.

There's something very satisfying about using discarded items and making them beautiful or useful again. Not only are you doing your part to help the environment, but there's the secret pleasure of knowing how clever and thrifty you've been.

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Crafts with Kids © 1998 by Georgene Lockwood. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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