Kids love to make simple crafts, but if you’re running low on crafting supplies, you might be wondering what you can use for their next creation. That’s where recycling comes in: You can take old items and repurpose them into lovely pieces of art!
Get some inspiration from these DIY crafts using recycled materials! This list includes paper crafts, cardboard crafts, and home decor items you can make from such items as book pages, shampoo bottles, and scrap paper!
If you love these ideas, don’t miss my list of Popsicle Stick Crafts for Boys or my roundup of over 25 Salt Dough Crafts – all of which can be made with simple household supplies!
And don’t forget to grab my Find the Letter R worksheets to teach kids about recycling! Plus, get ideas for back to school upcycling from these DIY School Supplies using Recycled Materials!
DIY Crafts Using Recycled Materials
1. Learn how to grow herbs for cooking with these DIY Tin Can Herb Pots!
2. Have an old and tattered book or two? Use them to make this gorgeous Recycled Book Page Art!
3. Add some decor to your front door with these DIY Wind Chimes made from drinking straws and pony beads!
4. Save your egg cartons and make this cute Egg Carton Recycled Sea Life Craft!
5. Encourage your budding artists with this Recycled Art Studio in a Box that uses an old cardboard box!
6. Your little construction fanatic will love this upcycled Cardboard Jackhammer Toy!
7. Use colorful scrap paper to make this Paper Bead Necklace for Preschoolers!
8. Turn old recyclables into canvases with these Recycled Craft Chalkboard Toys!
9. Store your freshly picked flowers in this simple DIY Recycled Bottle Flower Vase Craft!
10. Use an old compact disc to make this fun Recycled CD Snail Craft!
11. This cardboard Pirate Treasure Chest lets you turn trash to treasure!
12. Get your little ones crafting with these Recycled Litter Bugs made from paper egg cartons!
13. These Mini Tin Can Drums are perfect for little hands that want to make music!
14. Save your jar lids and make this Little Bugs Recycled Lid Craft!
15. This CD Scratch Art is positively gorgeous. It would make lovely wall decor!
16. Kids will love to play with these fun Recycled Shampoo Bottle Monsters!
17. Here’s another way to use old jar lids: Make Recycled Jar Lid Frames!
18. These Recycled Tin Can Windsocks are fun for kids who are learning to observe wind!
19. Make this DIY Cardboard Steamroller Toy and let your little ones practice building roads indoors!
20. This beautiful Recycled Rainbow Mobile is perfect for hanging in a garden!
21. I will never ever have a live snake in my house. This Recycled Snake Craft is as close as my kids are going to get! LOL
22. These Coffee Filter Paper Flowers are another way to reuse book pages!
23. This DIY Plastic Spoon Peacock is one of the prettiest kids’ crafts I’ve ever seen. And it’s made from cotton swabs and spoons!
24. Use these 20 Easy Tissue Paper Crafts for Preschoolers for fun learning ideas!
Check out these Earth Day Activities and Crafts for Kids!
DIY Recycled Crafts Resources:
Try these affiliate resources from Amazon for more ideas to make DIY crafts using recycled materials!
Helen
Thursday 10th of November 2016
With the november storms coming up, we've decided to build a few Recycled Tin Can Windsocks, Never thought of using tin cans as a basis, this is a lot easier than trying to start out with cloth only. Worked like a charm and got my two boys busy for an afternoon. Now we're all watching what the wind does to them. Great ideas here!