• Featured Sponsors

  
  Recycled Paper Business Cards

  Ad Rates

• Crafty Contributor

  

• Awards

  

• Fun In The Making

  Looking for lots of crafts made from recycled materials? You’ve come to the right place. I go beyond soup can pencil holders here. It is all about greening up your crafting and moving toward a more sustainable way of living. This site is full of eco-friendly crafts for children and adults. Making use (re-use really) of otherwise unwanted materials is good for the pocketbook and good for the environment.

• Sign up for Fun in the Making Newsletter

  Email Address *
  

  First Name
  

  Last Name
  

  * = required field

  
  

  powered by MailChimp!

• Categories

  • Chickens
  • children's activities (recycled materials)
  • children's crafts (recycled materials)
  • crafts (recycled materials)
  • Eco-friendly living ideas
  • Fun In The Making elseware on the web etc.
  • furniture, redo/ upcycle
  • garden (gardening info and eco-friendly project ideas)
  • gift wrapping, eco-friendly
  • gifts from recycled materials
  • give aways
  • holiday crafts/activities: April Fool's Day
  • holiday crafts: 4th of July (recycled stuff)
  • holiday crafts: Christmas (recycled stuff)
  • holiday crafts: Easter
  • holiday crafts: Halloween (recycled stuff)
  • holiday crafts: New Year's Eve (recycled stuff)
  • holiday crafts: Peace Day (recycled stuff)
  • holiday crafts: St. Patricks Day
  • holiday crafts: Valentine's Day (recycled stuff)
  • home décor (recycle and upcycle)
  • home school
  • imaginative play
  • links
  • local environmentalism (doing our part)
  • metal cylindrical
  • Nature: plant and animal identification
  • organize
  • party décor (recycle and upcycle)
  • party favors
  • party: bridal shower
  • party: Circus
  • party: Mad Hatters Tea
  • party: robot
  • plastic
  • recipes
  • reuse containers, ice cream
  • reuse straws, plastic drinking
  • reuse "trash"
  • reuse appliances, broken
  • reuse bag, plastic mesh produce
  • reuse bags, brown paper
  • reuse beads salvaged/ vintage
  • reuse berry basket, plastic/ paper
  • reuse blankets: old or damaged
  • reuse books
  • reuse bottles, plastic
  • reuse boxes
  • reuse buttons
  • reuse calendars
  • reuse can, paint (plastic)
  • reuse cans
  • reuse cards, playing
  • reuse chopsticks
  • reuse clementine box
  • reuse cloths
  • reuse cups, tea
  • reuse dinnerware
  • reuse door, wooden garage
  • reuse down from jackets
  • reuse egg shells
  • reuse elastic bands
  • reuse electronics
  • reuse fabric from drapes or other
  • reuse fabric items
  • reuse fishing pole
  • reuse fishing wire
  • reuse flatware
  • reuse frames, picture
  • reuse game pieces
  • reuse glass bottles/ jars
  • reuse glasses/ sunglasses, vintage/ old
  • reuse handkerchiefs
  • reuse hangers, coat
  • reuse jars, spice
  • reuse jeans
  • reuse lamp or other lighting
  • reuse license plate
  • reuse magazines
  • reuse magnets, promotional flat flexible
  • reuse milk carton
  • reuse panty hose/ tights
  • reuse paper
  • reuse paper printed material
  • reuse paper, brown packing
  • reuse pen, broken
  • reuse pie pan, aluminum
  • reuse plastic/ metal bottle caps
  • reuse pot, coffee
  • reuse pots, plastic plant
  • reuse sheets, bed sheets
  • reuse skis
  • reuse straws: drinking straws
  • reuse stuffing, from pillows etc.
  • reuse suitcase
  • reuse sweaters
  • reuse sweaters, wool
  • reuse thread spools
  • reuse toilet paper or paper towel rolls
  • reuse toys, small junk
  • reuse twist ties
  • reuse wood/ lumber
  • reuse wool from coats
  • reuse x-rays
  • seasonal: fall
  • seasonal: spring
  • seasonal: summer
  • seasonal: winter
  • sewing
  • tea
  • Uncategorized
  • use for dryer lint
  • use for fabric scraps
  • use for natural stuff: vines, sticks…
  • use for shells
  • use for vegetable scraps
  • use for wire scraps
  • use for yarn scraps
  • vintage
  • workshops and classes

Don’t you just love these charming can Jack O’ Lanterns? They are great. You don’t have to spend money for these fabulous fall decorations. You keep the cans from beign put in a landfill. You would not be buying something plastic which would also most likely end up in a landfill. You can reuse them year after year. And… You would have a perfect way to greet guests during your next autumn/Halloween party.

How to:

Collect used gallon sized metal paint cans. I saved these cans from when I painted my house. First you have to design the face. Next draw it on your can; I used a crayon. Then you need to make a starter hole in each section you are cutting out. Make a starter hole with a nail and a hammer. The can will have a tendency to cave in at this point so be careful. Once you get a starter hole, you can use utility snips to cut the rest. The smaller metal snips work best for me. You will want to use gloves because the metal edges will be sharp. Keep in mind that simple shapes are easier. If you keep them inside, the cans will stay silver. Over time they will rust, however,  if you leave them out in the rain. I like the way they look when they get rusty. At night you can display them with a tea light inside.

Here I have them lined up along my driveway.

Fisherman Perc

How To:
To make a fun Coffee Pot Character you need to start with an aluminum coffee pot. I found this vintage aluminum percolator coffee pot at a local thrift store.

