30+ Creative Waste Craft Ideas: Engaging Kids in Artistic Fun

There was a time when the term ‘Arts and Crafts’ meant something. Of course, that was before the advent of ‘The Internet’ and all the gadgets it spurned. That doesn’t mean that we let our children remain in the dark about these wonderful activities that actually make for more healthy ways of keeping kids entertained.
All it takes is material that one often finds themselves tossing into the “Waste’ bin, to create some truly compelling art.

Ready to don that creative hat and curate some really cool art with your little one? Here are the 30 best Waste Craft Ideas to help you do just that.

#1. Milk Carton Bird House
Make a hole in the top of an empty milk carton. Make another on the side, for the door. Just below the door, cut a small ‘X’ shape and insert a plastic spoon in it. This is where you put the bird seeds.

#2. T-Shirt Tote Bag
One of the coolest waste craft ideas for kids. Cut off the sleeves and necklines of an old T-shirt, turn it inside out and glue the bottom and sides together. Decorate with fabric paint.

#3. Tin Can Wind Chimes
Make a hole at the bottom of some tin cans you hang alongside each other, using a string. The cans must hit each other when there’s a breeze. Sit back and enjoy that wonderful chiming sound!

#4. Yarn Pom Poms
Making your own pom poms? Simple, really. Hold a fork with the tines facing down and wrap yarn around the fork. Wrap 40 times for a small pom pom and 100 times for a larger one. Cut a separate piece of yarn, tie it around the middle of the wrapped yarn. Then slide the yarn off the fork and cut through the loops on both sides.

#5. Itsy Bitsy Spider
Craft ideas for kids with waste material need not be complicated. Stick 4 strings on both sides of a bottle cap, before sticking two eyes made from paper on it. Now go and scare people with that spider!

#6. Leaf Rubbing Art
Place a leaf on a flat surface with the veins facing up, before taping a piece of paper over it. Then, use a crayon to rub over the paper to see the shape of the leaf magically appear on the paper.

#7. Sock Puppets
Make Storytime fun! Sew 2 button ‘eyes’ on the heels of a couple of socks. Then sew six-inch strips of wool that make for the ‘hair’, on top of the eyes. Put your fingers in and ‘little sock puppet’ is good to start talking!

#8. Paper Plate Jellyfish
Cut a paper plate in a wavy shape to resemble the tentacles of a jellyfish. Glue googly eyes on the top of the plate to help jellyfish see!

#9. Popsicle Photo Frame
Stick four popsicle sticks in such a way that they form a square, with the ends jutting out. Glue them along the edges of a 9- by 12-inch white paper. Cut off the extra paper and voila! Your photo frame is ready.

#10. Newspaper Seed Pots
One of the easiest waste craft ideas. Wrap some newspaper around an empty toilet paper roll, tucking in the excess paper at the bottom. Fill this ‘pot’ with soil before adding some seeds.

#11. Bottle Paper Bank
Help kids save up! Cut a hole big enough to send a coin through, in a clean plastic bottle. Seal the edges with tape and cover the rest of the bottle with paper. Your money bank is ready!

#12. T-shirt Headband
Another great use for that old T-shirt! Cut off a strip around 2 inches wide, from the bottom hem of the shirt. Stretch the strip by pulling it on both sides till it rolls up. Then wrap it around your head, tying it at the back.

#13. Match-bot
A robot out of a matchbox? Genius! Make a hole using a matchstick, at the bottom of a matchbox wrapped in funky paper. Use 2 matchsticks for the antennae and draw 2 eyes. Stick 3 more matchboxes as ‘the body’ (and legs). Then stick the body and head together to complete your bot.

#14. Newspaper Wall Art
Stick strips of newspaper to a cardboard until the entire cardboard is covered. Once dry, hang it on the wall.

#15. Clothespin Alligator
One of the best out of waste craft ideas. Firstly, colour a clothespin with green paint. Then, stick ‘teeth’ cut out of white paper on both sides of the clip. With a black marker, draw eyes and nostrils on top of the clip to get the alligator ready to bite!

