Does your recycling bin overflow? Don't kick it to the curb just yet! Read on to discover how to turn a cache of trash into some very clever treasure.
To liven up the laundry room, mount a menagerie of plastic-jug trophy heads.
Our hunting grounds yielded the makings of a pig, a warthog, and an antelope, but your recycling bin may suggest a different animal collective.
You will need:
- Masking tape
- Clean plastic jug
- Craft knife
- Cotton swab (optional)
- Rubbing alcohol (optional)
- Cleaner, such as Goo Gone (optional)
- Wooden skewer
- Floral wire (we used 18-gauge)
- Assorted plastic recyclables, such as milk-jug caps, twist caps, cutlery, and hangers
- Glue dots
- Duct tape
- Adhesive-backed Velcro
- Fishing line
HEAD: Use masking tape to mark an angled cut line around the jug, as shown. Use a craft knife to puncture the jug, then use scissors to cut off the bottom section (a parent's
job). If necessary, rinse the jug again and let it dry. To remove stamped bar codes and expiration dates, rub them with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol. For sticky labels, try a cleaner such as Goo Gone.
HORNS: Use the pushpin to punch two holes in the top of the head, then use the skewer to widen them. Cut two lengths of floral wire (ours measure 18 inches). With the pushpin, make a hole in the center of 35-40 milk-jug caps. For each horn, press a glue dot into the tip of an opened twist cap (such as a mustard top), then insert the wire and screw the cap closed. Thread on milk-jug caps, leaving at least 6 inches free at the end. Insert the wire stem into a horn hole and pull it snug. Bend the stem flat against the inside of the jug and secure it with duct tape. Wrap a length of tape around the end of the stem.
EARS: Use scissors to cut ear shapes from the discarded bottom section of the jug or from other plastic. To attach them, stretch a length of duct tape vertically down the back of the jug, sticky side out, as shown. Tape over the ends of the strip inside the jug to reinforce them. Press the ears onto the tape, then add more tape to secure them.
FACIAL FEATURES: Use the Velcro to attach bottle-cap eyes. Use glue dots to add bottle-cap noses and other details, as shown. If necessary, stack multiple glue dots to even out hollows or dips.
HANGER: Use a pushpin to punch two small holes at the top of the head. Push a length of fishing line in one hole and pull it out the other, then knot the ends.
Eyelash: plastic fork, handle removed
Eye: caps from milk jug, water bottle and sport bottle
Tusks: plastic shoe display hooks
Nose: whipped cream can cap, orange-juice carton pull tabs, on a spice bottle cap
Mouth: milk jug cap seal, cut open
Thanks to its jumbo rear wheels made from cardboard disks and old CDs, this green machine is surprisingly speedy. A seat cut from the corner of a soap box makes the perfect perch for toy tractor operators.
You will need:
8 (3}-inch diameter)
Yellow duct tape
3 wooden skewers, cut into two 5-inch pieces and one 3}-inch piece
Fabric measuring tape
Clean plastic 20-ounce bottle
Straw, cut into two 3-inch pieces
Milk-jug caps (we used 2 yellow and 1 green)
5 small hex nuts (we used 7/16-inch)
3 yellow soda-bottle caps
Empty soap box
Large black bottle cap
Black marker cap
For each rear wheel, cover one side of a cardboard disk with yellow tape, then use black tape to cover one side of a CD. With the pushpin, punch an axle hole in the center of each cardboard disk, then use a skewer to widen the openings.
Stack 4 cardboard disks and 3 CDs, as shown, lining up the holes and using glue dots to hold them together.
Using the tape measure and starting from one of the bottle's vertical seams, mark the axle holes as shown in the diagrams at left. Mark the steering column hole about 31/2 inches from the bottle's nose.
Use the pushpin to punch the holes, then widen them by inserting the point of the scissors and twisting (a parent's job). Push a straw piece through each set of axle holes.
Insert a 5-inch skewer piece in the steering column hole.
To attach the rear wheels, push one wheel stack onto a 5-inch skewer piece and insert it through the straw. Use a pushpin to punch a hole in each yellow milk-jug hubcap.
Press one onto the skewer, then use a glue dot to add a decorative hex nut. Add the opposing wheel, hubcap, and hex nut. Make sure that both wheels touch the ground and neither grazes the bottle.
For the front wheels, use a pushpin to punch a hole in the center of two yellow sodabottle caps, then use the point of the scissors to widen them.
Push one cap onto the 3}-inch skewer piece. Insert the piece through the straw. Add the opposing wheel, then use a glue dot to attach a hex nut to each.
Cut a seat from the corner of a soap box, cover it with yellow tape, and secure it with a glue dot. Use a pushpin to punch a hole in the black bottle cap and widen it with the scissors.
Push it onto the steering column and attach a hex nut with a glue dot. Use glue dots to make the exhaust pipe from the marker cap and green milkjug cap and to attach it to the tractor. Screw the last yellow cap onto the bottle opening.
Check out dozens of other recycling crafts at familyfun.com/magazine.
(c) 2010, Disney FamilyFun.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.