Mother's going GREEN Day 101 - Children's Eco-Craft

For today's craft was inspired by a science experiment that I did way back in high school - making sugar crystals. Taking this a step further we are going to make the crystals on sticks to form a sugar stir stick or rock candy. The picture shown is not the end result of my personal craft today as it will take 2 to 3 weeks to get large crystals.

Sugar Crystal Stir Stick

You will need:

-- 1 cup of granulated sugar (ours sugar is a light caramel colour as it is organic sugar, but regular white granulated sugar will do.)

-- 1/2 a cup of tap water

-- 2 sticks (I used a wood skewer cut into 2)

-- string

-- pot to boil sugar and water

-- container to grow the crystals (I used an old jam jar - choose a container that you can see through so you can monitor the progress of your crystals without disturbing them)

Directions (with an adults help if required):

-- Soak the sticks in tap water remove from water.

-- Cover the lower 2/3 of the stick with a light coating of granulated sugar.

-- Allow to dry (this will help the crystallized sugar to stick better to the stick).

-- In a pot boil your 1/2 cup of water and your cup of sugar, until the sugar is dissolved.

-- Once dissolved pour mixture into your container where you will 'grow' the crystals.

-- Allow the liquid to cool until it reaches room temperature.

-- Suspend the 'sugar coated' sticks into the sugar/water mixture (I tied strings around the top of the sticks and hung them in the water, taping the ends of the string to the side of the jar).

-- It is important that the sticks do not touch the bottom of the container and should be about 1 inch to 2 inches apart (again our liquid is a caramel colour because of the organic sugar being used).

-- Cover the container with a paper towel (we opted to use a cloth napkin).

-- Place the container in a secure place where it will not get disturbed.

-- After 24 hours who will see small crystals start to form and after 2 to 3 weeks you will see the larger crystals appear.

-- Once your crystals have reached the desired size, remove them from the liquid and allow to dry.

You can then loosely wrap them in cellophane wrap with a pretty bow and give it as a gift to someone. They can use it as a sugar stir stick in their coffee.

Better yet just keep it and eat it. Rock Candy.

If you would like to make colour crystals just add food colouring to the warm mixture before it cools. We chose to keep ours natural.

I will post a picture of our "actual results" - once our crystals have formed.

Mother's going GREEN Day 94 - Children's Eco-Craft

Since I have been talking about hemp I figured we could make some hemp jewelry and such. I have chosen to make a bracelet and/or key chain.

Hemp Bracelet and/or Key chain

You will need:

--Stands of Hemp

-- Beads

-- Key ring (if you chose the key chain)

Directions (with an adults help if required):

We will be using the easiest knot in our creation the "Square Knot".

-- You will require 4 stands in total (so get 1 stand of 24" for 'filler' and fold it in half and for your working stands one strand 6' long and fold it in half).

-- With the loops of the folded stands together tie them together with a knot creating a loop. (in ours we used a bead for a fastener so we measured to make sure the bead would fit through the loop snugly when we tied the loop. (if you choose to make a key chain attach the loop to the key ring at this point).

-- The 2 shorter strands are your filler stands and they are to remain in the centre of your work with the 2 working strands on each side.

-- Follow the instructions on this site to tie the "Square Knot". Please note that they are using four strands for their filler instead of the 2 strands that we are using.

-- To add the beads - insert both filler strands through the hole of the bead and tie the knot around them. We chose to make our bracelet with a message - also by doing this we had way less knots to tie.

-- keep tying the knots until the length of knotted hemp is the desired length for your bracelet and then tie them off. In our case we inserted a bead on all 4 strands and tied it off. (this is where it ends for the key chain)

-- the end bead is then inserted into the the loop to create a 'clasp' to close the bracelet.

This craft is probably for the older children although my children had fun selecting the beads and it was great for letter recognition as my son searched for the letters as I asked for them.

If you are struggling to follow my directions there are many directions available on the Internet.

Mother's going GREEN Day 87 - Children's Eco-Craft

My son will be starting kindergarten in the fall so I thought we could prepare something that we can file his artwork in once it has had its time being posted on the wall. A variation on the Magazine File. Of course you could make yours to hold magazines, story books, papers that need to be filed etc.

Magazine File

You will need:

-- a cereal box, or any other suitable box

-- Mod Podge (not sure how environmentally friendly this is - but we have it and it works great.)

-- Any one or all of the following: Pictures, newspaper, other children's artwork, pages an old colouring book, magazine pictures or gift wrap. We used an old world map.

Instructions (with an adults help if required):

-- cut the cereal box to resemble a magazine file

-- cut out pictures newspaper or whatever you have chosen

-- glue using the mod podge to the cereal box

-- finish with a coating or two of mod podge

-- allow to dry

You are done... and your magazine file is ready to store all of your chosen items.

Art/Space saving tip: We all love our children's art and it is important to display it in order to build their confidence. Here at our home we display it for a week and then take it down. I make sure I get a digital picture of their art which I save on a separate disk. This way I do not need to keep all of there masterpieces. I will always have copies on file. After awhile I ensure the "old" art is discarded in the environmentally correct way.

Mother's going GREEN Day 82 - Children's Eco-Craft

Today's craft is rather simple. It will make a Simple Statement. A Green Ribbon, show the world that you support a Green lifestyle. It is so simple that you can make a whole bunch of them and give them to your friends.

The Green Ribbon.

