I imagine (hope) that I’m not the only one who already has kids squabbling, and complaining of being bored this holiday. To keep them entertained, try our 10 easy, recycled crafts that you can do with things from around the house. As a special parent bonus feature, two of them require corks!
1. Cute Cork Sheep
Our Cute Cork Lamb is a great recycled craft idea, and great fun to make with kids. All you need is a couple of corks (something I always seem to have – glug!), a few matchsticks, and some yarn. Click through to see our easy to follow instructions.
2. Pretty Pocket Purses
Make Pretty Pocket Purses with bleach stamping and a pocket cut from a pair of Jeans. Great way to re-purpose old clothes! This DIY project is super easy and fun to make.
3. Printing with Loom Bands
Try Printing with Loom Bands – a great way to make your own wrapping paper, and a fun holiday activity for kids.
4. Recycled Magazine Basket
There are a few different ways you can make baskets out of recycled magazines, this basket weave design is probably the simplest and quickest, and I love the checkered pattern which it creates.
5. Marbling Bottles with Nail Polish
This simple tutorial explains how to marble glass bottles with Nail Polish – it’s a great way to use up all those polishes you never wear, with stunning results!
6. Reusable Beeswax Wraps
Home-made, reusable beeswax food wraps are super easy to make at home and are a great way to reduce the amount of single-use plastic you use
7. Sgraffito Eggs
Sgraffito is an art technique in which a surface layer of paint, plaster, slip, etc., is scratched away to reveal a ground of contrasting color underneath. In this tutorial, we will first show you a simple technique for blowing an egg, and then how to decorate it using Sgraffito.
8. Making a Bottle Garden
Make a Bottle Garden. Terrariums are a great craft project for kids. They can really let their imagination run wild.
9. Turning Stains into Dyes
Our fun craft tutorial explores how you can use stains as dye at home. Check out what we tried and what worked best.
10. Embossing with Glycerine Eye Shadow
DIY embossing using glycerine and eye shadow- create pretty, delicate and shimmery images using products you have at home to embellish cards, tags and wrapping paper.
We hope we have given you some crafting inspiration to keep you all busy, without having to spend lots of money. For more great craft ideas check out our 12 Fabulous Nature Based Craft Tutorials.
If you have enjoyed our ideas, please pin so others can enjoy them too :)
28 comments
I adore your cork sheep! I’ve always admired the one on your logo :). Great ideas for projects.
Thanks Leandra, we love our little cork sheep too :)
These all look like some fun projects! I love the little pocket bag, and the printing with the loom bands is so neat. Love the pattern that it makes. The little bottle garden is adorable!
Thanks Linda, we had such fun with all these projects – I like to try and get the kids to think differently about crafts :)
Some great things to try here. I love the little bag made from the jeans pocket, what a great way to recycle old clothes. My daughter would love that, she has a huge bag collection and I’m sure she’s love to add to it. Love the cork crafts but I don’t have many corks at home, most of the wine I buy has a screw lit these days!
It is a surprise now if you have to find a corkscrew for a bottle of wine isn’t it? (and a pain!). I always keep any corks I come across now :)
These are fantastic ideas. I have loads of nail polishes I never use. Now I know what to do with them.
We have a habit of buying random nail polishes in colours that would never suit us lol, it’s a great way to use them up and I also use them to paint on jam jar lids if I want to re-purpose them :)
Sarah, That sheep is the cutest! What a great list of crafts to do with youngsters. You and your kiddos have so much fun!
Enjoy your week.
Lynn
Thanks Lynn, I love the sheep too – he was one of the first crafts we did for the blog, and is our Craft Invaders Sheep :)
What fab crafts! Love the pocket purse and the magazine basket, simple yet really effective!
Will be pinning for later, thanks for sharing :) x
Thanks for pinning Jayne, let me know how you get on if you try any of them :)
This looks fun! Reminds me when I was in College we had to do some recycling. I really loved what you made with the kids. I’m feeling inspired and I feel like I should do some recycling DIY. :D
I see some fabulous recycled crafts on other blogs, these are all pretty simple but are fun to do :)
Love the bottle garden. That’s such a cute idea and something I’d love to do with Erin down the line
The kids loved making theirs, and have updated (added random objects) to them since :)
We have 4 weeks ahead of us for the summer holidays so I definitely need to try some of these. Recycled crafts are always my favorite because I hate waste (and spending loads of money :p) These are fab – The purses are my favorite but I think my little man will like the bottle garden best!
My kids get bored so quickly in the holidays, if I don’t come up with a few ideas for them – and it does all get expensive. Let me know how you get on if you try any of them Charlotte :)
These are some great ideas. Quite a few I’ve never heard of before, I love finding new craft ideas.
Jordanne || Thelifeofaglasgowgirl.co.uk
That’s great to hear Jordanne, because we try and come up with things that are a bit original. Let me know if you try any of them :)
These are really lovely ideas! Love the terrarium idea, so good. Might just give that a go xx
The kids loved making the terrariums, and they both had such different ideas on what they wanted theirs to look like :)
This is so cool! My favorite is definitely printing with the loom bands. I never would have thought of that. The design looks so interesting!
I was so pleased when I thought up the loom band idea, we still have zillions though so really need to think up a few more :)
These are great ideas! The cork sheep are adorable!!
Thanks Jessica – we love the sheep too, that’s how he became the Craft Invader Sheep :)
Such a fun collection! These are great crafts. :) Pinning for future reference!
Thanks Sarah Eliza, they’re perfect for a rainy afternoon because most people will have all the stuff needed at home already :)