Fisherman Perc (a pleasant old man who enjoys the quit solitude of a day spent fishing).was made with:
Salvaged bolts for eyes. Drill a hole big enough to insert the bolt. It isn’t difficult to drill through aluminum.
Black valve knob (thing-a ma-gig) was glued on to make a mustache.
Can tabs were glued on to make the ears.
A mini aluminum pie pan with an old canning lid became the hat.
An aluminum angel food cake pan / bunt pan (the center piece) made a perfect neck/ stand.
Extras: Vintage reading glasses, fishing lures, can of “worms,” and small mint tin.

Pieces needed in the assembly of Fisherman Perc.

Here is a cute koala; he is one of the robot animals I made for my daughter’s robot party. So cute you can’t help but love him. And of course, I used recycled materials.

How to:
Gather supplies. Supplies are as follows: large soup or tomato can (for the body), tuna or cat food can (for the head), bottle caps (for eyes) with washers inside, part of an imitation flower cut in half, the part that holds the petals (for the two ears), thrift store flatware (for the arms/paws), a broken tea infuser (painted black or colored with a Sharpie (for the nose), scrap white paper (for the chin patch), the top/ bottom of a cylinder such as found on tubes of frozen juice (for the belly spot).
Glue together everything except the arms and legs and the head. I like using a magnet to connect the head to the body. In this case the magnet doubles as the neck. I also used magnets on the legs/ arms and neck because a magnet allows me to change his pose.

Experiment with forks and spoons to see what you like best. You will need to bend the flatware a little to curve around the can. An adult might be needed.

You may be interested in more robot themed ideas.
Robot costume

Build a Bot: Robot Building Party Favor Game

Gossiping robots -These were made by two guests at party.

I designed this game because I wanted the kids to have something fun to do at my daughter’s 9th birthday party. In addition, I wanted to give out party favors but wanted to avoid the usual candy and plastic stuff.

Even the girls loved this robot building game. It generated lots of laughs and the kids liked that they could take their creation home.
Game rules
Using one dice, roll to see what number you get. Start with the birthday boy or girl and then continue around the table.
If you roll a one, pick out a body and pass the dice to the next player.
If it’s a two, pick out eyes and pass the dice to the next player.
If it’s a three, pick out a nose and pass the dice to the next player.
If it’s a four, pick out a head and pass the dice to the next player.
If it’s a five, pick out a mouth and pass the dice to the next player.
If it’s a six, pick out arms and pass the dice to the next player.
Bonus: If you roll the same number as the previous player, pick out an extra part. You might want to find something to be the ears, hair, eye brows…
Note: If you roll a two and you already have a set of eyes just pass on the die. There is no limit to the number of extras you can choose; as long as you are lucky enough to roll the same number as the previous player’s roll.
Game set up:
You will need to set up 7 trays; one for each number plus one more for extras. Find “trash” for the parts. Get enough for each player plus a few (for variety sake).
Body (one): olive oil cans, large cans…
Eyes (two): bottle caps, nuts, bolts, misc…
Nose (three): misc…
Head (four): cat food or tuna cans…
Mouth (five): misc.
Arms (six): thrift store silverware, electrical wire…
Extras: electronic wires,…

Robot Part Trays
Children have artistic freedom. If they want the eyes to be on the side of the head, they should put them there. These robots develop a personality of their own. Make up a name for each. The first person to finish gets a small prize. The game continues until all the guests finish their robot. Some of the bots look like robot people and some resemble animals, some are clown-like and others are aliens.
After the children have designed their robot, you will need to glue on the parts while the kids move on to another activity. I used a glue gun which worked with most of the parts (avoid really heavy items). I also used magnets to hold some of the pieces. (The head attaches well to the olive can with a magnet.)
If you want to restrict your pieces to things that a magnet will stick to, you can make a Mr. Potato Head -like toy (We named it Mr. Bolt or Mrs. Washer.)The fun being that you can rearrange the pieces to make different faces. Just glue a magnet to the back of each piece.

More robot fun coming soon.

Even the beer residue left in a can or bottle need not be wasted. In the evening, if you have an “empty” beer can or 2 or 3, try to remember to place them in your vegetable garden or among your landscape plants like hosta (slugs love to eat your hosta). During the night, slugs will go inside lured by the beer. In the morning, remove the cans from your garden. I don’t even waste the slugs because I feed them to my chickens. After shaking the slugs out, I rinse out the cans or bottles and put them in the recycle bin.

This Super -size slug was found outside my vegetable garden. Thankfully! Do you see the slime?! Check out the breathing pore.

C. Bennett wrote to let us know what kind of slug was in the above picture.

“It’s a leopard slug. Limax maximus to be precise…

I think their kinda pretty. And they eat other slugs!”

• Translate

  
  Select LanguageAfrikaansAlbanianArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarusianBulgarianCatalanChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CroatianCzechDanishDutchEnglishEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekHaitian CreoleHebrewHindiHungarianIcelandicIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseKoreanLatvianLithuanianMacedonianMalayMalteseNorwegianPersianPolishPortugueseRomanianRussianSerbianSlovakSlovenianSpanishSwahiliSwedishThaiTurkishUkrainianUrduVietnameseWelshYiddish

• Search

   

• Sponsors

• Support Fun In The Making

  

  Like what you see? Consider donating a dollar. If you get project ideas throughout the year consider giving $10.

• Got Questions?

  Are you having any trouble understanding some of the instructions? Feel free to send me a quick e-mail at HesterJane@FunInTheMaking.net. I’ll do my best to answer your questions. Do you have any suggestions regarding a specific post? Maybe you have a better way and would like to share it with the other creative people visiting this site? -Hester Jane