Recycle Those Paper Bags!
Hold it! Don't toss those perfectly good paper bags. Hang onto the plastic grocery bags, too. They're perfect for crafts, and what better way to teach recycling than to offer them to your children and grandchildren? Given the chance, most kids are creative and eager to re-use paper products, fabric scraps, cardboard, and more. Reusing paper bags will develop creativity, foster a mindset for recycling, and encourage children to turn off the tv and make something fun for themselves or to give away as gifts.
This lens will include tested-and-tried crafts projects, classroom crafts ideas, and lots of good tips from crafters.
Enjoy!
Teach Kids to Recycle
Practical ideas for home recycling
Set aside a special time each week to brainstorm ways your family can reuse paper bags. If you happen to be a homeschooling family, perhaps you'll come up with a unit study about paper products.
Think of Ways to Recycle Leftover Bags
Turn leftovers into something new!
Ask a child whether she'd like pizza or Friday Surprise for lunch, and you can just about guess her response. From a child's viewpoint, Friday Surprise might conjure up images of leftovers smooshed together into an unrecognizable casserole.
Leftovers have gotten a bad reputation, but look again. Recyclables like paper bags are the very best kind of leftovers. Recycling bags is a smart way to take care of our environment while having fun together as a family. In a preschool setting, it's a super way to save money, as well as invite families to become more involved in their child's education.
Children love a good challenge, and if you catch them at a young enough age (three or four), you might be surprised at their level of creativity. Keep a good stock of art tools handy--crayons, paints, and plenty of paper. Add to it glitter, glue, rickrack, fabric swatches, markers, scissors, and scraps of colored paper, and watch those busy hands get to work.
Remember, it's all about the approach.
Spring Crafts with Paper Bags
Fun for the whole family!
- Paper Bag Bunny Craft
- DLTK's Crafts for Kids: Paper Bag Bunny Craft
- Paper Bag Kite
- Get ready for a breezy day by making your own homemade kite!
- Paper Bag Animals
- Create your own paper pets! Cute animals begin with a brown paper bag.
- Paper Bag Windsocks
- Catch the wind in your pretty creation. It all starts with a paper bag.
Paper Bag Ideas from Teachers
Find out what works well in a group setting, and how teachers are using paper bags in unit studies. Fun and informative!
1. Panda unit study
2. Under the Sea theme
3. Fall Scavenger Hunt
4. Fireplace (2 brown grocery bags)
5. St. Patrick's Day Potato Head
6. Paper Bag Tree unit
7. Tactile Art
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Anytime Projects
Paper bag crafts are year-round fun. Here are projects that don't take long, use simple supplies, and can be customized according to individual ideas and creativity level.
- Big Hat Craft - Enchanted Learning Software
- Make a Really Big Hat.
- Paper Bag Dove Craft
- Free printable templates and directions for making a paper bag dove puppet.
- Paper Bag Greeting Cards
- Your creativity is the only limit...
- Colorful Paper Bag Fish
- Here's a bright and cheery project!
- Egg Carton Flowers
- A fun, earth-friendly craft for kids, from supercozy.com
- Paper beads
- My Mom is visiting & one of the fun benefits for the kids is her excellent memory of the crafts she used to entertain me with when I was a kid in the 70's (that, and endless rounds of "Bataille"/War...
Add your favorite paper bag craft...
(*Don't forget to vote!)
Decorative Gift Bags
Make a personalized gift bag for your next party.2 points
Fun With Boxes: Cardboard Crafts for Families
Recyling begins at home in simple ways. You can ei more...2 points
sheep crafts
Create a adorable sheep from one paper bag.1 point
Funky Foam Tote Bag
Funky Foam Tote Bag1 point
Big Hat Craft - Enchanted Learning Software
Here's a really BIG hat!1 point
Crafts: Kids Paper House Box
Create a paper house box. It can also double as a more...1 point
Paper Bag Monster Pinata Craft - Enchanted Learning Software
A simple-to-make Pinata made from a paper bag and more...1 point
Clown Ornament
Create a cute clown ornament!1 point
Printable Lunch Bag Crafts - Party Treat Bags
Party loot treat bags - How to design and print yo more...1 point
DIY Laptop Sunshade
Make your own laptop sunshade using paper grocery more...1 point
Coloring Pages for Children | Coloring Books Pages | Cool Coloring Pages | Coloring Pages Com
Welcome in free coloring pages site. In this site more...0 points
Coloring Page | Free Coloring | Free Coloring Printable
Welcome in free coloring pages site. In this site more...0 points
Coloring Pages | Coloring Printable | Coloring Pictures
Welcome in free coloring pages site. In this site more...0 points
Coloring Sheets | Printable Coloring | Coloring Pages
Welcome in free coloring pages site. In this site more...0 points
Coloring Page | Picture Coloring | Coloring Printable
Welcome in free coloring pages site. In this site more...0 points
Squidooers Who Recycle Paper Bags
Good ideas to try at home
Squidoo lensmasters are the greatest! I've selected a handful of really good lenses that will spring your creativity into full gear.
