Create your own UpCycled Maker Kit!

Create an UpCycled Maker Kit for your home from items that you might normally throw away or recycle and tools around your house. (COVID-19 Note: if you have cleaned these items before bringing them into your home, they should be safe to use.)

Materials

Here are some items that can be used for UpCycled Art Projects but the possibilities are endless! Nancy will lead your child in art projects that use some of these common materials and soon your child will be experimenting on their own with the techniques they learn!

• Boxes/Packaging – cardboard (cereal, cracker, shoes boxes or other small boxes, etc.), plastic “clam shells” to-go boxes, Tetra Pak Cartons (what soup and milk alternatives come in), egg cartons.
• Bags – colorful plastic, mesh (what oranges sometimes come in), paper
• Bottles/tubs – little yogurt/pudding containers, thin plastic bottles and containers, pill bottles, aluminum and steel cans, glass bottles
• Paper – colored paper scraps, grocery bags, junk mail, magazines
• TP and paper towel TUBES
• Miscellaneous items – bottle tops and lids, wine corks, broken plastic stuff, buttons, fabric scraps, plastic spoons/forks/knives, six-pack-holders, buttons, chopsticks, twist-ties, yarn
• Wood – smooth sticks and dowels, toothpicks

Be sure the materials are:
• SAFE – No needles, empty medicine syringes, old batteries or electronics, hazardous waste
• CLEAN – rinse and clean any food containers

Tools

Find as many of these tools as you can, no worries if you don’t have them all. Resourcefulness, flexibility and “working with what we have” is what UpCycling it is all about!
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Ruler
• Stapler
• Tape
• Glue (school glue is best OR make your own DYI Glue!)
• Colored pencils, pens, crayons
• Pencil, pencil sharpener, eraser
• Paint and paint brushes
• Rags
• Thread and needles
• Nail or screwdriver to poke holes