Recycled Craft Projects for Earth Day

I am always up for a good craft project, and most of the time they seem pretty simple because you can just head to the store and buy the necessary items you will need, however for Earth Day craft projects, to do that would be to defeat any purpose of Earth Day.

Earth Day's main reason for being around is to gain knowledge and show you can about your planet. Recycling bottles and paper into the right bins at home is great. Turning off and unplugging all your electronic items are another great idea for Earth Day as well, but to really show you care about the planet, why don't you take those recycled items (or they may be trash to you) and put them to great use and come up with a great Earth Day Recycled Craft Project!

I have a few great ideas for you that I have used in the passed and currently use to this day! Lets get started with some great simple craft projects for you to do!

Recycled Food Magnets:

No, I am not telling you to place that chicken leg from dinner two days ago on the fridge for decoration! That would be just nasty, however this idea comes from those empty packages you are about to throw away. Some empty packages you may use are juice boxes (you know, the ones kids take to school for lunch), empty raisin boxes, empty candy bar wrappers and the list can go on. You get the point now to what you may use, however I am going to go into detail with one of those ideas and that is the empty raisin boxes, so you can get an idea on how to use it as a magnet.

Empty Raisin Box Magnet
1. Take a small magnet and hot glue it inside the raisin box. A really great way to get small magnets is when you have an refrigerator magnet that has broken and you are about to throw it away, just take the magnet off of the back and use it for this project!

2. Use a thin strip of hot glue inside the box to secure the lid shut. Be careful you do not use a lot of glue because it will leak threw the box or run out the sides and bottom.

3. Shut the lid slowly and softly so you do not crush the box. You want to make it look like you have never opened this item!

4. Allow the glue to dry for at least an hour and hang it up on the fridge!

Lazy Boy Pillows:

This idea is one of my absolute favorites! My mother-in-law came up with the idea a few years ago and never really how knew how recycled it was until she told me what the material she used to make this project. The town where she lives has a Lazy Boy furniture store. She was in there one day searching around for a new couch when she saw a box of old sample patterns sitting outside the door when she walked in. The samples were perfectly cut in the size of 15 inches by 20 inches, a great throw pillow size. She asked a worker there what they were going to do with all those samples of fabric and they told her they were just going to throw them away because they have discontinued those patterns and colors. She asked if she could have them, and they told her yes, no charge! Since the amount of patterns she had was a variety of colors and designs she was able to always find two matching sample pieces. The one piece might be a green and white strip and the other piece was a solid green piece. She decided to use them together and make her a pillow. All you need to do is first try to contact a Lazy Boy store for the same items they maybe throwing away and then follow the instructions below!

1. Take two pieces of sample fabric and them put them together. Make sure each side is the one you want showing.

2. Sew a simple stitch around the outer edges of the fabric. Do not sew it exactly at the edge but go in about one inch.

3. Before sewing up the last (fourth side) insert an old throw pillow into the case now and then sew the final side up.

4. After all sides are sewed together, beat the pillow until it is flat and not wrinkled from scrunching it together to sew. Now you have a Lazy Boy throw pillow!

Muffin Melted Crayons:

Do you have kids like me that enjoy coloring, and who seem to break a box a crayons a week or two because they can not understand that they do not have to press down on the crayon so hard? I got so sick of throwing crayons away every week and having to buy a new pack of crayons just to replace the ones my son just broke. I know crayons don't cost that much, however, it is the mere purpose of trying to teach them a lesson and to stop wasting away things all the time! So I decided to start recycling these broken crayons into Muffin Shaped Crayons!

1. First of all you need to gather all the broken crayons that you can find and separate them into the same color piles. If you have a dark blue and a light blue color then just put them into the same pile. To me, blue is blue right?

2. Tear off any access paper and break the crayons down to no more then one inch long.

3. Take a mini muffin pan (one you do not mind getting crayon on) and fill the muffin holes on the pan with the crayons.

4. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees and place the mini muffin pan filled with crayons in the oven for no more then 10 minutes. You do not want to back the crayons, just simply melt them down. Keep an eye on the mixture of crayons and once they have been melted take them out of the oven.

5. Place them in the freezer for about 30 minutes. This will cool them down and mold to the muffin shape faster.

6. Take a butter knife and slowly go around the edge of the new crayon shape in the mini muffin pan. The crayon should be cold enough to where it will just pop out for you!

The best part about this project is, when these new melted crayons get broken, you can do it all over again! Talk about saving a little money!