Easy Kid's Crafts from Recycled Items

You don't need to make a trip to the craft store when you are looking for crafts to do with your children. Look no further than your own home for items that you would normally throw out. Follow these suggestions and use your imagination for easy, inexpensive crafts.

Empty Coffee and Tin Cans. Pencil holders, banks, and hair brush holders are a snap to make with these items. Clean the cans thoroughly and then get started. Make a slit in the top of the coffee can and you have the beginning of a homemade bank. Use wrapping paper, construction paper, or pictures cut out of magazines to decorate the sides. Use the same materials to decorate your tin cans and you can make a pencil or hairbrush holder. These can be kept for your own enjoyment or offered as gifts for Mother's or Father's Day.

Terra Cotta Pots. These can be painted and then used to store paintbrushes, seed packets or small gardening tools.

Empty Milk Jugs And Soda Bottles. Add some water, glitter, and food coloring to your soda bottle and you have a lovely homemade snow globe. Your child will delight in shaking it and turning it upside down. Leave them on a windowsill to catch the sunlight. Cut off the bottom of the soda bottle and fill with bird feed. Place in your yard and watch your feathered friends visit for a snack. Turn your milk jug on it's side and use pink construction paper to make a pig.

Empty Paper Towel And Toilet Paper Rolls. Make a pretend campfire by taping the paper towel rolls together cross wise and attaching some red construction paper "flames". Sit around your campfire and tell ghost stories. Toilet paper rolls make great binoculars for your little explorer. Make a few pairs by taping them together and then go outside to watch the birds.

Paper Plates. Paper plates make great masks. Color in the face, attach some yarn for hair and glue a Popsicle stick to the back for a holder.

Clothes Hangers. Make a fun mobile in whatever theme you choose. Draw or cut out pictures and make a small hole in the top. Use string to attach the pictures to the hanger and then hang from the ceiling or a doorknob.