Summer Fun: Recycling Bug

A while back in school my son's class was asked to make litter bugs. They had to use items around the house that could be recycled. I save random stuff all the time because I love to be crafty and I can always find uses for most things I save. My husband however would say differently. 

This project was so much fun putting things together and making something so cute and fun. 

This project was made using a water bottle, milk tops, kleenex box, dixie cup, magazine pages, hot glue and googly eyes. 

We cut the the bottle in half and used a page of a magazine to stuff the top. Then I hot glued the dixie cup to the top of the bottle on the inside. I then glued the bottle of them bottle back other the dixie cup. 

The kleenex box was used to make the wings. The feet are made from several milk tops and the face too. I took a red milk top and cut out a smile for the bugs mouth. 

There are so many great items you can use to create a bug. Dig through the trash can and recycling bin and get your crafty ideas going. It's so much fun to see what can be created with trash. 

Crafts: 7 Mother's Day Presents You Can Make

Happy Mother's Day!

Celebrate Mother's Day making your own special artwork. Here are several ways to say I love you.

Make pretty flowers using a stalk of celery. It's fun and turns out beautiful. I think any mother would love them.

Click here for instructions.

This is a valentine's coupon book but you can make it for mom too, just add Mother's Day Coupon Book to the front instead. Include some chores your mom would love you to do. I'm sure she will appreciate it.


Click here for instructions.

Recycle a coffee filter and make mom a whole bouquet of flowers. They would make a beautiful center piece. Grandma would love them too.

Click here for instructions.

Make a Butterfly Sun Catcher. This project will take some help from an adult but it is so wonderful and would make a really nice addition to any window. 

Click here for instructions.

A refrigerator isn't complete without a few homemade magnets. These are cute little magnets for any refrigerator. 

Click here for instructions. 

Moms love keeping journals. It's a perfect way for her to write down her thoughts and spend some quiet time.  

Click here for instructions.

Plant mom some pretty flowers she can add to her outside garden. Make sure you pick some flowers that can come back every year, that way mom can remember how much you love her each year they bloom.

Click here for instructions. 

Does your mom like to read. Here are several books that are super for any mom. Plus be sure to sign up for the giveaway while you're there.

Click here for the article and your chance to win. 

Ways to Recycle Household Items

Earth Day is Sunday. I decided it would be kind of cool to make a list of things you have around your house that you can recycle and offer some ideas on what you can do with them.  

Glass bottles – spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce jars are great for holding art supplies or making gifts. Embellish the tops and it makes it look fun and special.

Newspaper – make hats, modge podge and wrap presents.

Yogurt containers – Planting Seeds with Kids, use for dipping sauces and painting. 

Toilet paper rolls – Little People, binoculars, musical instruments and planters.

Paper towel rolls – musical instruments, kaleidoscopes and rocket ship.

Baby food containers - good for storage of nails, push pins, stickers, beads and other little things.

Formula cans – pencil holders, cookie containers for gifts, banks, storage and drums.

Milk and Water jugs – candleholders for Halloween, bird houses and robots.

2 Liter Bottles – bowling pins and science experiments.

Cans – pencil holders, storage, candleholder and luminaries.

Cereal boxes – book holders and folders. 

 T-shirts – scarves, purses and bracelets.

Spray bottles – tie-dye art, water fun and painting.

Magazines – Silly faces, collages, art work, educational crafts for kids to discover animals, letters, numbers, shapes, body parts and food.

Chip cans – Bank for kids and good for spaghetti noodle storage.  

You can also recycle clothing, toys, books, video games and electronics. There are places online and around neighborhoods that make swapping and trading fun and easy. Plus you might be able to make a little money too.

Here are some websites I’ve used to make trades and get new things for my family. This is a great way to get new items for free or cheap.

Listia – Is an online auction site that allows you to put things up for auction and people use credits to bid on it. Sometimes you can get free shipping on items and other times there is a shipping fee. There is everything available electronics, books, video games, toys and tons of other things. It’s free and you get 500 credits when you first sign up. 

Swap – An online swapping place that you can find video games, books, movies, clothing, gift cards and other things. You list what you have available and than someone else offers you a trade or barters. Make trades online or meet up with people around your area. Free to sign up and check out. 

ThredUp – A great place for parents to get clothing their children. Request a bag and fill it up with your gently used clothes and receive credit to get a bag of clothing too. 

Freecycle and Craigslist are also good places to look for items that people no longer want. Sometimes they are free or just cost a small fee. The great thing about this site it’s all local to your area.   

Check your local neighborhood for Game Stop, Half-PricedBooks or Vintage Stock. These places offer new and used items and buy your used items.

Doing My Best to Help the Planet

Holy Cow! There’s a lot of green going on. Lately it’s been crazy with Green. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is being taught to our children this week in school. My son is coming home telling me what we should recycle and all about saving our planet. I think he told me the other day that if we don’t take care of our planet, we will have to live in the water.  That’s pretty interesting coming from a 5 year old.

I know I would love to live Green. I have done some small things around my house to be more energy efficient and recycle using the blue bin that the city provides. We also clean our clothing in cold water and use our air conditioner and heater on the temperatures that we can handle to cut some cost.

It’s crazy how many things we have on our in or around our houses that take away from the planet and harm our households. I’m just now learning about all of it myself and there is a lot to learn and so much we can still change in our home. I am however not going to stress about it and I’m not going to go nuts about getting everything out of my home and start living like a scary Green person.

This week I started reading a book called “Green Mama – The Guilt-Free Guide to Helping You and Your Kids Save the Planet” by Tracey Bianchi. It’s been really eye opening for me to see what is going on around us. The chemicals we consume in our foods, to things we wear and cleaning supplies. I’m amazed at how much we don’t know about our surroundings.

The book is great for someone who is thinking about doing some changes but also offers some things for the person who really wants to go all out and be super Green. I don’t know about being super Green it seems like a big stretch to me but I wouldn’t mind implementing some more changes.

The book helps you understand the information out there and inspires you to do what you can with “Green Steps” she provides in the book. It’s filled with great resources on where you can shop and what you find online to help you make better choices for you and your family. Ideas to help guide you along the way of thinking more about our environment.

“Green Mama” makes it seems like it’s doable but also still a bit overwhelming for someone like me. I think I’ll just take one baby step at a time and every little bit I do will make a difference.

What have you done in your life or home to be better about saving our planet? Do you recycle, buy organic products, take your own bags to the grocery store?

"Green Mama" is available through Zondervan.