Recycle, eh

A cardboard box is easily the most versatile recycling material (and I love it because it's almost always free). This was brought home to me when, at his 2nd birthday party, the little guy played with the boxes his gifts came in. In fact, any cardboard box seems to stoke his imagination, especially if he can climb inside. A box becomes a plane, a train, storage for his stuffed toys, a drawing table, a stool (with the bottom reinforced with more cardboard), and anything else he can dream up.

So it comes as no surprise to me that some clever folks out there in internet land have great ideas to continue this tradition. Here are a few that I found. Visit the sites for instructions.

Green Grocer Store

Lier of Ikat Bag made this adorable green grocery store – something every little kid I know would love to have. I love that she included fruit and veggies in the boxes in front of the little store.

Suitcases

Don't you just love these little nesting suitcases, also from Lier of Ikat Bag. She's even added little buckle closures and handles to each one and included little passports for each of her little travelers. I like these suitcases so much that I plan on making some for myself for storage!!

Kitchen and Bedroom

Leni  Chan and her son created this kitchen and bedroom from cardboard boxes. They also have plans to add on a bathroom.

Castle

Who wouldn’t want a castle of their own? Christiane Lemieux, the founder and creative director of DwellStudio shares this one that was designed and built by her two young children. Complete instructions and photos over at Built by kids.

Parking Garage

Something  from La Factoria Plastica I will definitely make for the little guy. He's got a collection of little cars that will fit neatly inside this cute little garage. 

A little while ago I promised to post the tutorial for making my recycled magazine cake toppers (cupcake picks) - whatever you call them. No printers or photocopying required. I'm showing floral toppers/picks here but you can choose any illustration or picture you like. For example, my little friend, Sam, made a whole bunch with car pictures - you know where his heart is!! With Halloween coming you'll find lots of great illustrations and pictures you can use for any treats you'll be making (or, like me, buying!!). Enjoy!!

What you will need

• Magazines, junk mail, old calendars, etc
• Cereal or other food cardboard boxes 
• Wooden skewers, popsicle sticks or thin twigs (cleaned, or course)
• Glue stick 
• Clear sticky tape
• Scissors

How to do it

1. Cut out your pictures removing as much of the background as possible.

2. Glue picture to the printed side of the cardboard with the glue stick.

3. Smooth the picture out with your fingers and then cut it out as shown in the photo. 

4. Stick the wooden skewer to the back of the cut-out using the sticky tape.

I'll try to remember to put up the foldable vase tutorial tomorrow.

Doing pop-up paper party workshops can be a lot of fun. Without boasting (well, yeah, I am), my workshops tend to be a lot of fun because really they're magical! I get participants making wonderful stuff from nothing.

Two that I recently did (both in Quebec) showed participants how to save a bundle and time by making their own party decorations by the recycling of magazines and cardboard (two of my most favourite raw materials). And here are a few of the things we made: floral cake toppers (or cupcake picks)  to decorate cakes and cupcakes, foldable vases, rosette garlands, and paper hats. You'll never guess what the party hat tassels are made of!

We also made goodie bags and tags as well as bunting. All this from old magazines and cereal cardboard boxes. The cost? Only about $2.50 (for wood skewers and glue sticks for both workshops). Everything else was free.

 To recycle magazines into bags and tags as well as gift wrap, go here. I'll be putting tutorials for the other party decorations shortly so you can make them at home. 

My recycling workshops are starting up again. I meant to hold these earlier but the hot, humid weather we've been having here in Ottawa kept me lying flat out in front of the fan most days. I only ventured out early in the morning for supplies, scuttling back to my fan as fast as the heat let me.

Any road, the workshops are on - ta da!! And the very first one is a pop-up recycling paper and card workshop. We'll be turning old maps, newspapers, leftover gift wrap, and paper grocery bags, cardboard food boxes, etc. into fabulous party decorations - flowers, pinwheels, bunting garlands, hats, cones, table settings. We might even toss in an old potato for print making!!!

The workshops are over for Summer 2011!

Summer means sailing to me. Days spent on the river on our lovely sailboat, Zoordan, my daughter and her friends building sand castles on the beach and collecting clam shells to turn into 'butterflies'. Making small toy sailboats to race from whatever material they could find.

Lilla from Lilla Design makes really cute sailboats from milk cartons for her own kids. The instructions are in Swedish but you can use Google Translate to switch over to English. The pictures are so clear, however, you probably won't have to.

This is a great way to give milk cartons a second life. If you use milk paint instead of traditional paint you can toss it in the recycle bin once the boats get too banged up to sail. You can make your own but, because the homemade recipe requires lime, I think it's safer to just buy it. Ask your local paint shop if they carry it. Companies such as Farrow & Ball make milk paint so they should have it in stock. If not , you can buy it online sites such as The Real Milk Paint Co. 

DLTK Kids also has the makings for a Spanish galleon. Have fun!

Talk about recycling clever! Ann Wood recycles paper and cereal cardboard boxes into amazing little paper mache sailboats. Here are the lnstructions and template so you can make your very own.

No paper or cardboard on hand?  You can use the template, and use scraps of fabric and mod-podge them onto the base of the boat instead (I would use plain old craft glue as I never buy mod-podge).

Photos annwood.net