Easy Recycled Craft Christmas Ornaments for Kids and Adults

In this year's Christmas holiday season, we all want to save a little money, and it's also imperative these days to keep things sustainable and use materials we have on hand. In this article, you'll read two ideas for Christmas ornaments made from recycled supplies.

Cork Angels

You'll need for each project: A wine cork; some old magazines and catalogs; one large bead;6" of yarn or string; Elmer's glue, hot glue and pins or nails.

Adult help for kids: With young children, the glue and pins may need assistance. It's recommended that a large group follow all the other steps, and a helper come around to glue and pin it all together.

Directions:

First, we'll decorate the cork. Find pretty pages in the magazines or catalogs and tear them out gently, to leave the edges straight.

You'll need two half-pages plus a small strip of paper to complete the project.

First let's make the small strip of paper: measure the length of the cork, and cut a strip of paper about that wide, four inches long. Coat it in a thin layer of Elmer's glue and roll it around the cork.

Cut one half-page into a square. This should leave you with a square of paper about 5"x5". Fold it in half once, and then again - creating a triangle about 2.5" wide. Glue the folds together, so the paper stays shaped as a triangle. Set the triangle aside.

When the triangle is dry, glue it to the catalog-wrapped cork. Voila! You have the angel's skirts.

Turn your attention to the other half of the page. Take one of the shorter ends of the paper, and fold it back and forth so that it looks like an accordion or fan until the whole half-page is accordion-folded.

Take the 6" piece of yarn or string, and tie the ends in a knot. The kind of knot doesn't matter so much, as long as it holds. You should have a loop. Push the loop through the bead, so that the knot is on the lower end and the loop on the upper end of the bead. This will hang your ornament on the tree!

Now, take a pin - a T-pin or other thick, sturdy pin is recommended - and push it through the knot, then through the center of the accordion-folded paper, then through the top of the cork. Add a bead of hot glue on both sides of the accordion-folded paper to secure it to the pin, the knot, and the cork.

The accordion-folded paper should be held firmly in the middle now. Take the ends and pull the folds out, creating flared wings on each side.

Congratulations! You have a little eco-friendly angel watching over you!

Pull-tab Garlands

You'll need for each project: Soda pull-tabs, lots of them - ideally at least 35 per project. Thick string, twine or yarn.

Directions:

This project is very simple and should give you quite a sparkly result. Start with one pull-tab; pull the string through one side of the tab, and tie a knot around the outer edge. Then pull it back through the other side of the pull-tab. No need to tie a knot on the other side. Simply string the next pull-tab and tie another knot about an inch from the first knot. Continue until you run out of pull-tabs. You'll have a recycled Christmas ornament that lasts longer and doesn't shed glitter all over the house!