Project of the month:

I know that I am not alone with the problem of getting so much junk mail every month.  I hate throwing away so much paper and feeling so wasteful...especially throwing away magazines, newspapers, and catalogs.  I grew up in Connecticut in an area where it was very easy to recycle, but here in Southern Illinois people tend to just toss everything in the trash.  It hurts the inner recycler that I was raised to be.  So I am on a mission to try and use as much of this junk mail for my arts and crafts projects in the next month.  I have a whole list of ideas, so we shall see how it turns out...and if you have any ideas I would love to hear them!

                                                         Project 1:  German Paper Stars

Using an old atlas and newspapers that came in the mail and newspapers from my parents house I made this batch of stars.  It's been fun trying out new papers.  I really like the way the maps look when they are made up.  It is fun to see all the landmarks and town names on the different points.

Projects 2: Paper beads

This has been such a great way to use magazines and catalogs you get in the mail.  The lightweight paper is so easy to spin into beads.  I like to cut out all different sizes of triangles to vary how thick or how long each bead is.  This is also a great project for younger kids.  I taught the 5 year old that I babysit how to make these beads and she loved it.  After we made a whole batch of them we made necklaces.