#16. Paper Roll Monsters
Colour paper rolls in bright colours. Glue ‘arms, leg and teeth’ cut out from construction paper, onto each of them. Finally, glue googly eyes on the top.

#17. Tennis Ball Key Holder
Firstly, cut a big slit in a tennis ball, above one of the lines, to create the ‘mouth’ of the ball. Over this, stick two googly eyes. Then hang the ball and put the keys to your car in its mouth.

#18. Milk Carton Firefly Lanterns
Cut off the top of a milk carton and cover what remains with yellow tissue paper. Glue on paper wings and eyes. Cutting pipe cleaners in half and bending them into antenna shapes, glue them onto the carton. Lastly, place a battery-powered tealight in the carton and turn it on!

#19. Mason Jar Snow Globe
Painting the lid of a mason jar with silver acrylic paint, stick ornaments on its inside using a glue gun. Then fill the jar with water to the brim before adding acrylic and glycerin. Screwing the lid on tight, turn the jar upside down to witness the magical ‘snowfall’.

#20. Pine Cone Bird Feeders
Waste craft ideas for kids like these are really fun. Spread a thick layer of peanut butter over a pine cone, ensuring it gets in all the crevices. Then roll it in bird seed until it is completely coated, before hanging it outside and waiting for the birds to come.

#21. Walnut Shell Turtle Couple
Paint two halves of a walnut shell yellow, before tracing the details of the shells with green paint. Then, make the bases of two turtles on a thick green paper before cutting them out and sticking them with triangular paper cutouts that represent the faces of the turtles. Lastly, stick the walnut halves on top of the bases and draw eyes and mouths on the triangular shapes.

#22. Rock Painting
All you need for this activity are some paint markers and rocks collected from the garden. Use those markers to draw designs on the rocks, getting as creative as you possibly can.

#23. Glittery CD Fish
A ‘fishy’ activity, this one! Apply adhesive all over a CD, leaving only the middle portion empty. Then, sprinkle glitter all over the CD before leaving it to dry. Cut a mouth, fins and tail out of yellow card paper and stick them on the blank side of the CD. Finally, stick googly eyes on the fish’s face.

#24. Paper Bag Puppet
On the bottom of a paper bag, stick paper ‘features’ like ‘eyes, nose and mouth’. Draw additional details like hair or clothing with a marker, before slipping your fingers in and bringing that puppet to life!

#25. Cork Photo Frame
Craft ideas for kids with waste material, like this one, are always fun. Paint a wooden photo frame in any colour. Then, cut corks into ¼-inch pieces before painting them and sticking them to the frame, starting with the corners.

#26. Spoon Vase
Paint a large can with white primer. Then, cut the handles of the plastic spoons and paint the spoon heads in the colour of your choice. Stick the dried spoons on the insides of the can in layers, to complete your Spoon Vase.

#27. Photo Frame Tray
Paint an old photo frame and let it dry. Paste some plastic curve handles to the sides, and your tray is ready to start serving!

#28. CD Coasters
After drawing the frame of a CD with a pencil on cardboard, cut it out. You will need 2 paper cutout circles for each coaster you create. Decorate those circle cutouts before gluing them on each side of their respective disks, to shut the center holes.

#29. Mini Suitcase For Dolls
Cover a matchbox with dark coloured paper. Decorate it before attaching a small paper cutout handle on top to finish creating this suitcase for that favourite doll!

#30. Paper Cup Fairy Lights
Make 2 X-shaped slits on the bottom of some paper cups. Colour the cups before placing fairy lights in each of them.

At EuroKids we have plenty of Arts and Crafts activities hardwired into our curriculum to ensure that your children have eco-friendly, sustainable ways of keeping themselves entertained. To that effect, we hold strongly to the principle that ‘Nothing is ever truly wasted’.