Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and with new sustainable goals for our homes and life, why not spread the love by creating crafts with 100% recycled paper egg cartons. Moulded fibre egg cartons are made from post-consumer paper like newspaper and office paper and make the perfect base for all of your kid’s creative projects. They can easily be cut, folded, painted and decorated to create whatever the imagination desires. Plus, after you or the recipient has enjoyed them for some time, they can be put right back into the recycling bin to start the process over again – becoming another egg carton. So if you’re ready to have the kids craft this Valentine’s Day and show a parent, grandparent, friend, or teacher just how much they’re appreciated, read on to discover three simple craft ideas that will do just that!
What you’ll need:
Love Bugs
These love bugs are so adorable and easy to make and decorate.
Step 1: First, start with a paper egg carton and cut a row of egg carton cups down the edge between two of the rows, this will be the base for your caterpillar love bug.
Step 2: Next, from the remaining egg carton, cut out individual egg carton cups. These cups will be your ladybug love bugs.
Step 3: After cutting out your egg carton, paint each piece a different colour like pink or red. Once those are dry, paint dots on your ladybug using pink, white, or black.
Step 4: Add eyes to the front of your ladybugs and your caterpillar with white and black paint.
Step 5: After your egg cartons have dried completely, use pipe cleaners to add their antennas. Simply fold and twist the pipe cleaners to make a ‘v’ shape and use glue to secure these to the top of the bug’s head.
Step 6: Bedazzle your love bugs with extra crafting material you have around the house.
Now the love bugs are ready for gifting this Valentine’s Day!
Bouquet of Flowers
Save on store-bought roses this year (they don’t last long anyway!) and create your own bouquet. You can create your bouquet using half or all of your egg carton depending on how many flowers you’d like to create.
Step 1: Start by cutting out individual egg carton cups from your recycled paper egg carton. Each cup will be one flower.
Step 2: To create the look of petals, cut around the edges of the cup to make them rounded or pointed. Once you have your flowers cut, paint each cup a different colour of your choice (we like pinks and purples for this bouquet!) You can use leftover egg carton pieces to make additional leaves or petals and paint these too.
Step 3: Once each egg carton cup is dry, safely poke a hole in the center of each cup using scissors. This is where you’ll thread a pipe cleaner through each flower to create the flower stems.
Step 4: Simply take your pipe cleaner and thread it through the hole in the middle of the flower. Then, twist a knot at the end of the pipe cleaner that is at the center of the paper flower, this will secure the pipe cleaner and flower together. Repeat this process for each flower until they each have a pipe cleaner stem.
Step 5: Once this is complete, you can bundle the flowers by twisting all of the pipe cleaners together or by tying a string around your flower bouquet. This is better than a fresh bouquet of flowers and will be admired for many days (or years) to come.
Framed Heart
A framed heart craft is simple but makes an elegant gift for someone’s home. You may need a larger egg carton for this or multiple egg cartons with 12 cups, depending on how large you’d like your heart to be.
Step 1: First, start by cutting out individual egg carton cups. Once done cutting, paint each cup red or pink (or you could paint them all different colours depending on what style you’d like to create).
Step 2: Once the paint has dried, glue each cup open-side down to form a heart on an 8.5” x 11” piece of thick cardstock paper or cardboard (or whichever size paper you have that fits your frame).
Step 3: Once the glue is dried and the heart is secure, place this paper into the frame of your choice. If the glass does not fit with the egg cartons, you can remove it so the egg carton heart protrudes from the frame.
Step 4: Place the backing of the frame to secure the paper in place.
This makes a perfect gift for someone you love and can even be placed on a shelf or mantle to be admired longer than Valentine’s Day.
These simple and fun crafts will keep the kids busy during the winter days of February and will also have them spreading joy to the ones they love. You may also wish to use the opportunity to speak to the little ones about the importance of recycling and reducing our single-use plastic waste. After all, we want to show the earth some love too! Are you ready to start crafting? Share your creations with us using #ditchplasticpackaging on social media and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Check out our other recycled paper egg carton crafts here: Christmas Characters and Ocean Creatures.
