Messy Mittwoch: Recycling & repurposing

As most of you would know, we're currently trying to declutter the house, and are trying to throw, donate, or giveaway various things that we have.  While that is happening, we still do try to recycle or repurpose various items  too (remember how toilet rolls can be a fashionable find?).  Some of these things end up being useful for doing craft with Junior J:

I find the styrofoam trays that come with some veggies (I usually chuck the meat ones since they can be quite icky)
very handy as paint palettes.  They don't get soggy like paper plates, can be washed after some messy paint fun, and last for quite abit.  When you're done with them as palettes, you can also trim off the bottom and use the grid-like patterns for printing on paper!

Food containers are especially useful.  Glass jars end up holding flowers, and we also save some other sturdier plastic containers (eg. cream cheese and yoghurt containers) for the boy to play in his kitchen:

Feeding his brachiosaurus yoghurt during breakfast.  It started with spoon-feeding,
then the poor dino ended being dunked!

Simple, money-saving fun. :)

"Brachiosaurus fall down into the yoghurt!  He's sticky and needs a shower!"
Now repeat this another 10 times until Mama has fed him all his blueberries and cereal...

Here are some more ideas on kids crafts using recycled materials.  I'm thinking of trying out some of them...  Do you recycle and repurpose materials for your kids to play or craft with?  Do share!  (Pssst, I've been enjoying our conversations over on the Facebook page thus far...)