Make your own Eco-Friendly Toys
The Eco-Friendly Toy Week Giveaways are coming to an end tomorrow! I thought it would be great to show you some more ideas that you can do from home to make your own eco-friendly toys!
A high-powered water blaster can cost you about $40.00. Buy why spend the money on this outdoor toy when you can make it yourself in mere seconds? Show your kids to create their own squirt guns by recycling empty condiments bottles, or any bottle with a flip-up lid.
Select your bottle, wash it thoroughly, and then simply fill it with clean water. And that’s it; you’ve created an instant water blaster. Your kids can take aim at each other by squeezing the bottle (which will shoot water through the trigger) and blasting away their target. For continuous fun, just keep refilling the bottles.
Paper dolls
Make your own paper dolls and accessories using paper bags. No need to buy them from arts and craft stores. A number of websites provide free images which you can print out and use as the face. You can also have your children customize their own homemade paper dolls.
Sock puppets and homemade bags
Instead of buying puppets, you can make your own sock puppets using old worn out socks and buttons from worn out clothes. Teach children how to sew their own sock puppets or homemade bags.
Seashells and rock collection
Have your child start his or her own seashell or rock collection.
Origami
Use recycled paper, learn the art of origami and teach your children how to make different animal and other shapes.
Make your own Wooden Blocks
(from ehow.com)
(there is also a website called woodmarvels.com where you can buy 3D plans to build your own toys!)
You will need:
- 2 x 4 wood
- 2 x 2 wood
- Wooden polls
- Scrap solid wood
- Compound miter saw
- Sander
- Beeswax
- Goggles
- Work gloves
- Sort the pieces for the wooden toys and decide what size you will cut any large pieces. Large pieces can be evenly cut so that there are no scraps left over. Measure, mark and cut the pieces.
- Put on googles and cut the marks for the wooden toys with a compound miter saw. The compound miter saw is a stable way to cut narrow pieces of wood, and will make the project go much faster than using another type of saw.
- Sand the edges of the wood pieces to a smooth, round finish. Sand the flat surfaces, as well, to lessen the possibility of splintering.
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Apply a thin coat of natural beeswax to the blocks. This will seal the surface of the wood, making these eco-friendly toys safe and fun for children to use.
Make your own Felt Book
(from ehow.com)
 You will need:
- Eco-felt in various colors
- Embroidery floss
- Three buttons
- sewing machine
- thread
- embroidery needle
- Decide on a word that you would like to use for the book. Some examples would be the baby’s name or a fun word like “laugh” or “play”. Count the number of letters in the word and add one for the cover. This is how many pages there will be in the book. Select your felt pieces. You will need two per page and two for the cover. Purchase ECO-FELT from your local fabric store or online in 8.5 x11 sheets in various colors.
- To create the pages make two templates. Make one that is square and one that is the same width but add a little to the length to make a rectangle. The square will be the front of your page and the rectangle will be the backing.
- For each page create a felt illustration cutting felt and sewing it on to your page. For example if your first letter is L choose something that starts with “L” like lollipop and create a lollipop illustration. Embroider the word Lollipop on the page and then, sew the front to the backing
- Once you’ve created all the letters in the word, create the cover by embroidering the word or name on the front cover and sewing it to its backing. Once all the pages have been created assemble the book. Attach the pages together using buttons. them.
What other ideas can you share?