Learn Every Day About Our Green Earth: A Review

I recently read, Learn Every Day About Our Green Earth 100 Best Ideas from Teachers to get some ideas for my son. Firstly, there are no pictures of the actual projects, which I find annoying. That being said, there are some good ideas for younger kids, ages 3 and up.

The benefit of the book really is the teaching tips more than the projects themselves. In that respect, I'd say the book was done well. There are a lot of reference materials given, things I intend to look into. I will post on them when I do.

I don't know that I'd recommend buying this book, but certainly pick it up at the library.

Things to do with old Greeting Cards

Postcards is probably my favorite idea. Check with your post office to make sure but I believe the minimum size is 3 1/2" x 5" and the max is 4 1/4" by 6".

You can also cut out squares or flowers or whatever from the cards and make them into gift tags.
 

Or make small gift boxes, perfect for earrings and such.

Do a collage and either frame it or laminate it and use it as place mats and/or coasters.

For that matter, just frame a single card if it's particularly pretty or special to you in some way.

You can always use the pics and even the poems and personalized touches for scrapbooking.

Use the cutouts to embellish packages. If you're really green, you can use the funny papers or brown paper bags, throw some card cutouts and there you go.

Decoupage the pictures onto boxes, jars, pots, trays, or wherever else you can think to put them.

I also like the idea of using them as recipe cards.

Cut into strips and make them into bookmarks. The pictures don't even have to make sense, they can just be abstract. Laminate them if you want.

Those are a few ideas I found. Please feel free to share yours.

Re-purposed Silverware

I've been looking for things to do with some silverware that my dad gave me before he passed. It isn't dishwasher safe so I don't use it, but I don't want to not use it either. So, I'm looking for ways to have it around in some unconventional ways.

Here's some really great ideas for your old silverware from Brik Brok :











And here's one from Craft Gossip:

What to do with old Calendars

So, I've been looking for things to do with old Calendars because I have a Dexter Calendar that I love and don't want to throw out even though it's old. Now I could save it and re-use it years from now. Find out more on that at Wise Bread. He tells you which old calendars can be used this year, etc. He also has a lot of great articles on saving money, just so you know. Time and Date also have the facts, but just the facts on what years line up with what.

Bookmarks and magnets are obvious choices and I'm guessing you can imagine ways to do those. I know because I make and sell bookmarks and magnets. So, that's the last thing I need. No, I want something more unique.

Over on Making Friends there are a couple good ideas:

Use them as cone party favors. Of course, I wouldn't use my Dexter calendar for that unless it was a Dexter party, but if you had something more appropriate, I could see that being fun.

Placemats-Laminate and voila!

Decoupage- you could do this on anything but a tray collage was suggested.

Gift Wrap and/or Gift Tags- While I would love some Dexter gift wrap, I don't know anyone else who'd love it as much as me.

Puzzles- they've got plain puzzle pieces now that you can glue any picture to. I haven't found that these work too well though.

Frame it- this would be good except that I do so many craft projects to hang, I'm running out of places to put things.

Journal cover- this is an option I suppose, but that's 1 or maybe 2 pictures.

Personally, I haven't found what I want to do yet, but maybe these ideas will come in handy for you guys.

Presentation, That little something extra

Intimate Weddings shows candies wrapped in old comics but really anything can be wrapped in these. I like that they jazzed them up with buttons and bows.

I also really like this album cover Gift Box idea from Craft Knife.

Martha suggests using extra ribbon and shredded gift wrap pieces as padding when shipping the items just to jazz it up that much more. Man, she thinks of everything.


I think these "tiny treasure cards out of all your leftover and cherished bits" are a great idea.

Gifts For Your Garden Loving Friends

Have a Garden lover on your list, these painted terra cotta pot bells could be just the thing.

This isn't a great picture of these Recycled Aluminum Garden Flowers, but you get the idea.


Along those same lines, here's a bird feeder made from old light parts from Recycled Crafts.