Reuse, Recycle, Play! 50 DIY Activities & Crafts using Recycled Materials
Oskar's Wooden Ark | 1st June, 2022
In celebration of World Environment Day on 5th June, we have collaborated with our talented team of content creators to compile this collection of the greatest crafts and play activities brought to life using recycled materials. These are materials that you most likely have available in your home right now. Some of these activities may require the use of scissors, hot glue and other resources that should be handled under adult supervision only.
At Oskar's Wooden Ark, we are passionate about offering and promoting eco-friendly and sustainable toys, art materials and learning resources for children of all ages. We believe in investing in good quality products that can be passed down for generations to come, limiting the impact on our beautiful planet. If you're looking for more ways that you can do your part for our Earth, check out our guide of 10 Simple Ways to Invest in Our Planet.
But now, get ready to play, learn and create with all your cardboard boxes, tubes, egg cartons, jars, popsicle sticks and wooden pegs!
Cardboard Boxes
Much like many of our toys, cardboard boxes are often seen as an open-ended play item by children. A cardboard box can be a cubby house, a doll house, a car, a puppet theatre or even a canvas for their art! Let's take those concepts a little bit further, and you will be amazed by just how much fun you can get from one bit of cardboard.
1. Castle
Calling all knights and princesses! Your lavish palace - complete with a drawbridge, turrets and royal crest - awaits your arrival.
Full Tutorial
2. Marble Run
Hours of fun is to be had with your very own DIY ball run! Make it as simple or elaborate as your heart desires.
Full Tutorial3. Sun Catcher Fairy Wand
This magical wand has us starstruck! The addition of the Japanese Silk Tissue Paper captures the sunlight beautifully.
4. Kite Paper Nature Lantern
Bring the outside in with this beautiful lantern which incorporates elements of nature.
Full Tutorial5. Polaroid Photo Frame
Make those back to school photos extra special with a fun photo frame decorated by the subject themselves!
Full Tutorial
6. Colour AND Shape Matching
Simply cut shapes into your cardboard box to match your child's favourite building block set and colour in the outline with the complimentary colour for a fun double-matching game!
7. Sensory Walk
Create an adventure for the senses by making your own sensory walk! Grimm's Rainbow arches have been used to isolate certain elements (such as rice, stones or your favourite toys) on a piece of cardboard for some unique stepping stones for little feet to explore.
8. Mobile
A colourful and enchanting addition to any playroom or space! The use of the Grimm's Rainbow Beads makes it all the more special. It certainly makes us smile when we look at it.
Full Tutorial9. Backdrop
Create a colourful and inspiring backdrop using Kitpas Art Crayons for all your storytelling fun and small world adventures.
Full Tutorial
10. Puzzle Play
Puzzle play can be enjoyed by children of all ages, but sometimes it can be a challenge to consistently provide new and exciting puzzles for them to engage with. Instead of buying your next puzzle, consider making your own using the ideas below:
11. Parking Garage
Who knew a cardboard box could make the perfect parking garage for all those toy cars?!
12. Advent Calendar
This masterpiece is from our Christmas archives - but don't reserve the concept of an advent calendar just for the festive season! This would make the perfect birthday countdown for your little one.
Full Tutorial
13. Crafty Colour Sorting
Create and decorate your very own cardboard rainbow and then take the fun further by using it as the basis of a colour sorting game. Use any Loose Parts or craft materials you have lying around and place or stick them to the matching colour.
Full Tutorial14. Masks
Why not make your own mask for your next dress up party or Halloween bash? You can create any character you want!
Full Tutorial
15. Nature Press
The art of flower pressing offers so many beautiful and delicate creations, so why not make your own press for the job? It's simple!
Full Tutorial16. Shooting Star
Incorporate your Sarah's Silks Playsilks into this fun and crafty activity! Use the final result as a fun catching game, or just a decor item for the playroom!