- How to Reuse Paper Bags
- You can reuse them. Recycle them. Turn them into something else.
- Paper Bag Puppets
- One of the easiest hand puppets to create is the Paper Bag Puppet.Small lunch bags,a little imagination, anda rainy Saturday afternoon......make for a great puppet making day!There is a new resurgence in interest in this time tested puppet craft. It may be due to advertising of online ticket merchan
- Learn To Make Gift Baskets - The Use Of Free Printable Paper In Basketing Making
- If properly made paper bag baskets & paper baskets could prove to be exciting to make. Take some colored papers, choose a nice pattern and the outcome from twisting and turning the paper would give a paper a new really tasteful appearance.
- Tea Bag Folding
- Tea bag folding is a paper folding craft developed in Europe. You start with eight squares or tiles and fold each the same than interlock them together into a pie or medallion using a bit of glue. It is similiar to origami in that you use all the basic origami folds such as the boat, the water bomb
- Make your own greeting cards
- These days we can send greetings to our friends and loved ones with ready-made cards or by email. But somehow, even though this is so easy to do, it is much more fulfilling to send a hand-made card with your own special message. Cards can be made to suit the personality of the person you are sending
What Can You Make With a Paper Bag?
How to find ideas...
Heard of J.P. Taylor?
J.P. Taylor's music is a mellow mix aimed at inspiring you on your environmental mission.
Visit his website:
http://www.jp-taylor.com/
Take a Poll
Speak up on your recycling habits...
Turkey Crafts!
- FamilyFun: Paper-Bag Turkeys - and More Family Fun
- These crafty gobblers will charm young holiday guests
- Brown Paper Bag Card Craft - Enchanted Learning Software
- Brown Paper Bag Card. Make a Beautiful card from a brown paper bag and some ribbon. Customize it for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays...
- Turkey Crafts
- General holiday crafts. Prepare a cornucopia at home, or make a pilgrim log cabin.
Ten Unique Valentine's Day Paper Crafts
Other Forms of Paper Crafts for Valentine's Day
- Valentine's Day Hat
- What's not to love about a cute hat for your Valentine?
- Salt Dough Crafts
- Make a salt dough heart pin and magnets for Valentine's Day.
- Valentine's Barrettes
- Make these hair barrettes for yourself or for your sweetie.
- Valentine Heart Garden
- Make this popup 3-D heart garden!
- Colorful Heart Mobile
- A great way to use paper plates!
- Valentine's Day Paper Craft - How to make a Heart Gift Box
- Paper Crafts for Valentine's Day - Paper Heart Gift Box.
- Valentine's Day Angel Paper Craft
- free printable templates and instructions for a valentine's day angel paper craft with message You Reap What You Sow.
- Make a Valentine Flowers Bouquet!
- Get crafty with Martha Stewart on marthastewart.com.
- Heart Kitty Cat Paper Craft
- Directions and printable templates for making a Valentine's Day heart animal.
- Love Bug Valentine's Day Craft for Kids
- Valentine's Day Crafts for Kids - You'll find lots of fun and easy Valentine Crafts for kids on this page: Valentine Cards, Valentine wall hangings, a Valetine wind sock, a Valentine mobile, and lots of other Valentine gifts.
More Ways to Recycle Bags
What to do with those wads of plastic grocery bags...
I grew up in a household that saved nice sturdy boxes, plastic bags, large brown shopping bags, and margarine tubs. After all, you never know when one of those recyclables would come in handy, right?
Why spend money on new wrapping paper if you have a stack of bags on hand? Why buy a play mask when you could create one from a sturdy brown paper bag?
Well, most of us have grown up and discovered that too much Stuff spells stress. In an effort to simplify our lives, we have learned to either re-use or recycle. So, we've talked a bit about ways to use paper bags. What about plastic bags?
