Nandini P.
Teaching children to recycle objects and materials is a great way to encourage them to adopt an environment friendly lifestyle.
Here’s a DIY activity recycling old newspapers and magazines to craft a pen stand and/or flower vase.
Materials Needed
- Newspaper
- Thin wooden stick (skewer stick) or stiff plastic straws
- Craft glue
- Flat brush
- Wood primer (optional)
- Acrylic paints (optional)
- Varnish (optional)
Methodology
- Cut a newspaper page in half.
- Starting at one corner, place the stick on it, and start rolling the paper inwards.
- As the stick disappears, keep pulling it out and continue rolling till the end.
- Pull out the stick, and paste the edge to form a neat roll.
- Prepare 30 rolls.
Making the base
- Take one roll, flatten it, and apply glue to one side. Roll it tightly into a coil.
- Take another roll, and continue to make the coil bigger by pasting this one where the other one ends. Do this, until you have a good base, about the size of a coaster.
Making the sides
- Stick the rolls firmly against the side of the coaster. When about ten are stuck, hold them in place for a few minutes till they are well glued, then place them against a wall or object, and dry.
- Make more rolls until the glue is completely dry (about 15 minutes).
- Next paste the remaining rolls. Place a bottle or similar object in the middle to give the rolls support until dry.
- After it is dry, flatten two rolls to paste around the container.
- Check the size and cut the rolls to fit.
- Paste one near the top and one near the bottom to strengthen the container. Let it dry.
- If you want to keep the container as is, you can. If you want a different finish, proceed as outlined below.
Colourful finish
- If you want to make the container sturdy, mix three tablespoons of craft glue with one teacup of water and blend well.
- Coat the container with this mixture using a big, flat brush.
- After it is dry, coat it with wood primer, then paint it with acrylic colours and decorate as you like.
- Finally, coat it with varnish and your pen stand/flower vase is ready for use!