Ecocrafts: Dream Bedroom

admin — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:01:00 +0000

Are you looking for craft projects to fill the summer months? Do you love rescuing discarded items from the trash or recycling bin and creating useful artwork with them? Look no further than Ecocrafts! Chock full of twelve project ideas ranging from a ketchup-bottle piggybank to a stool made of old magazines, this book is a sure winner with kids and adults alike. While the pink and purple cover may seem feminine, the projects themselves will appeal to any artistically minded or environmentally conscious reader.

Lively, step-by-step photographs accompany easy-to-follow instructions. The author has included plenty of great suggestions for modifications and optional add-ons. Materials are easy to find, and reusing the bottles, boxes and bags that would otherwise be trashed or recycled will give readers a fun way to be kind to the environment. Interesting Ecofacts throughout the book educate and inspire; readers learn about the environment while taking steps to impact it in a positive way!

My personal favorite is the photo display cube made of CD cases, which I was shocked to find out cannot be recycled! A bunch of friends came over with their photos and old cases for a craft night; we had a blast and saved some space in a landfill! Best of all, we made a practical product. After seeing the other projects I had made from the book, my friends were anxious to get their own copies. Many of them intend to give it as a gift to young crafters in their lives, while others will simply enjoy creating and conserving. Happy crafting!

Written by: Amanda Moss, July 2nd 2007

Ecocrafts Gorgeous Gifts

admin — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:42:00 +0000

By Rebecca Craig

Kingfisher

Every kid has, at one time or another, turned garbage into art. Personally, I was obsessed with my cardboard-box dollhouse, which prominently featured a sofa made from a kitchen sponge. I was the only eight-year-old I knew who received a glue gun for Christmas.

Ecocrafts Gorgeous Gifts is for other glue-gun-happy kids. It describes thirteen crafts that can be made from recycled materials, from socks to Styrofoam to potato chip bags. A few are old news, like the coffee can drum and sock puppet, but most are fresh ideas for reducing waste and creating a unique gift: a coffee stirrer bookmark, a scrap paper bracelet, jar lid magnets.

All of the crafts are extremely simple and accompanied by illustrated step-by-step instructions. You probably have most of the materials already; each craft uses everyday household items. The book also features consciousness-raising “ecofacts.” We discovered that recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to run a computer for 25 minutes when reading the instructions for the baby food jar tealight candleholder. The book’s introduction describes how reusing items benefits the environment in simple, kid-friendly language, and also gives tips on creating a basic craft kit.

This book would be a great gift for a child, but the crafts are very simple and probably wouldn’t be appropriate for someone over the age of eleven. However, there is enough here to keep younger children busy for an afternoon, and along with the valuable lessons of creativity and environmental consciousness this book inspires in children, it also encourages thoughtful gift-giving: “When you give a gift that you have made yourself, you are giving a special present. . . . The person you give it to will love it because you took the time to make it for them.”

Truer words were never spoken. I still remember the lavish praise I received for the toilet paper tube kaleidoscopes my friends and family received for Christmas, the year before I got my glue gun.

Written by: Anne Wilmoth, June 25th 2007