How to Find Free Crafting Materials at Home – Living, Dining and Office

Living, Dining and Office

Most homes will have a living area, some kind of dining area and perhaps even an office. Each of these places are great for finding crafting materials, whether they’re from junk drawers, bookshelves, filing cabinets or any other area that seems to get random bits quickly stacking up.

Look for old or unused papers (old or stained files), coffee table magazines, empty tissue boxes, random string, old fabric (tablecloths, table runners, napkins, curtains), and anything else that may inspire you for a craft (broken clocks, old vases, small storage boxes, random pieces that may or may not be important for something long forgotten.

Ideas:

1. Try making a children’s folder game. You can find my folder game post here: Children’s Folder Games
2. Use old (but still clean and usable) fabric as furoshiki. These Japanese wrapping cloths can be tied as gift wrapping, carry bags, backpacks and more.  You can see several tying options from the video  in my old post about Furoshiki.
3. Create a quilt from old fabric.  You can even make a children’s art quilt like I did with felt -but any fabric will do!
4. Make sturdy envelopes from empty tissue boxes.
5. Wrap and glue packing cords around old vases, jars, tins or boxes for a new decorative look.
6. Check out my “craft ideas” Pinterest page for more!

How to Make Folder Games for Children

Folder games are wonderful for young children and for parents as well. Not only do these games help children learn to match objects, but it’s also easy to customize these games to help children learn many other things like colours, numbers, country flags and more.

I loved using them in my preschool classes because they are quick, fun and easy to store dozens of them in one file folder box.

If you would like to make your own  folder games, start off with:

• a standard file folder
• cardboard paper
• double-sized tape
• scissors
• matching cards, gift wrapping with images on it, children’s Valentine’s Day card sets, draw your own images or print some off the computer
• a pack of self-laminating sheets
• optional: stickers

Here I made one of hand-drawn sign language letters:

This is one of hand-drawn space images (the kids loved this one):

Throughout a year, preschool children will receive various Birthday invitations, holiday-themed cards, certificates of achievements and more, so why not turn each of these items into a new folder game?  It’s a great way to store all of these keepsakes and make them more educational!

How to Find Free Crafting Materials at Home – Kitchen

Kitchen

The kitchen is a great area of the house that seems to naturally collect many different items that are perfect for crafting. Although we all try our best to keep the kitchen neat and clutter free, there are always little things that manage to creep their way into several cupboards and drawers.

Some people may have old utensils they no longer need, broken glass, china or pottery that still have a pretty colours and designs on them and even old containers that are no longer used can be transformed into something new.  Other items that always seem in abundance in most households are product packages, bags, plastics, cartons, elastics, strings from produce and random little tags from bread bags and grocery items.

All you need is a little imagination to create something wonderful out of otherwise useless trash.

Ideas:

1. Create mosaic gifts by covering old jars or vases.  You can also add a little flare to existing furniture. (You can see some examples on my Pinterest Mosaic Board.
2. Create fashion accessories from old utensils.  They are becoming more popular to the point that even Amazon sells watches made out of spoons!
3. Upcycle old packages into pretty storage items or turn them into home decor. One of my previous posts shows how to make picture frames from food boxes and another to make a mystery holiday bank.

Check back again tomorrow for more craft ideas from random places around the home!   If you have any project ideas to add to this list, please comment below and share 😀

How to Find Free Crafting Materials at Home – Mail

Many people (like myself) love crafting because it’s a great way to get creative, make something new, recycle materials that would otherwise go to waste, but most of all, because it’s fun and relaxing.

For those of you who love crafting as much as I do, you will notice how expensive it can get when it comes to getting materials from shops like Michael’s or even the dollar stores (because you go extra crazy in those shops!)

In order to get yourself some free crafting materials and recycle unused items, take a look in and around your home to see what you can find. I regularly do this at home….and my family’s home….to help them clean up  😉

Each week, I will suggest an area of the home to find various crafting materials. I will also give you a list of crafts that can work with these materials to get you started.  *Keep these crafts in mind for the holiday season!*

Junk Mail, Old Notebooks, Magazines

Everyone will have at least a few old magazines, flyers, notebooks or letters that are no longer needed. Instead of tossing them in the recycling box, or leaving them as clutter at home, why not use them for paper crafts?

Ideas:

1. Perfect wrapping paper for small gifts.  Add some pretty ribbons, stamps or simply tape on an ornament and you are pretty much done.  Here is a quick gift wrapping tutorial to show you easy gift wrapping techniques and how to fix a wrapping problem (not enough paper!)
2. Great to make unique mobiles.  Why not try a story/poem mobile like the one shown here).
3. Origami (Japanese paper folding). (Please check out my old post to make a traditional origami crane).
4. Unique greeting cards. Use some of the plain or decorative pieces for layers in card decorations or cut out silhouettes for decorative details.
5. Kirigami (Japanese paper cutting). (Please check out my old post to make a kirigami sakura).
6. Make boxes to help organize your home. Get some ideas from my creative boxes tutorial.

If you have any other craft ideas for scrap paper that you would like to share, please comment below to let everyone know.  I love to learn new things from others, so don’t be shy 🙂

Planet IndigenUS at Harbourfront

Planet IndigenUS is one of the largest international Indigenous arts festivals in the world and we were able to catch some of the presentations while everyone was here.  For approximately ten days, people from all over the world came here to perform or experience the different artistic styles through dance, music, art, poetry and storytelling.

More than the indigenous people from North America, we were able to enjoy some smooth, mellow sounds from Rhombus (Wellington, New Zealand) – Visit their site: Rhombus

and a very high-energy performance from Ernest The Magnifico (Sydney, Australia) – Visit his site: Ernest the Magnifico