How To Make Crafts With Waste Material - For Kids
Making crafts with children is a fun activity where they can learn many things. For example, we can use materials that at first glance have no further use and therefore teach children how to recycle or reuse. It will be a good way to make children aware of the importance of giving new uses to things that previously seemed unusable. We can build on the rule of the 3 R's: reduce, reuse and recycle. With this we will teach children about the need to help protect the environment. You will find this to be entertaining and good family fun as well as being very instructive. Do not miss this oneHOWTO article on how to make crafts with waste material.
You'll need:
- Various waste material
- Imagination and creativity
- Painting flower pots
- Tetra packs that become shoes
- Lollie stick pencil holder
- Bracelets with spoons and forks
- Animals with plastic gloves
- Socks that become puppets
- Homemade finger paint
- Animals and transports made with walnuts
- Transformed clothes pegs
- Diorama with a shoebox
- Toilet paper roll snake
- Paper mask with paper plates
- Bottle vases
- Cardboard boxes galore
- Kinder egg minion
- Leftover pasta crafts
- Christmas decor with waste material
- Musical instruments with waste material
- Flower pressing
- Coaster CDs
Painting flower pots
Planting flowers or trees with little kids is a very instructive activity, but it is always nicer when planting in a nice pot which we have painted ourselves. This idea is great for balconies, terraces and gardens as we can then boast about what little great artists we have at home. You can also use other waste material when making your own flower pots with waste material, whether it is out of a plastic bottle, used eggshells, egg boxes and even old typewriters!
Tetra packs that become shoes
Tetra packs are commonly found around the house as containers for milk, juice, broth... These are discarded on a daily basis. That's why we want to share a fantastic idea that the little girls in the house will especially love. What girl does not like heeled shoes like those that princesses wear?In this article we explain how to make a shoe out of a tetra carton.
Lollie stick pencil holder
It is important that children keep their toys tidy and in their place; this also applies to their pencils, crayons, markers, etc. Kids will not only like making this but will also be delighted in the preliminary activity of eating the ice lollies. You'll be able to learn how to make it with our article on how to make a pencil holder with lollie sticks.
If you don't want to use as many lollie sticks to make this craft, you can also make other sutff. For example, you'll just need four lollie sticks to make
Bracelets with spoons and forks
If at home you have spoons and forks that have been accidentally bent do not get rid of them. At OneHowTo.com we will show you a creative way to put them to good use: turn cutlery into bracelets. This is ideal to surprise small and not so small family members with these reused and original jewels.
Animals with plastic gloves
Like everyone else, you must have l mismatched rubber or plastic gloves or those gloves used in supermarkets and petrol stations ying around the house. Now we will show you a good way to reuse them by creating some funny animals. You can create a fun fish made from gloves. Alternatively, you can make a colourful crab.
Socks that become puppets
Similarly to what occurs with gloves, we often lose socks leaving odd ones behind. But this will stop being a problem as you can make puppets of any character with those socks. Use some old newspaper to cut out the eyes and stick them to the toes of the sock, use old pieces of yarn or fabric to create hair and old buttons to create a dress or suit for the character. Using these puppets, children can perform a play, previously working out the script.
Homemade finger paint
Painting pictures or murals depicting environmental matters or natural landscapes can also be an interesting activity which will enhance children's awareness of the importance of recycling. Children love finger painting as they have so much fun getting dirty.
Animals and transports made with walnuts
Using nut shells as the main material we can easily make various funny animals with just a coat of paint and some googly eyes, which serve as decoration or as props from which to create stories:
- Turtle
- Ladybird
- Frog
Or different means of transport such as ships and planes.
Transformed clothes pegs
It is very common for clothes pegs to separate into two parts and become unusable for hanging, but this does not mean we should throw them away. In OneHowTo we want to show you a great way to reuse them. You can make a plane with clothes pegs or make a butterfly with clothes pegs.
Diorama with a shoebox
If your children love drawing and letting their imagination run wild , why not try to make a diorama out of a shoebox? It's as easy as painting the inside of the box to suit your chosen theme and use the box lid to draw and cut out the elements that will fill your creative diorama!
There are also learn how to make more crafts for kids with shoe boxes or other cardboard boxes.