View Activity
17. Diorama
A diorama is a type of small world, but the creation process is often the best part of it all! Simply use a shoebox to recreate any scene you wish. You may use your Kitpas Art Crayons, Silk Tissue Paper or Loose Parts to decorate it.
18. Hungry Caterpillar Puppet
We all know the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but do you know how to create your very own caterpillar puppet to retell the famous story?
Full Tutorial
19. Counting with Loose Parts
Create your own board and coins for counting with Loose Parts!
20. Loose Parts Play
Loose Parts Play may be open-ended, but sometimes a template can provide an invitation to play and create:
Decorate Christmas Jumpers
Turtle Mandalas
Exploring Emotions
Loose Parts Stencils
Cardboard Rolls & Tubes
Before you throw away any more paper towel and toilet rolls, consider keeping them to make some of these curvaceous masterpieces! These are just five ideas, but we're certain your little ones can come up with loads more!
21. Ball Run
Cardboard rolls make one of the best additions to any ball or marble run - give them a go in your next ball run build!
22. Dragon
Create your own fierce fire breathing dragon! Linda has wrapped hers in Silk Tissue Paper and used strips of it to create its ferocious flames! Get creative with the nose and eyes. All that's left is to blow into the other side, or put it in front of a fan and watch it come to life!
23. Forest
Trees of all sorts compliment any small world scene, and the more the merrier, right?
Full Tutorial
24. Leafy Tree
This activity combines colour sorting, sensory play, nature elements AND art!
25. Butterfly
Who knew you could create the prettiest of butterfly wings from a mere toilet roll and Stockmar Aquarelle Paint?
Egg Cartons
With a peculiar shape, you may not think there are many ways you can repurpose an egg carton, but think again! There's a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to egg carton play.
26. Colour Matching
Egg cartons make the best container for colour sorting. Simply indicate what colour each spot should be reserved for and have your little one start sorting!
27. Nature Colour Hunt
With a similar concept to the activity above, this one involves actively going out in nature to fill the egg carton with the treasures you find!
Full Tutorial28. Flower Fairy Lights
If you have any old Christmas or fairy lights around home, spruce them up with the addition of pieces of egg cartons. It will create a beautiful flowery effect! Ruth has chosen to colour hers in, but you can leave them natural, or decorate them with whatever materials you wish!
View Activity
29. Polar Bear
How adorable is this simple little polar bear craft Linda has created from a single egg carton piece and Kitpas Art Crayons? Too cute!
30. Ice Cream Cones
Just when you thought the pointy bit of the egg carton had no use - think again! They make the best ice cream cones for pretend play. All you need is your ice cream, and the Grimm's Balls (which just so happen to be packaged in an egg carton) do the trick.
Glass Jars
Glass jars can be so handy for all sorts of projects, DIY and organisation around the home - particularly in the playroom (just make sure it is handled under adult supervision)! You'll be wanting to stockpile all of those old coffee jars after taking a look at the following activities.
31. Guessing Game
There's nothing quite like a guessing game. Compile your Grapat Loose Parts in a jar and have your family and friends guess how many are in the jar. For an extra challenge, if you have different types of loose parts, guess how many of each type the jar contains.
32. Loose Parts Storage
Our Wooden Ark Family are constantly looking for inspiration and ideas on how to store their abundance of Grapat Loose Parts; why not use your collection of jars to display your loose parts to bring your #shelfie to life?
33. Plant a Seed
Watching a plant grow from a seed gives children a sense of accomplishment and can be a wonderful learning activity. Consider planting seeds in a glass jar with some cotton balls to observe the entire growth process in all its glory!
Full Tutorial
34. Butterfly Feeder
Make your fluttery garden visitors happy with the addition of their personal feeder. Fill a jar with sugar water and pierce a small hole through the lid. Have some cotton balls sticking out of the hole for the butterflies to cling and feed to, before hanging it in the garden!
