Time to take that simple wooden frame and make it work overtime!

With just a few simple screw-in hardware hooks you can transform that plain picture frame into a convenient place to keep your keys.

What To Do: Use a ruler to evenly space out where you will place the hooks. Mark your measurements with a pencil. With a hammer and a small nail, gently tap a tiny hole into each of your pencil marks. Twist your hooks into the holes and that’s it!!

Pick your favorite pre-Picasso to frame, hang it by the door, and enjoy your re-newed functional and fabulous frame.

(click on an image to enlarge)

* * please bear in mind, the finished project is not suitable for food * *

Ever wish you could pick up a pencil and draw a life-like image in under five minutes? Well, you could practice, practice, practice… or you could carbon-copy it. Carbon paper is the original copy-machine. Not only is it quick and easy, but yields amazing results.

Simply place a piece of carbon paper between a clean sheet and the picture you want to copy. We used pictures from magazines in the recycling bin.

Use a pencil to outline the main shape of the image. You can also use this as a teaching technique to help identify line(s) in an image.

Remove the top two sheets to see the result. Beautiful! Paint or color your picture, or leave as is. Up to you!

This one’s plain, simple, and best when duplicated.

Empty metal cans are an eco-stylish decorating advantage. These cheap and useful vases are a great way to disperse flowers throughout your home and yard while entertaining this summer season.

Simply collect and clean out your empty food cans. Tomato cans work well, because the inside of the can is coated with a special enamel finish, but any empty can will do.

If working with children, please make sure there are no sharp edges where the lid came off. If so, going over the area with a can opener one more time will usually do the trick.

To prevent rust rings on your furniture or ledges, coat the bottom of each can with clear nail polish, and allow to dry completely.

Fill the cans halfway with water. Add a few small stones to the bottom of each can to weigh them down, and then add the flowers. Tiny hands will find it fun and easy arranging flowers in these mini-marvels.

The warmer months are a great time for painting.

Put the kids in their bathing suits, gather your supplies and bring it all outside (to the yard, stoop, or park). Use washable tempura paints and let them go wild. Paint pictures, leaves, fingers, toes, whatever!  Encourage them to use their imaginations, get messy & have fun.

When play time’s over, grab the hose (or sprinklers at the park) and wash off.  Whip out the shampoo and call it a night. This one’s sure to be a hit!

Lacking the adequate time for sewing, these cute little buddies were whipped up in less than half an hour with the help of an adult and a hot glue gun.

Start with a piece of colored felt. Cut into a long strip at least 5 inches wide and about 10 inches long. We used the fold-over technique to form a quick pocket that only needs 3 sides sealed.

Heat up the hot glue gun while you decorate your buddy. We used yarn, buttons, and more colored felt to make a cute face for our buddies. Sharpies, or another type of permanent marker also works well for drawing on details.

When your face is decorated, seal 2 of the sides with hot glue, and let cool for about 5 minutes (it is important that the glue have enough time to set). This should form a pocket.

Next you have to fill your buddy. The idea is to use beans, but we had to improvise and mix beans with dry elbow macaroni. It worked great.

Now, seal up the final side, allow the hot glue to cool completely and your buddy is ready!

Bean bag buddies are not only an easy craft, but the first step of a fun activity… line up pots and pans from smallest to largest and you have yourself a bean-bag-toss.

Using the trash twice is a very special skill… Here’s another really addictive project that reuses those styrofoam trays they strap our food to in the supermarkets.

Printing is a fun & easy way to make your own birthday party invitations, holiday and thank you cards. Styrofoam relief printing is great for young kids because no major cutting is required, only drawing and tracing. Scribble-scrabble even looks cool when it’s printed with this technique.

You Need:

• a rubber brayer
• water-soluble block printing ink
• styrofoam tray
• old magazine
• aluminum foil
• paper & pencil
• recycled paper to print on

1. Start by cutting off the rounded corners of your styrofoam tray so that it lays flat. This is the size of the surface you have to work with.
2. On a piece or scratch paper, draw a sketch to use for your print. Tip: Keep it simple… tiny details do not show up very well with this type of print.
3. Tape your drawing onto the foam plate. Transfer the image to the foam by tracing over your picture using a firm and steady pressure. When you have gone over the whole image, remove the tape and picture. You will need to go over the foam plate one more time with your pencil to carefully carve out the details.
4. Get your work area ready! Cover your work area. Wrap an old magazine with aluminum foil to make a palate for your ink. Squeeze a finger sized amount onto your palate and roll back and forth and up and down with your rubber brayer until it is evenly covered.
5. Roll ink onto your foam printing plate.
6. Flip printing plate over onto a clean sheet of recycled paper.
7. Press firmly all around. Then carefully peel the paper off.
8. Allow to dry.

To use a new color, wash the brayer and printing plate. Re-cover the same magazine with a new layer of foil, and apply new printing ink.

Clean-up is easy, just wash right away with soap and water! Wash your printing plate and you can use it again and again.

Here are a few more pictures of what we did…

At bubbalulu.com we’re always ready with a few reusable bags to do our shopping. And while we’re finally starting to notice a shift away from plastic bags and bottles, they do still end up in our lives. The important thing, is what we do with them next… don’t toss them, reuse them!!

This is a simple project, inspired by an old Girl Scout camping trick, and it’s a great way to keep all those annoying plastic bags tucked neatly away.

Using an empty plastic bottle, cut off the top. We used a sharp kitchen knife to slice ours. Next, you need to trim the sharp, newly exposed plastic edge with some masking tape (so you don’t hurt yourself putting the bags in and out). And that’s it!

If you’re doing this with kids, have them stuff the dispenser with your plastic bags. We fit about 20 bags into each bottle. WOW! Under the sink looks so neat.

Popsicle stick projects have been entertaining children for generations, and the popsicle stick box is an old staple.

This simple building project can be done with children as young as 3 (with help, of course). And guess what? It’s functional.

All you need to get going are popsicle sticks and Elmer’s glue… where you go from there is up to you! We decorated our lid with a simple leaf cut-out from an old magazine, and affixed it with Mod Podge (you can also dilute a little Elmer’s with water). However, you may want to jazz up your lid by gluing on beads or shells, or even painting it.. the possibilities are a-plenty!

The steps have been outlined visually below. The most important thing to remember when constructing your Popsicle Stick Box is not to use too much glue, just a dab will do, and you need to allow your box to dry before moving it.