At first glance, they may seem useless, other than carrying vegetables from garden to friend, but think again. There's plenty you can do with plastic bags. Here are a few starters:
Make yarn from plastic bags!
Knit a purse
Make a dress
Cute cosmetic bag
Granny Square Motif Bag
Baggie Butterflies
Great Stuff on Amazon
Blogging About Paper Crafts
These bloggers know what they're talking about! Check out their ideas, their photos, and you're sure to find something worth trying.
- Paper Crafts Magazine blog
- Join Paper Crafts editors in fun crafting projects, tips, and everyday stories of their lives.
- New Life for Paper Bag Puppets
- The Fandango movie ticket ads have breathed new life into the old paper bag puppet. I love it when some creative genius takes a mundane thing thatÂ’s been around for ages and makes me sit up and take notice of it again. The beauty of the puppets is that they are engaging, and yet are entirely low-tec
- Stay at Home Mom & Military Wife: Craft of the Week - Paper Bag Puppets
- This stay-at-home military wife features a craft every week. Here's a favorite--paper bag puppets.
- MAKE: Blog: Paper craft Archives
- Archive: Paper craft
August 10, 2006
Halloween Fun
Paper bags to the rescue!
- KinderArt's Fun Mask Idea
- Follow the instructions at KinderArt and make your own fun mask!
- FamilyFun: Halloween Craft: Paper Bag Trees - and More Family Fun
- Turn paper bags into gnarled trees for a tabletop Halloween decoration; another great Halloween craft from FamilyFun.com.
- - Halloween bookmarks, printable mask, activity book, treat bags.
- Free Halloween printables, including bookmarks, treat bags, printable jack o'lantern mask, and printable activity book.
- Making Masks for Halloween... or Anytime!
- Making your own mask can be as simple or complex as you make it. Here are some suggestions for how to make a mask from paper, using a blank, shaping leather or casting with latex.
- Ladybug Costume - EnchantedLearning.com
- You can make a Ladybug Costume from a large paper grocery bag.
- Paper Bag Mask - Halloween Arts and Crafts - October - KinderArt
- Seasonal Arts and Crafts Activities, Lessons, Coloring Pages, Ideas, Recipes, Treats, Special Days and so Much More
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FantasyDesigns wrote...
I haven't seen a paper bag in a long time. It's all plastic. 5 *'s
Posted June 05, 2009
Laura45 wrote...
Thanks for raising my awareness about recycling (although we try to do as much as we can) and also for all the creative suggestions to complete, some as a family! I gave your lens a 5 star rating No Doubt!
Posted June 02, 2009
seedplanter wrote...
in reply to spirituality Thanks for the blessing! I appreciate it.
Posted May 16, 2009
CleanerLife wrote...
My next project is to make my own sun shade for my laptop using paper grocery bags. I don't know how long it'll last, but it'll be cheaper than the laptop shades they sell, and it will still be recyclable when I'm finished with it.
Posted April 22, 2009
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Go back to where you started...
- Think of Ways to Recycle Leftover Bags
- Spring Crafts with Paper Bags
- Paper Bag Ideas from Teachers
- Share the Crafts!
- Anytime Projects
- Squidooers Who Recycle Paper Bags
- Heard of J.P. Taylor?
- Take a Poll
- Make a Paper Bag Puppet
- Turkey Crafts!
- Ten Unique Valentine's Day Paper Crafts
- More Ways to Recycle Bags
- Great Stuff on Amazon
- Blogging About Paper Crafts
- Halloween Fun
- Subscribe to my RSS Feed
- Leave your footprint...
- Twitter Me!
- Have You Visited Seedplanter's Porch Blog?
- Talking About Recycled Bags
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Fetching RSS feed... please stand byTalking About Recycled Bags
listen to them tweet...
-
- travistubbs
- @imsoapee Usually you can recycle those kind of bags at Walmart. Target and Grocery Stores may too. I'd asked someone in customer service.
-
- imsoapee
- Where can I recycle plastic bags? Ive got way too many&I dont like those cloth bags bc grocery shopping is random http://yfrog.com/3xce2j
-
- FreeListPort
- FREE cans/bottles to recycle for $$$ (Tigard): I have about 6-8 garbage bags full of cans and bottles to recycl.. http://bit.ly/iqN9Z
-
- Nairtseuqe
- You know it's a good day to shop at the thrift shop when the parking lot is full. Must be 50% off day! 6 new bags of sweaters to recycle :)
-
- alysdrake
- would rather carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in (via @jameshutto)>>Get recycle bags.
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