Totorus

Photo credit by trilliumartisans

There are many items around the house in which you can create crafts from. It is also environmentally friendly to use items that you might typically throw away, but instead find other uses for. Items like cereal boxes, Kleenex boxes, shoe boxes, magazines, buttons, or cans can all be used in some type of arts and crafts project.

One project idea is creating a file/magazine holder from a cereal box. First begin my cutting of the top of the box and then cutting down the narrow part of the cereal box in the exact way a file holder or magazine holder appears. Cut about four to five inches down from the bottom of the box. Once you have cut the shape of the file holder, you can then decorate it. You can paint it, or decorate it with construction paper and stickers. Place files, papers, or small thin magazines inside of it to organize your items.

Another item that you can make that is useful for the home is a plastic bag holder from a kleenex box. Once a kleenex box is empty, you then can decorate it with the design you would like, and then cut the hole a bit larger so that it can hold small plastic bags. After you are finished, you simply place plastic bags into the box, and you can pull them out as you need them. This can be placed in a kitchen, garage, utility room, or whatever room you typically store your bags in.

You can recycle magazines by creating paper beads from magazine pages. You will need a variety of magazines that have colorful pages. Also, you will need some toothpicks or something that you can roll strips of paper around. Cut out pages of magazines into thin and thick strips. Do not cut them out too thick, because you will have to roll them into a bead shape. Take a toothpick and roll a strip around it to create a tube shaped bead. You can make a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. Glue the tips of the strip together once you have rolled it.

After the glue has dried, you can paint it with clear nail polish to coat the bead to make it shiny. Let all of your created paper beads dry. When the beads are dry, you then can string them onto your choice of stringing material such as stretch cord, or beading thread.

If you have had light bulbs that have blown, you don't always have to throw them away. Clean the light bulb with some rubbing alcohol, and then paint the bulb in a white base coat. After that, you can paint a decoration on it such as a snowman, Santa Claus, an elf, or even a winter snow scene. You then can attach wire or string to it and hang it from your Christmas tree.

So it isn't always necessary to throw out old items that no longer work, or just because perhaps it is empty. It is possibly to find other uses or projects to create from them. In some way or another, every item is reusable. If everybody does their part in recycling, or gets creative with items from around the house, it can be possible to make the earth a little bit more “greener” place.