B-Day Decorations; Reduce-Reuse-Recycle

This year, my kids had a really small birthday party. Nothing much, just a few friends and a cake. Nevertheless, they wanted to decorate the whole house. For Einstein E and Power P, the word 'decorate' usually means colourful and plenty. You know, paper chains, balloons, sweets and things like that. We decided to make our decorations.

This way, they got to:

  •  reduce (not buy new deco), 
  •  reuse (used wrapping paper, old cardboard and some old magazines) and 
  • recycle (OK, the decorations are still on the walls and hanging from the ceiling, but in a few weeks we shall put them for recycling)

Why should we try to RRR more? Interesting facts about recycling:

  • One ton of recycled cardboard saves 175 litres of oil.
  • Recycling plastic takes 88% less energy than making it from raw materials. 
  • Glass can be recycled and re-manufactured an infinite amount of times and never wear out. 

You can read find more interesting facts about recycling here.

Materials:

  • used wrapping paper
  • cardboard or construction paper
  • old magazines
  • some paint and paintbrushes

Paper chains

Step 1.

Prepare some already used wrapping paper. I drew lines on several pieces for the boys to cut out.
Step 2.

Cut out the strips.
Step 3.

Make the first "link." All you need to do is tape, glue, or staple the far ends of one paper strip together into a ring. Einstein E decided to use the tape and Power P glued the rings.

Once you have one sturdy ring, thread another strip of paper through the centre of the loop. Now, join the ends of this second strip together, and keep adding the rings.
The first chain is done. Dozens more to go :)

Number 6.

Step 1.

Trace the number. In our case, it was number 6. Omg, my two bundles are six and ready for school. 
Step 2.

Cut out. We used cardboard which was pretty thick for the boys to cut, so I did the cutting this time. 

Step 3.

Decorate. One huge piece of the wrapping paper we had was full of smileys. So, for another hour, the boys were cutting out and glueing the smileys while I was drinking my tea.

Stars.

Step 1.

Cut out and paint different shapes. We used some old cardboard boxes for this one.
Step 2. 

Make magazine paper rolls. (Instructions).

Step 3. 

Paint the rolls. We used egg cartons as a holders.

Step 4.

Cut the rolls into different sizes.

And glue the rolls on the shapes. 

Step 5. 

Make hangers. We simply hot glued pieces of wool thread and let the stars hang from the ceiling. 

Once everything is done, let your kids decorate. I had to keep reminding myself that our ideas about what's nice or too colourful differ greatly :)