All Saints Day

First of November is a day to remember the persons we loved that sadly had to leave us, this year we had to say goodbye to too many and although I'm not religious I wanted to do something special this year to remember all of our loved ones that are gone.

Ok, this was the first time I did this so bear with me... I didn't knew all I was going to need before I started but I'll guide you through it!

I started by choosing a glass bottle from my lot and melting an old candle we didn't knew were to place since we moved. I placed the candle in the jar and then in a pot with water and put on the stove.

You have to be careful to not loose the wick, I hold it with a cord because when the candle melted and filled the space it got smaller, so small I had to add another piece of wax I had:

I melted the grey piece in another container and joined it after melted or else the colors would have mixed up together. But even after that the jar was too empty and I still had  candle-wick left so I decide to actually melt a whole candle and add it till the end of the wick:

There was some wax left and I had a small jelly jar all cleaned up and ready so I made another small candle:

Well, it's nothing much but it's personal. We will light this candles on Halloween night in remembrance of our deceased loved ones! May you rest in peace!

Plastic bottle vase... or office supply support :P

Sometimes I don't know how to explain... I just look at an empty bottle and see what could I do with it, and this was one of those cases. I just which I had more of these to organize more things in my "office" but this is a hand soap mega packaging (2l), I don't use that many per month... :D

Decision on how to use it was easier that expected since I already had a vase for the orchid...

Wallets with tetra pack packaging

Here's a bright idea, making wallets from tetra pack! Tetra pack is a composed packaging so it's hard to recycle, but easy to reuse!

See how to get them done here (sorry for the video in Portuguese but I think the images can lead you through it) or leave me a message, I think one of these days I will organize a workshop on how to do these ones.

I've made two different ones:

... and while searching for the source (that I had forgotten to save...) I found a third one that I want to try!

Keep posted!

First Recycling Worshop - Halloween

So we had a lot of fun recycling yesterday and I was surprised we had time to do all three projects!

I was very happy with the results and more important, seeing the children happy to have made something from scratch and asking if they could take the projects home!!!

I leave here some photos, I took care that faces wouldn't appear to protect the child's and parent's privacy!

Thank you all for participating and I hope you will join us again in our next workshop!

(All set to start!) 

(Starting to have fun!)

(More participants!)

(While some kids play at the back we're getting busy!)

 (Careful, witch on the way!)

(Final results!)

Thank you once more to all participants and to Post-Office for having us!!!

The very first Recycling Yourself Workshop will have Halloween as theme!

We are very proud to announce the very first Recycling Yourself workshop!

Come and have fun with your kids by crafting your own Halloween decorations using simple recycling materials. And maybe you'll spook your neighbors!

So come on and join us for 2 hours of fun!

Inscriptions:

email: recyclingyourself@gmail.com until the 17th October (max. 15 children)

Fee: 3 Euros per child

By using our creativity and simple craft skills, we will reinforce a more green conscience and use day to day recyclable objects to have fun. If you can bring: paper rolls, carton boxes (e.g. cereal) and yogurt cups (be sure to clean them well before).

Who Likes Ghost?

So I made some ghosts with plastic yogurt cups and glass jars to put a candle in (ELECTRIC ONLY in the yogurt cups - fire hazard!).

I have this pen that writes in plastic, stone, glass, fabric, you name it ;)

Which one is your favorite?

Card roll mummy

This is really simple, I don't need to tell you that I painted the eye zone black, glued the eyes and placed the tissue around the roll fixing it with glue, do I? :P

Scared already? :P

Paper Pumpkin

Is there really Halloween without pumpkins?

This one is really simple to do and it's very quick, this is all you need:

All you have to do is cut 8 or more circles (if you want it more filled), fold the circles in 2 and glue half pieces together in a circle, so it looks like this in the end:

Paper lantern

I love lampions and when I saw this lantern made of paper I just had to do one:

You just have to fold, cut and glue... how hard can it be? Not at all but you do have to choose the right paper (too soft won't stand up by itself and too stiff won't fold) and if you don't do it right it will not stand alone ;)

But look out, this is paper so electric candles only!

Card rolls witch

I think kids just love Halloween and it's not just because of the candies, they also tend to like spooky things!

So I thought what could be better then doing some recyclable decorations for Halloween with children? I was searching some crafts for the occasion and just tried my best to use recyclable materials. For this little witch I used card rolls and then decorated with colored paper:

Hope you enjoy it!