Creating Eco Friendly Art Projects: Make Arts & Crafts with Recycled Materials
Art from Recyled Household
Creating eco friendly art is easy when you choose recycled materials. Giving used household items another use is a great way to do your part to recycle, with many fun arts and craft projects as the result. Why not create something from used items in your home with the kids? You’ll model how important it is to take care of the environment, which the best way to teach your kids about living green. The following art projects give a second life to many household items that are typically thrown away.
Mosaics
A mosaic is simply a picture that has been created from small bits and pieces of items. This is a great project for the kids. You can tear up used paper and make a design with the bits and pieces of paper. Paper is only one of the many possibilities for making a mosaic. Buttons, bottle caps, used matches, or broken pieces of tile can all be used to make mosaics. Broken mirrors make a pretty mosaic too. Sand any sharp edges on each piece of mirror.
Spread grout on a piece of wood and arrange the mirror pieces to form a design. Spread the entire mosaic with grout to fill in. Finally, clean the grout off of the mirror pieces. Let the mosaic dry. It will harden. Hang your new abstract art on the wall and get ready to receive complements.
Decorate a Box
An empty laundry detergent box can make a great place to put the mail or magazines. Decorate an empty detergent box with a used remnant of wall paper or fabric. Hot glue old, used items, such as ribbon or rick-rack, to the box to make it even prettier.
Use one side of a two to three inch deep box as a canvas for a painting. Use slightly different sized boxes, painting one letter of your child’s name on each box in colors to match your child’s bedroom. Your child will enjoy seeing her name hanging on the wall of her bedroom.
Christmas Ornaments
Save those popsicle sticks instead of throwing them away. Make your own Christmas ornaments by using hot glue to make two triangles from popsicle sticks. Turn one of the triangles upside down, and leave the other one upright. Hot glue them together to form a star. Paint the star or just put on the tree the way it is. These also make nice Hanukkah decorations.
Use up any of your leftover Christmas wrapping paper. Simply wrap up any tiny boxes you might have on hand with wrapping paper. Add a pretty bow of leftover ribbon to make “present” ornaments. Hot glue a looped piece of ribbon on the box for hanging on your Christmas tree. You can reuse these gift box ornaments for years if they are packed away with care.
Trash to Treasure
Creating eco friendly art by recycling old household items turns old, useless trash into a treasure. Other ideas include reusing glass jars for snow globes, using old fabric and t-shirts for fabric crafts, or even making a fish, soap-dish from a plastic bottle. From Christmas ornaments you can use for years to come, to cardboard canvases for paintings, art from recycled items can bring renewed beauty to your home without costing a dime.Your only limit is your imagination!
