Yes, yes, Earth Day has come and gone, but we here at FaveCrafts.com think that the Earth is important enough to deserve at least a whole week or celebration. That’s why we’ve been honoring the Earth with special recycled and upcycled projects that help keep a little less out of the landfills. We want you to craft green to help the Earth and help yourselves save a little green. This small challenge comes with big reward. Return daily to enter to win one of two exciting Earth Week prizes. Find the contest rules and enter below.
*This giveaway is now over. Please enjoy the free tutorial below.
Today’s project is graciously brought to you by Scrapkins! They are a New York city based brand for kids art and crafting that focuses on using recycled materials – teaching kids to be creative and Eco-conscious at the same time! This project is an adorable, easy, and fun craft to make with your kids that not only helps recycle some household items
Scrapkins Milk Carton Pirate Ship
Materials:
- Clean and dry milk or juice carton (any size will do)
- 1 toilet paper tube (or paper towel tube cut in half)
- 1 Egg carton
- 1 drinking straws
- Scissors
- Stapler
- Hole Punch
- Tape
- Markers/Crayons
- Pencil
- Paints or Colored Paper
Steps:
- Let’s begin mateys! Cut the top 1/3″ off the milk carton. You can ask an adult for help cutting.
- Trim the corners off the front of the top piece along the lines so it has a triangular end.
- Using a pencil carefully poke a hole in the center of the top piece for your mast.
- Use scissors to make 2 tiny snips in the end of the straw. Pull apart the 2 ends of the straw along the cuts so your straw has 2 flaps.
- Raise the Mast! Put the end of the straw through the hole in the top ship piece and fold down the 2 ends of the straw. Use a stapler to staple each end flat to the top piece so you mast is standing straight and secure.
- Place the top piece inside the bottom piece so the mast is up. Put 2 staples along each side to secure the top piece to the bottom. Now you have the hull of your ship with a Mast!
- Make a Sail! Cut along the edge of a toilet paper tube so you can open it flat.
- Use markers or crayons to design and decorate the sail.
- Use the hole punch to punch one hole at the top of your sail in the middle and one hole at the bottom.
- Attach the Sail! Slide the end of the mast through the 2 holes in the sail.
- Make a Crow’s Nest! Use scissors to cut off 1 egg cup from the egg carton so it looks like a little bowl.
- Use a pencil to gently poke a hole in the bottom of the Crow’s Nest. Slide the Crow’s Nest on the mast above the sail.
- Extras: Use paint to decorate the hull of the ship or cut out shapes of colored paper to glue on. You can make a flag out of a piece of paper and attach it to your sail. Try making more than one sail.
- Sail Your Ship! Place your ship in water and watch it float.
Wasn’t that easy? Thanks to Scrapkins for providing such a fun project. You can actually find this project and many more like it in their book, Scrapkins Build It Book: 12 Things You Can Make from Junk!
Having a pirate party with your kids? Check out these other great projects from AllFreeKidsCrafts!
- Papier Mache Pirate Ship
- Cheerful Cardboard Pirate Ship
- Thrifty Cardboard Pirate Ship
- A Pirate’s Life for Me
- Pirate Treasure Chests
- Scurvy Pirate Outfits and Swords
Earth Week Giveaway
Return daily to comment on the blog for your chance to win one of the two Earth Week prizes. One lucky winner will win a Wool Felt Bug Kit and an Art Journal Kit from Arterro, and another lucky winner will win two hanks of At the Bahamas: Multi Colored Recycled Sari Silk Ribbon Yarn from Darn Good Yarn.
Bonus! As a gift to all Earth Week participants, when shopping with Arterro enter the coupon code FAVE20 for 20% off any order through May 1st.
OFFICIAL RULES
- There is a maximum of one entry per person per day. The entry will be based upon a comment left on this blog post. Duplicate comments will be deleted and are not tallied. You can comment once a day on each blog post.
- Winners will be selected at random from the comments on the Earth Week blog posts.
