If you are looking for a great gift for boys or girls ages 5 through 10, a recycled art gift box makes a great birthday, Christmas, or other holiday present. By assembling a few items, you can bring hours and hours of fun to your recipient's weekends and evenings!
Instructions
1. *Save Clean Packaging and Other Recycled Items
To prepare your gift, you'll first need to begin saving items about two or three months ahead of time. You are looking to save items that can be used in recycled collages, jewelry, sculpture, or other artwork. The following items make great additions to recycled art boxes:
bubble wrap
styrofoam pieces
egg cartons (paper and/or styrofoam)
styrofoam peanuts or "chips"
corrugated cardboard scraps
thin cardboard boxes of different sizes
plastic clamshell packaging
newspaper
clean bottles and jars
2. *Purchase Storage Container(s)
The first thing you should do is purchase one or two plastic storage containers or bins for your art supplies. For the best possible organization, buy the following:
one large three-drawer plastic storage organizer
one large plastic storage box with lid
one small set of Gladware or Ziploc medium-sized plastic storage containers
You will fill the storage items with your supplies. The large lidded storage container should hold the recycled items you've collected--just be sure that they are all clean and dry before placing them inside the lidded box.
3. *Fill Storage Drawers and Smaller Storage Containers with Purchased Art Supplies
After getting recycled items together, supplement them with some or all of the following:
masking tape, transparent tape, and double stick tape
glue and glue sticks
glue dots
glue gun and sticks (depends on age of the child)
crayons
craft paint and brushes
markers
black Sharpie (depends on age of the child)
pom poms
chenille stems of various colors (pipe cleaners)
feathers
google eyes
large beads
yarn, twine, and fishing line
foam shapes
foam letters
paper coffee filters
felt of various colors
white paper plates
dried pasta of various shapes including the alphabet
stencils
white typing paper
colored construction paper
white card stock
pad of drawing paper
saran wrap and aluminum foil
pack of colored scrap paper
colored foil paper or other patterned paper
Most of the items can be purchased at Wal-Mart craft aisles, Target kids craft aisles, Toys R Us, dollar stores, and craft stores. The key is to buying inexpensive items. Much of the fun of making recycled art comes from transforming cheap items into elaborate, beautiful art.
Place these items inside drawers; open some items and combine in smaller plastic containers. Be sure to leave one or two small plastic containers empty so that they can be filled with opened packages later.
4. *Add Special Touches to your Recycled Art Gift
For an extra-special gift, type up a list of ideas or include ideas written on some of the items in the box. You can also purchase recycled art or craft books for kids from a bookstore and include one inside the box.
Look for art dough and papier mache recipes; include ingredients measured out in Ziploc bags and place in the box.
Make a few sample art items to include in the box. For example, make a clamshell packaging aquarium by gluing colored pasta aquarium "sand" in bottom of container and suspending paper "fish" from fishing line. Glue packaging shut and cover sides with black paper to make a simulated aquarium. Other items to make for examples include masks, jars covered with torn masking tape and painted, and animal sculptures formed from recycled materials attached with masking tape that are later painted.
A recycled art craft box is a great gift that kids of many different ages will love to get. Even if the recipient receives other art supplies, chances are that your gift will be unique and well received. Since art supplies are "consumable", kids can never have too many of them. Organizing them into compartments makes them extra-special and something the child's parents can also appreciate.
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