the {upcycled & recycled} Classic Egg Carton Caterpillar!

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Hi all!

We’ve been crafting it up this month. Mainly because it’s fun and the eco tot really loves to express himself through art! We’ve been reading The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. I grew up reading Eric Carle books so naturally I’d like my boys to experience the same stories, The morning we did this craft we chalked a picture of the caterpillar turning into a butterfly on the board. We also read with the story via you tube!

The eco tot would prefer it if the hungry caterpillar stayed in his true form rather then turn into a butterfly. He’s not a huge fan of that part of the story. He told me that “Sam” (caterpillar he made) would not turn into a butterfly.

We reused an egg carton and newspaper for this craft. The newspaper served as a tablecloth. We haven’t managed to get any eco friendly paints but I’m hoping that once these Crayola paints run low we can try out an eco brand! For now, we just use the basics!

Today, we did some onion painting … and potato prints (which btw, potato printing, is super fun & I’m planning a project for the eco tot’s birthday!).  I didn’t take any pics yet… but most of our ideas and inspiration come from a very neat & educational site called No Time For Flash Cards.

What I love best about Allie’s site is that a lot of the crafts reuse items from the kitchen or around the house! Which is right up our eco alley.

My son adores her site and loves to sing the Owl song A LOT!!

Happy New Year again!!!

the {upcycled & recycled} New Green Mama

Awhile back when I was ventured out in this bloggy blog world I came across a blogspot called New Green Mama!

Jen from New Green Mama is the upcycling queen! She’s recently been featured in Stuffed and Green Craft Magazine. She upcycles wool sweaters and makes unique felted coffee cup cozies & owls. Even more recently, she’s made cozies for Klean Kanteens too!  Jen can re purpose just about anything and as I’m visiting her site to link up- whatta ya know? A tutorial for a cereal box shipping envelope! Genius.

You can find her shop on Etsy.com Second Chance Studio

Jen’s handmade work rocks!  Support handmade this Christmas!

Did I just say Christmas? Forgive me, it’s an eco challenge – worth looking into.

Halloween is just around the corner. Have you been thinking on ideas or way to re use items around your house to dress up?

Check out this article at E Magazine,

The Top 10 Plastic Bag Costumes: Put That Excess Plastic to use this Halloween.

Have a lovely weekend!

the {upcycled & recycled} Kid Art

The past couple of weeks I’ve been in such a crafty mood. It must be the cool crisp air getting to me! I’m beginning to  LOVE the world of kid’s crafts and realize I only know a speck of what is out there for my child to learn. With learning in mind I like to provide opportunities for a lot of creative play + playing outdoors. My son mentioned he wanted to paint one afternoon and it turned out to be such a great idea even with our limited art supplies.  He really enjoys the different textures paint offers and loves to rub it everywhere on the paper including his arms!

We usually do it outside where I hose/wipe him down in the sunshine. It’s pretty windy where we live so in the cooler months we’ll have to be inside. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks we can start working on the outbuilding  and begin to shift it into our school room. It’s going to be a fun project for us. So, if any of you homeschooler’s or unschooler’s shall I say – have any tips or ideas on decor/supplies please feel free to share. I’m pretty sure were going with a Waldorf based curriculum.

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