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Step 1
Decorate empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls to make any animal you choose, using google eyes, pipe cleaners and other decorations or make binoculars with 2 rolls. You can also make puppets with your creations by gluing a Popsicle stick to the inside of the roll.
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Step 2
Help kids decorate old egg cartons to make animals or cut each cup off the carton to make bells that can be used as Christmas ornaments, using yarn and pipe cleaners. You can also fill up each cup with potting soil and plant seeds in them to later be transplanted into a garden.
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Step 3
Create pencil holders out of old soup, coffee or soda cans. Remove the edges cleanly so there are no sharp edges (sand them off if you have to), cover the outside of the can with paper and decorate it any way you like. You can also use your can as a candy or coin holder.
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Step 4
Use your old newspapers to make paper mache' projects. Fold them up into origami creations or make hats from old newspaper as well.
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Step 5
Make candle holders with your old baby food jars by cutting out a picture from a birthday or Christmas card and gluing it to the outside of the jar. Hold it in place with a rubber band until the glue dries. If you choose, you can then glue salt all over the outside of the jar to make it sparkle or paint the outside of the jars with old nail polish.
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Step 6
Turn your old plastic jars and bottles into time capsules by placing some of your favorite things, a photo of yourself and the date inside. It's entertaining and fun for kids to open them up in a few years to see how much they've changed. You can also turn plastic containers into feeding stations for birds or put water, food coloring and a little oil in a bottle with a lid to create an ocean in a bottle.
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Step 7
Remove the lid from a plastic take-out container from a restaurant. Make sure the container has the number six imprinted on it, which means it is the right kind of plastic for this project. Clean the lid, draw or trace a design on it with a permanent marker, rough up one side of the plastic with fine grit sandpaper, color the rough side with colored pencils, put it in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 1 to 2 minutes and you've created your own "shrinky dink."
