Wait! Don't Throw That Away!

If you know me at all, you know that I'm very much into recycling. It is something easy we can all do and it makes a huge impact.

Along with recycling come the ideas of reducing and reusing. I'm always trying to think how I might be able to re-purpose items that are typically thrown away. (You'd be surprised at how many ways I can re-use a cereal box!)

Last spring I came across a blog post with instructions for making your own shrinky dinks using #6 plastic. We've made them half a dozen times since and it's GREAT fun. Click here for the tutorial!

#6 plastic is most commonly used in deli packaging. Strawberry containers and lettuce clamshells are items I routinely save for this craft. I recently happened upon a gold mine of #6 plastic at the girls' elementary school. Every day, the cafeteria serves salad as a lunch option. The top of the salad box is perfect for shrinky dinks. I try to remember on days I'm at school over the lunch period to go in with my scissors and cut the tops off of the containers (that would otherwise get thrown away *cringe*). Here are a few that I had leftover from a Brownie craft last fall.

I thought about writing out the Shrinky Dink instructions for you--complete with pictures--but this tutorial is great, so why ruin a good thing?

Here are a few of the Shrinky Dinks we made this morning. (LOVED having the day off from school!)My kids like to make tags for their backpacks, charms for bracelets, and other imaginative designs.

We used this idea with Abbey's Brownie troop last fall and made simple bracelets as part of our Art-to-Wear try it and were able to reinforce the "use resources wisely" part of the Girl Scout law.

Another great craft idea that re-purposes something you'd ordinarily throw away are these fun rings.
You use the pull-tabs from half-n-half cartons (or lemonade). The ring part slips over your finger and you decorate the top of the tab. We've used glue and glitter, beads, rhinestones, markers, and feathers to make our rings. The possibilities are endless. I would advise tacky glue if you're using beads or rhinestones as they tend to be heavy.

Have fun!!!!!!!