You will need:

-- Green Ribbon

-- A Safety Pin

-- Needle and Thread (Ideally the same colour thread as the ribbon - but just use whatever colour thread you have on hand - no point going to buy a matching thread. The only green thread I had was a dark green colour.)

Instructions (with an adults help if required):

-- Cut a length of your green ribbon (mine is approximately 8 inches long)

-- Approximately a third from the bottom sew on your safety pin (see pictures to right)

-- The fold the ribbon to create a loop (ensure the cross over piece of ribbon covers your stitches of sewing the pin on)

-- Stitch the cross over piece of ribbon in place.

You're done. Wear your ribbon with 'Green' pride - make a few more and share....

Mother's going GREEN Day 60 - Children's Eco-Craft

Today's craft will add some sparkle to our summer nights on the deck.

Tin Decorative Candle Holders

You will need:

-- Tin Cans

-- Hammer

-- Nail

-- Tea Light Candle

-- Safety Glasses

Instructions (with an adults help if required):

-- It is best that you fill the cans with water and then freeze them - it just makes it easier.

-- Draw a design on the cans (after the water has frozen)

-- With a hammer and a nail punch out the design (this is when you may need the safety glasses)

-- Allow ice to melt. (I stuck mine in the garden where the sun melted the ice quickly and the water then went into the garden - rather than wasting it)

-- Insert the tea light candle

-- You may need to flatten out the bottom of the can especially if it pop out with the ice being in it.

And there you have it - A nice decorative candle holder.

Mother's going GREEN Day 53 - Children's Eco-Craft

When Fridays come along, I usually head to the recycling can and try figure out what we can create this week because we have an abundance of milk jugs I decided to put them to use. We also needed some sort of plant markers for our rooftop vegetable garden which is growing so well - so the idea of Vegetable Plant Markers came to mind.

Vegetable Plant Markers

You will need:

-- Empty Plastic Milk Jugs

-- Pictures of Vegetables

-- Glue Stick

Instruction (with adults help if required):

-- Cut long 'rain drop' shape from recycled milk jug (2 per marker)

-- Glue picture on the top of 'rain drop' shape cut out (I used printed pictures on the back side of an already used paper, but you can either draw your own or cut some from a magazine)

-- Glue on second 'rain drop' shape to cover picture - this will provide some waterproofing so our pictures do not get damaged.

-- Place markers in garden to identify your vegetable plants.

Mother's going GREEN Day 46 - Children's Eco-Craft

Today's Eco-craft was crafted without my children . Their dad had the day off so they spent some quality time with him, and I according to my husband I was "sticking garbage together to hang on our door." Today I made a wreath out of recyclables.

Go Green Wreath

You will need:

-- Twigs (flexible ones) We collected ours the other day from the woods near our house

-- Recyclable items. (It can be anything) I used: Cardboard egg carton, pop bottle caps, milk jug lids, plastic bag from fruits, large yoghurt container lid, milk jug & the shower scrubby.

-- Paint and paint brush

-- Glue

-- String

Instructions: (with adults help if required)

-- Bend twigs into circular shape to create a wreath (tie as required)

-- Using the glue (glue gun works best) decorate wreath with recycled materials.

I used:

-- The shower scrubby for the 'ribbon' on the wreath

-- The yoghurt lid painted with the recycling sign

-- Colourful circular accents are the milk jug lids

-- The 'Go Green' sign was painted on a plastic piece cut from the milk jug

-- To make the 'pop top flowers' we cut 2 sections of a cardboard egg carton, painted the inside green. Glued a circular piece of clear fruit bag plastic to the centre to create a petal effect and then glued a bottle top in the centre as the flowers center.

Voila - we had our wreath. Be creative there are limitless possibilities to creating a wreath with a recycled theme.

Enjoy displaying your wreaths so everyone will know that you are 'Green'.

Mother's going GREEN Day 39 - Childrens Eco-Craft

This weeks craft can be used to add some scent to your home. We hung one in the cupboard were our garbage can is and another in our laundry room above the dirty cloth diaper bucket.

Cinnamon and Spice Rope

You will need:

-- Plastic bag

-- 3 x Cinnamon Sticks

-- 2 x Coffee Filters

-- Spice/Herbs

-- String

-- Ring (optional - I used a ring from an old key chain)

Instructions: (with an adults help if required)

-- Cut the plastic bag into strips (at least 6 fairly long strips). Lay the bag flat and cut up from the bottom into strips.

-- Tie at least 6 strips of the plastic bag to the ring. If you do not have a ring you can use a piece of string with the ends tied together to create a loop.

-- Braid the plastic bags (2 strips for each part of the braid). Tie it off when you reach the end with string or an extra plastic strip.

-- Take the coffee filters and place about 2 teaspoons of herbs/ spice in the centre. Pinch together and tie - see picture to right

-- Finally tie the cinnamon sticks and spice pockets to the braided plastic and hang up.

Mother's going GREEN Day 32 - Childrens Eco-Craft

Finally the sun came out in our part of the world....Yippee!! We crafted something simple outside in order to enjoy the sun.

Pet Rocks (a classic)

You will need:

• Nice smooth rock
• Paint
• Google Eyes (if you have any – not required)

Instructions:

• Paint rock in pet of choice (we did a Lady Bug – but you could do a bee or a regular bug whatever your creative heart desires).
• Stick on Google eyes
• We placed our 'Lady Bug' in our garden for a little bit of colour.