Knick-knacks' box from recyclables!

What do you do on a holiday with your restless little one.. when you have absolutely no plans or no specific agenda? Well, this is one of those ideas that hit me.. there is no rocket science or strategy or process to this - this just happened. And I want to put it down on record because it was so cool! 

We came to the UK and my husband and I bought new mobile phones soon enough. The boxes that they came in were so sturdy and nice that I did not throw them out immediately. I just kept them away, without really thinking about what to do with them. But one dull, cold and grey Sunday I took them out - along with some water colours and other stuff.

Now this one - doesn't it look really cute? I mean, its so easy... all I did was ask A to colour it all over in bright yellow. When it was all dried up, I marked out the red areas at the edges and again A drove a thick brush dipped in red in a straight line. Yes, I did run a brush over the whole thing later, but that was just to even out the shades.

This one was even easier -  we had done some other craft some other day ( I think Appa made a clock for us with green craft paper) and I had some paper left over. All I did was to stick over the box after A painted it a clean red.  Zo zimble, no?

Now this one - this was a total timepass activity. I brought everything out. Foam, glitter glue, yarn, colours. A has this deep love for black that keeps popping out every now and then. So we coloured the whole box black. I cut up foam into little squares, to use them like mosaic tiles. A stuck them all around by herself after I asked her if she could manage. She wanted me to use the yarn pieces but I did not have any idea what to do with them - so I just dipped them in a little glue and made spirals out of them on the cover. Then I invited A to dribble and spread glitter glue of different colours in the gaps in the yarn. And that's what we got! :-)

I would really encourage this kind of activity with your little ones -  for days when you really have nothing to do but the kiddo's battery just wouldn't tire out. You can always jazz it up later, but the idea is to just let her do whatever she wants. Not only would you let her be creative, you are also teaching her to recycle in the process! :-)