Dotted Easter Egg

Here's a fun way to improve fine motor skills and have fun with the hole-punch dots I've suggested you save. Materials: hole-punch dots, paper, scissors, glue.
1. Cut out an egg shape from white paper.
2. Make tiny glue dots where you want hole-punch dots to go.
3. Carefully place the hole-punch dots on the glue dots.

Create words, shapes or patterns.

Make Your Own Glitter and Add it to a Shape

Roll the wrapper.

 Any shiny candy wrapper will do. After you have wiped off any extra chocolate or residue, simply roll the wrapper. Cut into the folds to make a sort of pom-pom. Then, cut across the pom-pom tails and catch the cut pieces in a lid. Scoop all the pieces into an empty, clear container until you're ready to use them. When you're ready to use the glitter, simply put down some glue and shake out some of the glitter onto it. Allow it to dry. Here I have put some of the glitter onto a heart shape that I cut out of the side of an old envelope.

Cut the wrapper into a small pom-pom shape.

Cut across the long pieces and catch the glitter in a lid.

Shake the glitter into a clean, empty, clear container.

Use the glitter to decorate a shape you've cut out. 

Here is the green heart shape decorated with homemade glitter. 

More Fun with Old Envelopes

Cut heart shapes from edges of envelope.

Make four heart shapes of similar sizes.

Why not use some of the green envelopes you get for St. Patty's Day in much the same way you used the red ones last month? Simply cut out heart shapes from the edges of an envelope. After you have several hearts hold them together and trim them so that four are relatively the same size. Place the points of the hearts together to form a four leaf clover. Use a scrap piece to form a stem. Glue in place.

A lovely St. Patty's Shamrock from an old envelope.

Repurposing Envelopes

Foil and envelopes have a lot of uses.

Brightly colored envelopes never get thrown away at my house until they have been "mined" for a few hearts. If the envelope has the added benefit of foil, that is saved too. A lot of hearts can be snipped by using the natural fold of the envelope as the center line.

These hearts are then deposited in a clear zip-type bag along with other hearts, from other envelopes, to be used as needed. The foil pieces too are folded and cut into hearts (or other shapes).

It doesn't take long to collect a lot of very colorful shapes. As Valentine's Day approaches, think of the fun children will have creating pictures and Valentine cards with all the bright--and shiny--hearts you've stored away in that zip bag.

Free-hand cut or trace and cut.

Soon you'll have lots of colors and sizes from very little material.

Cut out around your first cut, again and again.

Open them to reveal the hearts.

You might also try looping some of the open hearts together by cutting one heart and lacing it through another one. Then, tape the cut to close the heart again. Lace another and another in the same fashion. Soon you will have a lovely Valentine mobile.

One heart laced through another one.

Several laced together.

My "To and From" Tags for Next Year

Before

Had a chance to sit down and repurpose more of the Christmas cards. Thought I'd share the results to show a few more of the many cool "to and from" tags I'll now have for Christmas this year. It's fun to see what cool shapes and designs you can make from the cards. Next--the envelopes!

After

Trash to Treasure "To and From" Tags

Christmas is over, the New Year has begun. Time to discard all those beautiful Christmas cards and greetings. Don't you just hate to throw away all that beautiful art work? Well, don't! Now is the time to make "to and from" tags from all those pretty cards.

 All you will need is the card fronts, scissors, a hole punch and string, ribbon or yarn.
1. Gather together the card fronts. 2. Cut the pictures, etc. into pleasing shapes. 3. Hole punch the new "To and From"card. 4. Lace yarn, string or ribbon through the hole. 5. Write To and From on the back or leave them blank. 6. Store them away for next Christmas--it will be here before you know it!

You may even want to store the cards in one of the pretty, colorful envelopes that housed one of the cards you received.

As you can see, sometimes you will be able to cut several tags from one card front.




I'm always pleased to have so many nice "To and From" tags ready for the next year. Also, this is a fun activity to do with children as they like to find the most pleasing part to cut out and keep.

Using the "Leftover" Felt

 They don't call me The Trash to Treasure Teacher for nothing. . .

Here's a craft using the leftover pieces from cutting out the names of my grand daughters for the top of their dress-up boxes.

Any time you've used sticky back felt and have some scraps leftover, consider one of these activities:

1. Peel the pieces from the backing and adhere them to a piece of paper.

2. Turn the shapes into something by drawing and adding to them with a marker or crayons.

Or,

1. Look at the leftover shapes and decide if they remind you of something. If they do, arrange them in a way to develop a picture using the pieces.

2. Use marker or crayon to fill in the missing components to the picture.
On the first picture, the shapes made for a silly bunch of imaginary animals.

On the second picture, the one scrap piece looked a lot like a cap and one piece looked like a foot, another like small waves or sand peeks--and the one piece resembled a mustache. I put the pieces in place and then decided on the other features.