Indoor garden

Earth Day is approaching and there is still a lot to do. It is time to clean the yard so Spring flowers can bloom. Time is approaching to start the garden and ideas are flutter in your head. With all the plans for outside, what about inside? With the weather getting warmer, the kids are getting restless. You have good weather one day and then we are back to the cold. Spring is still in it infancy and it can be temperamental. How about a nice craft for indoor plants. Yes you can buy store bought plain looking planters or you can recycle some items and make some cute planters that will bring color to the house. This will help teach our kids about Earth Day and why recycling is a good thing. I have found lots of planter crafts by using the plastic soda pop bottles. Here are some great ideas for you to start with.

Remember that you can decorate any way you want and the kids will enjoy themselves. So be creative.

The top one is a vase for all the Spring flowers that are starting to bloom. My mother really likes to have flowers in the house all year round. As we are poor and I can't afford flowers once a week, I bought lots of fake one and I also got the incense candles that will give her fake Spring smell. Yes, my mother can tell the difference but sometimes you have just improvise and accept life as it is. My neighbors have lots of rose bushes so in time, I will be bring in fresh flowers.

The next one, it is a bigger version of the sprouts in the eggs. They are simple and cute and will go well with the kids other projects. Starting with seeds will help them understand how plants grow. So in reality you have a craft and a learning experience all wrapped up in one. And of course don't forget that you are teaching them to recycle.

Now the bottom one is cute if you don't want a face staring back at you. My niece had two pet tarantulas and they were always watching me. I had a hard time playing my video games with all those eyes staring at me. And I know that they were salivating when I was eating too. I was so glad when she came and got them as I could not take the eyes staring at me.

So on this project they are just cute little planters that can be designed in various styles. Paint them up to you favorite colors and enjoy them.

My mother love the color green and she loves frogs. On hers, she can draw little frogs. Shanti is multicolored and she is a hippy at heart. She loves the bright and vibrant colors mixed together.

As for me, my favorite color is purple but I have a gothic streak so I would do mine in red and black. Instead of flowers I may do jewels or draw a bat, maybe.

Now remember your flowers and ask you local flower shop about the correct flowers and plants. In these planters you do not have proper irrigation so you need to plant the correct plants.

I am not an expert, you can get your Ouija board out and ask my past plants. That is how I discovered that all plants need different amount of water. Overwatering and not proper drainage is the highest rate of murder on plants.

We have not done these yet but I have Shanti on Saturday and soon it will be Summer vacation and I will have to make plans on the crafts that she can do with mom while I am at work.

So enjoy and I hope this helps you out and gives you an idea or two.

Earth Day crafts

My mother always told me to take care of my stuff because when it is gone it is gone. The same thing goes with the Earth. We are slowly killing our planet that has given us life. Earth Day was created to bring awareness to the public. Education is our best way to promote the awareness. Kids need to be involved at a young age, so I have found some projects that I am looking forward in doing with Shanti. Addie has already tasted Nature and she likes it. By next year I will be able to do more projects with her. Right now all I can do is hand prints and foot prints. She may be walking but she has no coordination when it comes to drawing.

I have already posted origami flowers and here are some more crafts that we can do.

Coffee Ground Fossils

As Addie is only one, I am limited on the crafts I can do with her. This is something that both her and Shanti will enjoy.

 

What You Need
1 cup of used coffee grounds

1/2 cup of cold coffee
1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of salt
Wax paper
Mixing bowl
Some small objects to make impressions in the dough
Empty can or a butter knife
Toothpicks, optional
String to hang your fossil, optional

How To Make It

Stir the together the coffee grounds, cold coffee, flour, and salt until well mixed.

Knead the dough together and then flatten it out onto the waxed paper.

Use the can to cut out circles of the dough or use the dull knife to cut slabs large enough to fit your "fossil" objects.

Press your objects firmly into the dough. When you take the object out, you have your "fossil". If you want to hang the fossil, poke holes into the edge to hold the string.

You will need to bake them to make the hard. If you let them air dry it will take 3-4 days to harden. Some people commented that they still needed to bake them, but on the other hand some said that they did not need to bake them.

This is also fun if you want to do an archeology trip in the back yard.

Egg Carton Caterpillars

Here is a project that we did with Shanti and Nae. We took egg carton and cut them up and added some beads for eyes. We used pip cleaners for the antennas. We had fun painting them and drawing symbols on them.

We added string to them so we can hang them in the trees. These were done last year and we might do them again.

Earth Day is about helping our planet by and in this craft we are recycling the egg cartons. Due to health issues some places will not let you bring you own containers and we eat a lot of eggs. So we do lots of crafts with egg cartons.

Terrarium

Last year we made a Fairy Terrarium. It was a nice project to so with Shanti. We taught her the difference between plants. My mother likes caucus so we put some desert plants in it. Shanti and mom decided that they wanted a Fairy theme so we got some cute ones. We added some colored glass in it to give it more color.

I hope you like this and it gives some ideas. One thing that you need to remember that you need the same kind of water plants. Not all plants need the same amount waters. As we did a Desert terrarium, we don't need to water it every other day. We just kind of mist over it a couple of times a week and it is taken care of. You may need to ask questions if you don't know your plants.

I hope you enjoy yours like we have enjoyed ours. It was not just a craft but it was a learning one. When we get things moved, we might have room for another one. I might have to do some research into tropical plants. Who knows want kind of stuff we can do, the possibilities are endless.