Do you set New Year’s resolutions? If yours are either to create less waste or be more organized, then I have a suggestion for you! We recently got the book, “Fun and Easy Crafting with Recycled Materials: 60 Cool Projects that Reimagine Paper rolls, Egg Cartons, Jars and More” written by Kimberly McLeod who created the website: https://www.thebestideasforkids.com/. Now I don’t know about you, but my kids are constantly digging into the recycling bin to source materials to create projects! As a teacher I would bring in these items and store them in a large, “Imagination Station” bin for the kids to make with and now I save recyclables for various teachers at the kids’ school. Recyclables are inexpensive and something we all have on hand. Kim’s book gives you a great starting point for the ways in which you could use these items to craft things to play with, give to friends or use for decoration or storage! When we were kids my mom had a birthday present chest. It had all sorts of items for myself and my sisters to pick from to give our friends when we got invited for a birthday and throughout the year my mom picked out items that she knew the kids in the neighbourhood were interested in or she thought would spark some sort of play or creating! (There were lots of packs of the beloved Smelly Felts!). Now today in that same chest, I do the same and store a few items for upcoming birthday parties. This allows you to get great items on sale and/or have an option for those times when a child brings home an invite for a party the next day… What you could do with Kim’s recycled craft book is pop it in a basket with scissors, glue, some construction or cardstock paper, markers, buttons, googly eyes etc., tie a ribbon on it and voila: a gift that looks lovely and gets the kids making! You could order several copies and make a few of these kits for upcoming celebrations! Thus, your potential New Year’s goal of being more organized and re-using items is attained! Here’s a sneak peek into Kimberly’s book: As you can see, we decided to make her owls with her clear, photographed instructions. These used cardboard tubes, newsprint and we had an old paper bag from the store that had a map print. We used the top of an egg carton for the wings and added the suggested embellishments to create these cute owl pals that we gave to a neighbour to play with! There are some egg carton snow people that I think we will try next! You can find it here: Canadians: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/fun-and-easy-crafting-with/9781624149085 https://www.amazon.ca/Fun-Easy-Crafting-Recycled-Materials/dp/1624149081 Americans: https://www.amazon.com/Fun-Easy-Crafting-Recycled-Materials/dp/1624149081 (Please note: We do not use affiliate links, but rather suggest items that we think readers would enjoy as much as we do!) Please like & share: Leave a Reply Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published. Name* Email* Website Comment Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.