Friday, February 18, 2011

Recycled Plastic Shopping Bag Holder

Our activity days group which are 8 and 9-year-old girls did an activity with empty "Clorax or Lysol" wipes containers.  We were talking about recycling and the importance of recycling and repurposing items. 

Scrapbook paper scraps were used to decorate the container.  These cute containers were repurposed and used to hold  and organize the plastic shopping bags that you get when you go grocery shopping (if you are not using your earth-friendly totes). 

In order to create these you will need an empty large Clorax wipe container, some scrapbook or patterned papers, a strong adhesive and some embellishments (I used ribbon, brads and a paper flowers).


This is how my container turned out; at the activity each girl was able to personalize her own container.




Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Classroom Valentines

Classroom Valentines are so much fun for the kids to make. I have to rack my brain every year to think of something unique and creative for the kids to do because they think the "store bought" version of the Valentines are boring.


This year my preschooler and kindergartner are doing airplanes for their Valentines. We have to have things that are not too "girly" since I have three boys. So here is what we came up with. I am sad to say again this is not my original creation, but I tweaked it a little to fit our needs. I got the idea from the family fun website.

Here is what I came up with:









In order to make these Valentine planes you will need a package of Smarties candy (we got the big ones in the Valentine packaging called Love hearts, but you can use the regular size as well)
You will also need a stick of gum and a rubber band or hair band (I bought the clear hair bands because they were cheaper and the right size).
Some packages of gum have the white wrappers around them that you can stamp directly on the wrapper (the gum that I bought in the big package did not so I made my own wrappers our of the CTMH B&T paper from the new Sweetheart Level 2 paper pack X7134B )
Simply cut the papers to fit around the stick of gum and then stamp as desired or just use the pattern on the paper).
Wrap the band around the wings and the Smarties to attach and then cut or punch out a heart for the back wings.


Your finished product will be a Valentine airplane perfect for sharing with friends and classmates. The card that we are giving with the airplane treat says: "Valentine, you are just "plane" cool".