Don’t Throw it Out: How to Craft with Scraps

Crafting with grandkids can be expensive. Quarts of Elmer’s glue, acrylic paints, poster paints, markers, cardstock, glitter…. One way to save a little money is to craft with scraps and use all your supplies to the fullest.

What My Mom Taught Me

Mom was a saver. To this day, ten years after her passing, I find pill bottles filled with short florist wire; and bits of lace, loose buttons, and artificial flowers tucked in candy boxes; ready for her crafting projects. She made Christmas ornaments and other wonderful and clever creations that she sold at craft fairs and tourist shops in Hawaii.

Mom wasn’t a hoarder. She just never let anything go to waste that could still be used. She was motivated by economics–but also, ingrained, was a moral component as a depression-era child.

Tips for Creating a Craft Room

Like my mom, I’m a saver, too. In fact, many of the ideas you’ll find in Grandma Crafts are fashioned from scraps.

Here’s what I save for future projects:

Craft with Scraps: Supplies

• Acrylic paint: While you can’t put leftover paint back into the tube, you CAN use up what’s left to prep for a future project, rather than rinse it down the drain. I paint toilet paper rolls with the leftover paint. Kids can turn the painted tubes into a sports car, pompom canons, or a magical fairy house later on.

• Interesting odds and ends: Flip-top plastic lids, various kinds of packaging caps, empty spools…I save anything that has potential. Some of these items were used when Miss T and I made a dollhouse from shoeboxes.

• Colored tissue paper: Save the scraps to make tissue paper bowls or collages.
• Cardstock. Save even the smaller bits. They’re great for small projects, such as making gift tags. Sometimes, I just hole-punch shapes–butterflies, small hearts, teddy bears; scalloped circles. Kids can use them instead of stickers for their craft projects.
• Ribbon: Save the really nice fabric ribbons from gift packages. Roll them up and store them in a bin to use when you need a small amount of ribbon such as for surprise balls, tiny gift packages, fairy lanterns, or clothespin dolls.
• A word about confetti: When you buy confetti, you’re buying something just to throw away. So why not use your scraps to make your own? Snip cardstock and tissue paper into bits while you’re watching a movie at home. We use lots of confetti to make confetti eggs for every celebratory occasion.

• Leftover felt: Make Christmas ornaments by tracing cookie cutter shapes onto two pieces of felt. Stitch together by hand or machine, with a thin layer of polyester fiberfill between. Or make a felt book.

What not to Save

• Styrofoam packing material: It will make a mess as we found out when N tried to make something with it. As he cut up the Styrofoam, small particles ended up on his cheeks, in his hair, and electrostatically clinging to his clothes…and all over the floor. Never again.

Craft with Scraps: Equipment

• Takeout plastic sauce containers: Sometimes, white school glue is easier for kids to work with from a small cup. Use a glue sponge to apply the glue. When done, you can cap the sauce cup and the glue will keep for awhile without hardening.
• Bamboo skewers and toothpicks: They’re great for dabbing glue into small spaces. Rinse them out afterwards and reuse.
• Old plastic placemats: Use them to protect work surfaces.
• Old magazines: As well as cutting them up for their illustrations to make books and story cards, use old magazines as a work surface when applying glue; when kids get excess glue on the magazine, just flip the page for another clean surface.

Storage

I realize I’m fortunate to have an entire craft room to store all my scraps and space in our garage, too. If you’re short on space, it may not be practical to save scraps. In that case, consider a craft project with a planned over, followup project.

For example, make Mexican paper flowers, then for a next project, use the scraps to make tissue paper bowls or collages. Next, cut some scraps for confetti, then toss the remainder.

If you have room for scraps, organize them in labeled bins so they are easy to find when you and the grandkids want to make something.

Organize tools by type and use. I have small paper punches, X-ACTO knives, and other cutting tools in one drawer. There’s another for paints and crayons, and another for stamps and stamp pads.

Miss T knows where to find everything in the craft room. She can gather the materials and start on projects by herself.

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