Craft Your Way to a Lighter Wastebasket — Friends of Rye Nature Center

— Amanda Schuster, Environmental Educator

The last few weeks at home have been an interesting insight into the kinds of waste my household generates. We’ve been having take-out delivered on occasion in our attempt to support local restaurants; the amount of packaging generated in this community effort has been a bit overwhelming. Add this to the normal amount of recycling produced and it’s easy to feel overrun. Items that I normally would toss into the recycling bin or garbage without much thought are now grabbing my attention (toilet paper rolls, anyone?). A new challenge for myself has become a bit of a game—what can be created with the accumulated materials?

Inspired by these early weeks of spring, I put together a flower mobile using a few recyclable items, a natural item, and some basic craft supplies. Gather these materials for yourself and use the instructions below for inspiration to make your own!

Materials You Will Need:

Egg carton (I used cardboard, but plastic can work too!)
Toilet paper or paper towel tubes
A way to color your carton and tubes: paint, markers, crayons, colored pencils-whatever you have and/or prefer!
String, yarn, ribbon, embroidery floss or thread
A sturdy stick to be the top part of your mobile
Scissors

Step One

Cut apart your egg carton to create flowers. Create petals with straight or curved cuts.

Step Two

Add color to your pieces. I used watercolor paints and colored pencils.

Step Three

Cut open toilet paper tubes and color with your supplies. Cut leaf shapes from the colored tubes.

Step Four

Cut lengths of your chosen material to thread your flower and leaf pieces onto. I used embroidery floss.

Step Five

Thread your pieces and tie knots under each piece to keep them in place. You can also use buttons.

Step Six

Attach your flowers to something, I used a stick, to hang and enjoy!

Check back over the next few weeks for more craft projects using items like egg cartons, toilet paper tubes, clear #6 plastic, bottle caps, security envelopes, and so on! We hope you will release your inner artist and share your creations with us by tagging @RyeNatureCenter on Facebook or Instagram!