Every day, we throw away great cardboard boxes from cereal, cake mixes, box meals, and more. That cardboard can be cut with punches and die cutting machines into great shapes, letters, or whatever else you can think of! Use the shapes in scrapbooks, altered journals or for other projects.

Juice box purses are another excellent example of this. A creative elementary teacher started them because she wanted to keep her student's juice pouches out of the trash. Many craft projects can be greatly enhanced by the use of recycled materials! Here's a bunch more ideas to help you start integrating recycling into your crafting:

Stamps and stickers can be used them for collage, scrap booking, altered arts and mixed media assemblage. Cut away or steam off unwanted background paper. You can also glue or otherwise attach them to a new background just as they are.

Game boards and pieces make great components for altered art, scrap booking, assemblage and jewelry. Game markers and dice make great grips, knobs and legs for craft boxes. You can also use them as unique faces and appendages for doll making. Letters and tiles can be incorporated into many types of projects. Drill holes in dice and tiles to convert them in to beads and embellishments for fun jewelry and other art projects.

Rework yarn into weaving, sewing, crocheting or knitting projects. It also makes great embellishments for scrap books and altered art. Rip out old holey sweaters, socks and such. If needed, combine with other yarn and fabric to give it strength. If the yarn is really frayed, cut it in several pieces, mix with paint, gesso, gel medium or even glue to give your painting and/or collage a different texture.

Magazines are perfect for scrap booking, altered arts, mixed media, collage, decoupage, making piatas and paper mache projects. Cut out letters, words, and stories. Use die cutting machines on colorful magazine pages to shape them into tags, envelopes and small gift boxes. Magazines can also be cut into strips and woven into sturdy baskets and bowls.

Broken china, ceramics and mirrors can easily be used in assemblage pieces. They can also be used to resurface a sink or portions of your kitchen and bathroom. Even more exciting uses are found in the garden, when the broken pieces are incorporated into wind chimes, special planters, bird feeders, and mosaic stepping-stones.

Make a design by drilling or punching holes in tin cans such as coffee, soup and dog food cans. Paint the outside of the cans with leftover paint. Place small candles in the cans to make luminaries. Or, make fashionable plant containers by covering them with a cut off blue jean leg, or wrap yarn around them. Cookie and food tins can become more than just containers when you decorate them and turn them in to works of art. Or cut them in to pieces with metal shears and use the resulting parts for jewelry, assemblage and even book covers!

Turn worn out jeans into quilts, organizers, handbags and project totes. Tear them in to strips and braid them into coasters, place mats, rugs or chair pads.

Old books are easily converted into new journals by repainting and altering the pages. See Helium articles on altered books for more details. There are some artists now creating sculptures and furniture from old books by fastening them together with glue, wire and other materials.

Are you starting to get the hang of it? For even more great ideas, check out more Helium craft project and recycling articles!

Learn more about this author, Cindy Hartzell.
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