Recycled Plastic Mobile Art

A and B recently celebrated a birthday.  Friends were very generous and got them many presents, some of which were toys.  After struggling to get the toys out of the packages (not fun while a 3 year old waits under you, whining "Did you get it open?" over and over) I noticed that some packaging could be used for making recycled art. The best thing about recycled art is that you already have the supplies you need at home, probably in your recycling bin.

Take this box, for example. In its former life this housed a Disney princess doll.  I saw the clear plastic in front and wondered what we could do with it.  I had the idea to make a mobile or some hanging art by cutting shapes out of the plastic. 

So first, I ripped the plastic off the box.

I then used a permanent marker to draw various shapes.  You can use a stencil if you want a more professional look, but I just did it freehand. 

After I cut the shapes out, I gave the girls some Crayola Window Crayons.  These things are not really crayons, more like a grease pencil or Cray-pas.  A and B got them for their birthday and I have not tried them out on windows yet.  I thought the vibrant colors would look pretty on our shapes. When they first go on they will smudge a bit but after sitting out for a night the shapes no longer smudged.  Since the plastic is clear the girls only needed to color one side. 

A was pretty meticulous as she is with most things and tried to color most of the shapes. B scribbled on some and lost interest after a while so A finished her leftovers too. One of the things I love about having more than one kid to try my experiments on is that I get an idea of how these will work on a larger audience. Every kid is different and every result will be different. But each is beautiful and special.

When the girls were done, I punched holes in them and hung them up.  I just used some thread and hung them from the ceiling. 

When A saw them she exclaimed, "Wow!  I love them!"  I like how the air conditioner or a breeze will get them moving in different directions. A friend suggested it would be cute to make a moon and stars or a solar system for a kids room.  Any other ideas for recycled art?

For more recycled art ideas check out:

Bottle Print Flowers

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