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8/7/2019 Tips and Crafts for a Green Easter
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/tips-and-crafts-for-a-green-easter 1/1
1. Keep it small. “It is all new stuff to them,” Savedgesaid. “So when they come down the stairs in the morning,they’re like, ‘Whoo-hoo!’ So my first tip is to reign yourself in.If you can keep it small, that’s one of the best things you can doto go a little greener.”
She said she understands the pressure that parents are under,but says it is of little consequence.
“My kids see all that same stuff in the stores — the giantbunny baskets filled to the brim with chocolate,” Savedge said.“I want them to be excited and have a lot of stuff, but I have
found when I make it small, they’re just as excited; they’venever once complained.”
2. DIY baskets. Savedge suggests rifling through
the recycling bin to come up with materials for yourEaster basket. Milk gallon jugs are great places
to start. With some cutting and pasting, you can
make an orange juice carton into a cute pink bunny.(See instructions from Disney FamilyFun magazine,
http://familyfun.go.com/easter/easter-crafts/
easter-baskets/bunny-basket-665124/ .)Savedge said she also scavenges
the containers already in use around
the house.“I have several pretty baskets with
napkins or whatnot, and I just emptythem for a week or so. Then you don’thave to keep track of where the Easter
baskets are stored from year to year.”
3. Grow your own grass.
Instead of using plastic grass, grow
your own grass from seed that is foundat most nurseries and hardware stores.Just sprinkle the seeds into a couple of inches of potting soil in a shallow dish.
Keep it in the sun and water daily fortwo or three weeks. Put the whole thing
into the basket your kids made, or use aterra cotta pot that they have painted.
If you don’t have a green thumb, use
your shredder to carve up newspaper, mag-azines or tissue paper. You can even com-post it after the holiday.
4. Use natural foods to dye the
eggs. Savedge said she feels more com-fortable letting her family eat the eggswhen she skips chemical dyes and colorsEaster eggs with red cabbage leaves (blue);
yellow onions (earthy brown), beets (pink),spinach (light green) and turmeric (bright
yellow). Find help coloring your eggs thenatural way at www.
instructables.com.“The kids love it even better (than using
the kits) because it’s just so cool; they think it’s the craziest thing to dye an egg pink with a beet,” Savedge said.
You also can use up the crayon nubs bydrawing designs on the eggs when they are still warm frombeing boiled.
And, skip the plastic eggs entirely. Instead, decorate oldAltoids tins and fill with candy.
5. Fill the baskets with something more than
junk. Sure, kids love candy, and who doesn’t? To ease your
mind a bit, you can find locally produced chocolates, and thereare organic lollipops or all-natural jelly beans you can findonline. But you also can make sure the basket is largely filled
with things that they will use more than once, and will encour-age them to go outside.
Here are a few ideas:
■ Books or activity books
■ Homemade bubbles made with dishwashing soap and a little
bit of glycerin
■Art supplies or stickers
■A jump rope, kite or ball
■ A starter kit for gardening with kid-sized gloves, a trowel andseeds
■ Something they need anyway, such as new sunglasses or
flip-flops for the warmer months
Embroidery Hoop BasketFrom Disney FamilyFun magazine ,
http://familyfun.go.com/
Recycle old T-shirts and make these color-ful baskets. Before you begin, some terms youneed to know: the warp is the material youstring on the hoop, the weft is the material you
weave with.
MATERIALS:
■ Sleeves from 2 or 3 adult large T-shirts
■ Tacky glue
■ Scissors
■ 12-inch round embroidery hoop. Make largebaskets on a hula hoop by weaving a base
(ours are 8 inches in diameter) then pullingthe weft tight to create sides.
DIRECTIONS:
1. Turn the shirts or
just shirt sleevesinside out and laythem flat on yourwork surface. Run a
line of glue along theseam of each sleeve. If you’re using adult T-shirts, glue the body seams the same way. Thisis so that the seam stitching doesn’t come
undone when you cut them.2. When the glue is
dry, cut 1 / 2-inch-wideloops from the
sleeves. Discard thehems. You’ll need ninesleeve loops for thewarp. For the weft,you’ll need about 50
loops. If you’re using shirt-body loops, you’llneed far fewer (depending on the size of theshirt).
3. Stretch one sleeve warp loop over theembroidery hoop. Add and secure a second
loop, perpendicular to the first.4. Repeat, filling in the spaces, until all
nine loops are in place.5. Push together two warp loops at the top
of hoop. This creates an odd number of warp
spokes in your wheel, which allows theover/under pattern of the weft to alternate witheach new row.
6. Then begin weaving. When your weav-ing is about 4 inches across, begin treatingeach warp spoke as two individual stripsinstead of a single unit, weaving over or under
each strand instead of going over or under thedoubled spoke. This increases the number of warp spokes, improving the structure of the
project. When you get to the two warp spokesthat you pushed together at the top of theloom, separate them.
Treat one of the spokes as two individual
strips, but continue to treat the other as a sin-
gle spoke. This maintains the odd number of warp spokes.7. To form the sides of your basket, begin
stretching the weft material tightly and pulling
it snugly against the weaving as you work.The sides should start to bend up.
8. When the basket is the size you want,snip open your weft loop. Tie the ends arounda warp spoke.
9. Cut the warp spokes off the hoop one ata time. Tie the ends in pairs, then trim them tomake a fringe or tuck them back into the bas-ket.
BYMERRIE LEININGER
McClatchy-Tribune
Kids soon will be clamoring for baskets overflowing with jelly beans, chocolate bunnies and Robin Eggs candies — not to
mention that plastic green grass that immediately goes in thegarbage (if it’s not all over the carpet first). And, while fun, it allseems a little less than environmentally friendly. Fortunatelythere are some other options.
Jenn Savedge, author of “The Green Parent: A Kid-Friendly
Guide to Earth-Friendly Living,” and blogger at www.
thegreenparent.com and www.mnn.com, says greening ourEaster baskets is not only good for the Earth, it’s a great chanceto be creative and bond with our kids, too.
Here are her tips for creating a fun and green Easter:
Tips and ideas for an
environmentally friendlyholiday celebration
WEAVE YOUR OWN BASKET
■ “Eco People on the Go!” and “The Little Composter” fromthe Teenie Greenies series by Jan Gerardi. These board booksare printed on 80 percent recycled paper with soy inks andwater-based varnish.
■ “Garden Crafts for Kids: 50 Great Reasons to Get Your HandsDirty,” by Diane Rhoades, ages 9-12.
■ “The Secret Garden,” by Frances Hodgson Burnett, ages 9-12.
■ “Bunnicula,” by Deborah and James Howe, ages 9-12.
PHOTOS FROM DISNEY FAMILYFUN MAGAZINE
Turn old T-shirts into colorful Easterbaskets with this weaving craft.
MC T
Natural foodscan be used todye eggs
different colorsincluding green(spinach),yellow (tumeric),blue (redcabbage) orbrown (onions).
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ERIC GOODWIN/MCT
HA NDOUT
The Teenie Greenies’ “Eco People on the Go!” and“The Little Composter” books are both printed on80 percent recycled paper and use soy inks.