Toilet paper roll snake
Toilet paper rolls are maybe one of the household items that are used the most. In order to re-use them, we can make these fun snakes. It's as easy as painting the inside and outside of the rolls with a cardboard-friendly paint, letting it dry and cutting it in a spiral shape.. A lighter color is better so we can add other colors to decorate on top.
Once it is cut, cut a pointed tongue on one of the ends and decorate it with a permanent marker. For its eyes, you can either draw them on or stick on some ready-made eyes on it.
For more ideas for crafts with toilet roll, check out our article How to Make Toilet Paper Roll Crafts.
Paper mask with paper plates
If you want to make a waste material craft to reuse the paper plates you've used for a birthday party or dinner with friends, then a great afternoon activity you can have some fun making animal masks such as cats, dogs or even bear masks. You don't need much, just paint, cardboard to draw the different parts of the face, scissors to cut them and glue to stick them on in the right place.
If you want a fun game, you can have a monster competition and see who can create the scariest monster mask!
Bottle vases
If mother's day or a significant birthday or date is around the corner, a great craft to make with waste material is a plastic bottle vase. There are as many ways to make vases out of recycled bottles as you can think of, though one of the easiest is to cut the bottle in half, stick the neck of the bottle to a CD and paint in your favorite color. It's that easy!
Cardboard boxes galore
We have to be honest, cardboard boxes are one of the most versatile waste material you'll find around the house. Kids love it and can let their imagination run wild, building forts, castles and crazy mazes! At oneHOWTO we suggest transforming a cardboard box into an inexpensive and recycled fancy dress costume.
Cut out three holes of the cardboard, one on each side; for the arms and head to fit in. Use other waste material such as used straws, bottle caps, yarn and others to create all of the buttons and features for a cute robot costume.
Kinder egg minion
Do your children love Kinder Surprise? Now they won't only be able to play with the toy they find inside, but will also be able to create their very own Minion toy out of it. Taking advantage of the package's bright yellow color, it's not that difficult to follow the instructions and make this Minion toy with just some tape, googly eyes and felt pens.
In fact, at oneHOWTO we have plenty of Minion crafts that are made with waste material if you love these 'Despicable Me' characters.
Leftover pasta crafts
If you've recently made pasta but have some leftovers, you ca use it to make pretty works of art with your kids. For example you can learn how to make this pasta table centerpiece with just a polystyrene ball and a good coat of paint.
If you don't have flower shaped pasta but have, for example, macaroni, how about creating a portrait with them by making a macaroni collage of colors? You can even frame it and hang it in your favorite spot.
Christmas decor with waste material
Decorating the house at Christmas is an activity that can be enormously enjoyed by the whole family, but how about making some of the ornaments from scratch? You can decorate glass jars, or make snow globes with kids, learn how to do it.
There is also a great amount of Christmas tree decorations that can be made from waste material such as newspaper baubles or those made with old light bulbs. You can even go one step further and create a whole Christmas tree from waste material!
Musical instruments with waste material
If you don't mind the noise and racket of your kid playing around the house all day long, then you can further boost his or her creative side by making their own musical instruments at home.
There are many options, you can create a drum with an old balloon and toilet paper roll, a set of mini-drums with used tin cans, or maracas with dried pulses and used bottles.
Flower pressing
Bought a bunch of flowers and are starting to dry out? Make the gift last forever and get your kids involved in the task! You can carefully press them in between heavy books and use a piece of old cardboard to stick them to. Create a waste material craft picture frame with either the lollie sticks mentioned above or even with some dry painted pasta, old buttons ...
Coaster CDs
Another waste material craft that will be extremely useful around the house is the CD coaster.
There are many ways to make them, but all of them are equally easy. For example, you can use some old piece of fabric to create a patchwork design you can easily stick to the CD to make a great upcycled coaster. Use buttons, old magazines or whatever you can think of to line your CDs.
Moreover, if you have lots of CDs just lying around your home, you can make other great crafts such as a mosaic bowl or even a candle holder!
If you want to read similar articles to How To Make Crafts With Waste Material - For Kids, we recommend you visit our Art & handicraft category.
Tips
- Use recycled materials to do activities with children as long as they are adequately supervised by an adult, as many of these activities involve using sharp objects such as scissors or toxic material such as paint.
- Let your imagination run wild and share pictures to let us know how your crafts turned out.