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 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 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.

Mother's going GREEN Day 25 - Children's Eco-Craft

Today we had a wonderfully warm day and the birds were out singing in the trees which inspired today's craft.

Pine Cone Bird Feeders

• You will need:
  Large pine cone (open – which means it has opened up and released it seeds – see picture to right)
• Peanut Butter
• Bird Seed
• Wire or String

Instructions (with an adults help if required):

• Spread Peanut butter over the pine cone and in between the crevices
• Cover with birdseed (we just stuck the whole cone in a dish of birdseed and it sticks to the peanut butter)
• Tie the wire or string onto the base of the pine cone
• Hang is a suitable spot (we hung ours off our back deck)
• Watch as the birds visit and enjoy a tasty treat.