Upcycling Crafts for Kids: Winter
We’ve partnered with Tracy Williams from the Howard County Recycling District, on a series of fun crafts that encourage upcycling items that may be recycled or mistakenly thrown away at your house. Here you’ll find photos and step-by-step instructions for a simple craft you can create together with your family. This craft was inspired from an article by Sam with Simple Everyday Mom and took us about an hour to make in addition to drying time.
TKP Photo | Alli Lee
Supplies You’ll Need:
A recyclable egg carton
White craft paint and brushes
Scissors
Fabric (cut into strips)
Googly Eyes
Pipe Cleaners
Pom Poms
Glue
Optional an not pictured: crayons or markers or buttons
TKP Photo | Alli Lee
Cut out and paint your snowmen white
To keep things safe and speed up craft time, and adult can cut an egg carton into quarters to make up to four snowmen. Count three egg holders in a row and cut or trim off the excess parts. This makes each part of your snowmen. Paint the carton piece white to look like a fresh winter snow. It may take a few layers of paint to achieve a bright white look.
Pro-tip: use acrylic or any water based paint so you can eventually recycle your crafts.
TKP Photo | Alli Lee
2. Decorate your snowmen
Here is where your family can get creative! You can choose to color, or decorate your snowmen however you’d like. Look around the how and see what extra or unwanted items you can add to your crafts. I suggested simply drawing buttons, but we found some old replacement buttons that we could glue on the snowmen instead. Using white school glue, we applied glue to the top of the bottom two egg holders and added buttons.
TKP Photo | Alli Lee
3. Make a face
What is a craft without googly eyes? We gave or snowmen eyes, a pointy nose, and a mouth by using adhesive googly eyes and markers we had at home. You can also be creative with this and use other items around the house including small buttons, beads, foam, or construction paper.
TKP Photo | Alli Lee
4. Add some winter accessories
It’s cold outside and that’s the way snowmen like winter time. I cut a strip of fabric (about 8 inches in length) to be used as a scarf. One simple knot works well and you can glue it for extra security. We then used a small portion of a pipe cleaner and two pom-poms to make ear muffs. To keep the earmuffs on we continued to use regular school glue. It was important the let the snowmen rest after this step so their ear muffs didn’t fall off.
Imagine what fun you could have making a hat, coat, arms or more for your recycled snowman!
TKP Photo | Alli Lee
5. Have some Winter fun!
Now that your snowmen are finished your family can enjoy them, by playing pretend with magical stories or adding a way to hang them up as a decoration. Whatever you decide. Upcycling crafts are a fun way to get creative with your kids and learn more about recycling and recyclable products.
Photo Provided | Howard County Recycling District
Tracy Williams, Education Coordinator of the Howard County Recycling District, shared that it can be fun to repurpose items like egg cartons.
“Fiberboard egg cartons are one of the most versatile products in the recycling bin. Not only are they easily recycled as long as they are clean, but they also have many other uses! Check out this article from Eggcartons.com for some examples.”
We’d love to see how your snowmen turn out! Tag us on Facebook or leave a comment below about your favorite family upcycling crafts. What should we upcycle next?