- Winners will be announced here on the blog on April 29th as well as contacted by the email address provided.
- You have until April 28th, 2013 at 11:59p EST to leave your comment on any of the Earth Week posts. Comments posted after that will not be counted.
- Contest open to anyone 18+ in US and/or Canada.
What household items do you keep to craft with?
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I save all boxes/containers and the kids use a hotglue gun to make whatever comes to mind.
I keep lots of items. Egg cartons, boxes, jars etc.
Cute!
I keep old film canisters for my beads. They are clear so it easy to see whats in them. I am not crazy about the clear boxes with the compartments because if it gets knocked over, there are a lot of beads to be picked up.
I save almost everything, jars and decorative tins I use for storing buttons and ribbons. I keep cards and pretty paper for cutting up, plastic bottle tops, egg cartons, fabric scraps from my quilting and sewing and I even collect the hanging ribbons I cut off clothing as I do not use them to hold clothes on hangers and you get so many different widths, lengths and colours.
I use paper towel and toilet paper rolls for crafts at school, and I use an old ice cube tray to hold beads and findings!
I keep the foam trays from meat to reuse for painting or beading. I also use the small containers that baby food comes in for small sewing pieces or beads.
I keep straws, plastic bottles and newspaper.
OH my 3yr old grandson LOVES pirate stuff! Will make this NOW!
I like to keep small jars and other containers to keep small items together in my craft room.
Keep the oaper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls to use and scrap cardboard that are between clothes from mail order
stax cans,small boxes, cans
My husband keeps containers of all kinds and keeps reminding me not to throw them away. He loves making things and is the crafty one in our home. We have a grandson that benefits from this!
baby food jars, glass food jars
My biggest stash of recycled materials is cardboard – “sheets” and toilet paper rolls
I save lots of rycyclables to use with the grandchildren. There is so many things to make or just make up weird things with the younger ones for they just like to have fun and seem to always have fun doing just that.
I recycle old bed sheets into balls of “yarn” and use them to create crochet rag rugs. I super interested in this giveaway’s silk yarn!
I’d love to win this for our church preschool (Little Bee’s Preschool, First Baptist Church, 100 E. Webster, Mt. Pleasant, IA). Children are limited only by their imagination, and this prize should give them a lot of good ideas.
The recycled sari yarn is beautiful… Fingers crossed!
I save ribbon, wrapping paper and boxes.
Oh my goodness! My Great Nephew is going to love this. I’m not just a Good Aunt, I’m a Great Aunt and will make this for him. Thank you so much for sharing!
Toilet paper cardboards, paper towel cardboards, oatmeal boxes, egg cartons, liquid creamer containers.
Candy wrappers are my favourites – they’re perfect for atc’s and a number of them glued together make great book covers.
Tin cans,toilet paper & paper towel rolls, plastic bags from stores, cereal boxes etc. etc. etc…..
corks and beer caps
Film canisters for small storage and large yogurt containers for large storage. There are other things I also recycle…
Love this!
I keep toilet paper and paper towel rolls, also kleenex boxes and any do dads I find around the house.
smjohns63 at yahoo dot com
I try to use as much as possible… I think the TP rolls seem to multiply fastest, so it’s a good thing I’m a children’s librarian. There are lots of children’s crafts that use TP rolls!
I collect empty quart yogurt containers and glass bottles.
This looks like a great project for my son. I will have to wait until I aquire a milk carton. Thanks for the idea!
I reuse cans to make wall decor and mobiles. I take off the top and bottom and then use metal shears to cut the metal into different shapes.
I keep all kinds of things like paper tubes, bread ties, magnets, magazines, milk jug rings, leaves and pinecones.
I’m the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your pirate ship! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/milk-carton-pirate-ship/
If you have other kid friendly crafts, we’d love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!
And, to answer your question, I craft with toilet paper rolls, empty water bottles, old magazines and newspapers, bubble wrap, lunch sacks, and a whole bunch of other items. 🙂