Every day households create heaps of waste. Some needs to be binned. But lots can be recycled, and not just recycled in the rubbish. It can be recycled into a million different projects and craft ideas in the garden and in the home.

Here are a few suggestions that you can do with the kids.

1. Brown paper gingerbread house

This is great to do at any time of the year and can be adapted to any season or style depending on what the family is into at that particular time.

You will need:

• Medium size card board box with flaps
• Brown paper for wrapping
• Glue
• And as many different decorating and craft items as can be used to make it individual such as sequins. Ribbons, lace, stickers, glue or glitter.

To make the house:

• Seal any rips or holes in the body of the box
• Raise the two longer flaps at the top of the box to make a roof cutting the shorter sides down creating two flap. Stick these to the inside of the uncut sides
• Now wrap the whole thing in brown paper
• and decorate

The best thing is that once the kids are bored this design you can remove the brown paper and start again. You’ve got the basis for a farm, a fire engine, a castle… the options are endless.

2. Margarine tub self-propelled chug boat

This sounds like a tall order but it’s a very simple process used for years, taking the energy from a wound elastic band and using it to propel the chugger through water.

You will need:

• An old margarine tub
• Yogurt pot
• Craft sticks
• Super glue
• Duct tape
• Lots of oil based paint
• Paper for decoration
• Scissor and PVA glue
• An extra plastic margarine tub lid
• Two elastic bands

To make the chug boat:

• Clean the tub thoroughly
• Stick the yogurt pot, upside down, to the lid of the margarine tub with a strong PVA glue and wait to dry
• Super glue the craft sticks to the side of the tub and secure with duct tape
• When the glue has dried, paint and decorate the submarine with oil based paints to prevent them washing away in the water.
• To make the propeller, when the paint’s dried, get an elastic band and attach it to the two craft sticks ensuring it’s relatively tight
• Using the second tub lid, cut a piece of plastic, this will be your propeller, that will fit between the two sticks allowing it to flip round. Cut two slips into the top of the piece of lid at thirds
• Fit the propeller onto the elastic band by slotting one side of the elastic onto the plastic, then wind up and GO!

The propeller will only blast for a few second, but the fun you’ll have doing the process over and over again is great!

3. Toilet Roll Train

Probably one of the simplest uses of junk modelling is to make a train from old toilet rolls.

You will need:

• 4 toilet rolls
• 16 bottle lids of any description
• Paint and decorating material
• Some cotton wool to make the steam
• Some string
• Scissor
• PVA glue

To make the train:

• Using some spare card, make a funnel to go on the front of the train
• Each toilet roll makes up a carriage. Decorate the carriages in any colour you want, and with any decoration you want. Make them as realistic, or as bonkers as you like
• When they’re dry, make 4 holes in the tube, two at one end opposite one another, and two at the other end. This is for the string to hold the carriages together
• Glue the bottle lid onto the carriages for the wheels. Wait for them to dry
• Cut equal length string and tie through the holes in the tubes to make a chain of trains
• Now you’re off!

These ideas, and many more, are a great way to help kids get creative with stuff that would’ve normally been thrown away. It’s a great sue of recycled material and can really fire up their imagination. Don’t limit yourselves. Get out a tonne of junk modeling material and see what you can make with it.

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