Recycled crafts ideas

Beautiful Arts and Crafts to Create Out of Recycled Material

Arts and crafts need not involve creating items from scratch. Transformation or conversion from one form to another can be an artistic way of expression. Such as, turning household trash and waste into handy furniture or decorations. Given here are a few simple, arts and crafts techniques, that help you recycle and be creative at the same time.

Nature converts the most ordinary and downright weird objects into articles of beauty. Caterpillars become butterflies. A mighty oak appears from a tiny seed. Diamonds are formed from coal. Yet human beings tend to start with the best and brightest of ingredients, when it comes to expressing their inner artist. Why not take a leaf out of nature's book? Converting something of no use or something which should be discarded, is a great way to reduce waste and express your creativity. Recycling isn't confined to making deposits at a recycling waste center. One should learn to reutilize materials in a different manner from how they were intended to be used, to reduce waste. Turning a pile of newspapers into a figurine or using tin cans to make sculptures, follows the "reduce, reuse and recycle" motto. Plus salvaging household items for arts and crafts, is cheaper than buying expensive art supplies!

Recycled Craft Projects

All you need is one spark to start a fire. Creativity, whether your own, or encouraging it in others, works in the same manner. Once you have a basic idea, you'd be surprised at the amount of inspiring thoughts flooding your head. So to start your thinking process off, below are a few recycled craft ideas, that will help you recover your rubbish from the trash bin and turn it into art.

Floppy Disk Photo Cube

Floppy disks are one of the most discarded electronic items but they are also very useful in DIY (do-it-yourself) projects. This craft idea turns a stack of floppy disks into a small and convenient photo cube, so you can display an array of photos in a very creative manner.

You will need:

6, 3½ inch floppy disks

Glue gun

Double-sided tape

Photos

Instructions:

The idea is to construct a cube out of floppy disks. So lay one disk, index face down, on a flat surface.

Use a glue gun and attach one disk to each side and then one disk on top, to create a cube.

Cut out your photos, such that they fit in the index space of the disk.

Affix a photo to the index space of each disk, using double-sided tape.

Bottle Cap Magnets

Create your own custom fridge magnet using a small but oft-discarded object, the bottle cap. Bottle cap magnets make small but thoughtful gifts, such as a "Happy Birthday" or "Congratulations" magnet to display on the fridge. You can use a favorite photo or image as well. This is a very simple recycled kiddie craft idea but adult help and supervision is required for applying the glue.

You will need:

Transparent packing tape

Bottle cap

Glitter, sequins, beads, googly eyes etc. any small art & craft decorations

Background paper

Tacky or white craft glue

Clear sealant

½ inch-wide magnet

Hot glue to attach magnet

Instructions:

Cover the background paper on both sides, with packing tape.

Cut out a circle from the background paper, such that it will fit in the bottle cap's inside.

Fix the circle to the bottom of the cap, using the tacky glue.

Decorate the image with glitter, sequins, beads and fix them using tacky glue or clear glue.

Let the glue dry, then apply a coat of clear sealant to glaze over the surface. Now the image and its decorations are sealed within the cap.