View Activity35. Minion
Grab your Grapat Loose Parts and Kitpas Art Crayons and make your very own minion. This makes for a great playroom feature or party table decoration.
Popsicle Sticks
You'll be rushing out to the supermarket to buy some ice blocks after taking a look at some of the incredible ways you can turn your popsicle sticks into pure wonder - especially for small world play!
36. Fairy House
Do your Ambrosius Fairies need somewhere to rest their wings at night? Make them their very own fairy house from popsicle sticks and use your Stockmar Watercolour Paints to give it the full cottage-core style!
37. Pencil Holder
We up-cycled the Grimm's Glitterstones packaging to make this simple, but effective pencil holder. Simply, hot-glue your popsicle sticks around the pot and voila!
38. Seed Labels
If you have a tendency to misplace your seed labels, then popsicle sticks are a wonderful alternative. Just use your favourite pencils to decorate them. Popsicle sticks can also be great for marking the growth of your seedlings!
39. Beach House
Your Maileg Mice will be kicking back and relaxing in their new and stylish beach mouse! All you need is a packet of popsicle sticks and some hot glue.
40. Fence
Simple and sturdy, create a fence for your small world play scene. Whether its for your farm, house or garden, popsicle sticks make for a realistic and quaint addition to your small world. Jazz it up with some Stockmar Watercolour Paints to truly bring it to life.
Wooden Pegs
You might deem them as useless when they break in half and the spring falls out, but start keeping all of those old and broken wooden pegs to create some of these ingenious and long-lasting creations!
41. Rocking Chair
We might be bias, but we think this creation rocks! This gorgeous and rustic rocking chair is easy to make and will compliment your doll house beautifully. All you need for this activity are pegs and hot glue!
42. Lion
Who knew painted pegs made the most effective of manes for a lion? Ruth has created this simple masterpiece from cardboard and coloured paper. This is a wonderful activity for developing fine motor skills as well as learning about repeating patterns.
View Activity43. Planter Pot
Create a rustic and unique pot for your plants with pegs. Erin has up-cycled an old terracotta pot by hot-gluing a variety of small and large wooden pegs to it to make this intrinsic and eye-catching design.
44. Compass
Learning the directions of North, East, South and West can sometimes be a challenging lesson for children (who remembers "Never Eat Soggy Weetbix"?) This is not only a craft activity, but a cute playroom display piece, whilst also teaching your child about NESW. We have used the Grimm's Anthroposophical Alphabet Letters.
45. Snowflake
Winter is here, so why not decorate your playroom with some icy flakes? There's no right or wrong way to make these - if you're a little stuck, Pinterest offer many fabulous ideas. We have coloured ours in using the Kitpas Art Crayons.
46. Butterflies
Whether you plan to use them in small world play or as a decoration, these peg butterflies are oh-so-simple, but oh-so-effective. All you need is coffee filters and Stockmar Watercolour Paints.
View Activity47. Ballerina
Pegs have been used as makeshift dolls for small world play scenes for years, but did you know they make the best ballerinas? For this activity, Erin has painted hair, shoes and a leotard onto her little dancers with Stockmar Aquarelle Paint, before using Silk Tissue Paper to make their dazzling tutus using the pompom method.
48. Wreath
Just take a look at this sunflower-inspired wreath Erin has created for her door. She has simply painted the pegs with Stockmar Aquarelle Paint before pegging them onto an old embroidery ring.
49. Xylophone
What child doesn't enjoy making music? This might not make the same sound as the traditional xylophone, but we were inspired by our Goldon Xylophone to create this.
50. Gallery
Decorate your bedroom or play space with this Grimm's inspired art gallery. Peg all of your adored drawings and photographs on it to create a lovely display!
Full TutorialWe hope this collection of activities using recycled materials inspire you and open your mind to more environmentally friendly play ideas. Be sure to share your playtime snaps with us on Facebook and Instagram, tagging us @oskarswoodenark and using the hashtag #oskarswoodenark.
