It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish! {Holiday Upcycling: Bottle Cap Olaf Ornaments}

Why Upcycling?

Want to learn why Frannie is doing an upcycling project this week? Check out the Upcycled Clothing Pin Snowflake Ornament blog here.

This Week's Project:
Bottle Cap Olaf Ornament

Frannie found some old bottle caps sitting in her desk, and she decided to upcycle them into her favorite Frozen snowman: Olaf!

Materials:

• 3 bottle caps
• scissors
• white paint
• white, black, and orange construction paper or foam sheets
• hot glue gun
• string or ribbon
• sticks (can be collected for free outside!)
• small, white pom poms

Instructions:

1. Collect 3 bottle caps. 
   
2. Paint the bottle caps white. This may take several layers of paint.
   
    
3. Glue the three bottle caps together using a hot glue gun. It's helpful to ask for the assistance of an adult when doing this part of the activity. For extra support, glue a piece of string across the back of all three bottle caps. 
   
4. Add the stick arms, buttons, and pom pom feet using the glue gun. If you don't have black buttons, you can use black construction paper.
   
5. Using the scissors, cut out the elements of Olaf's face: mouth (with large front tooth), carrot nose, eyes, and eyebrows. Glue these elements to the top bottle cap. You can add a small pom pom to add a cheek to your Olaf if you wish. 
   
6. Finish your Olaf ornament by gluing a looped piece of string to the back of the top bottle cap. Congratulations! You have just made an Upcycled Bottle Cap Olaf Ornament! 

For More Fun:

Make a snowman family! Using different items you find around the house (buttons, scraps of yarn or fabric, craft supplies such as glitter, etc.) make some friends for Olaf. Get creative and have fun!

Share: 

Share photos of you or your troop with your Upcycled Bottle Cap Olaf Ornaments here!

It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish! {Holiday Upcycling: Toilet Paper Roll Wreaths}

Why Upcycling?

Want to learn why Frannie is doing an upcycling project this week? Check out last week's blog here.

This Week's Project:
Toilet Paper Roll Wreaths

Frannie loves holiday wreaths! She thinks they are a neat way to add a festive touch to a room. Frannie loves that she can use her old toilet paper rolls to create beautiful wreaths for her home!

Materials:

• 9 toilet paper rolls
• scissors
• green paint
• small red circles (think buttons, construction paper, etc. Frannie used scraps of red foam)
• glue
• string or ribbon

Instructions:

1. Collect 9 toilet paper rolls. You can also use 4 paper towel rolls or 1 wrapping paper roll. 
   
2. Cut the toilet paper rolls into smaller pieces - about 3/4" wide. You'll need 5 smaller pieces to make one flower, and you'll need a total of 45 pieces to make 9 flowers. 
   
3. Paint each piece green. 
   
4. Arrange the pieces the way you would like them to look. You can use the photo as an example. Then, glue your pieces together. 
   
5. Adorn your green wreath with red "berry" accents. You can use red buttons, red circles cut out from construction paper, or anything else you can think of! Place them around the wreath according to taste and glue them in place.
   
6. Congratulations! You have just made an Upcycled Toilet Paper Roll Wreath! Hang it somewhere special to add a lovely holiday touch to a room.

For More Fun:

Add layers to your wreath! If you have extra toilet paper rolls, you can create more flowers to add more layers and dimension to your wreath. Get creative and have fun!

Share: 

Share photos of you or your troop with your Upcycled Toilet Paper Roll Wreath here!

It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish! {Holiday Upcycling: Clothing Pin Snowflake Ornament}

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. 

This month, Frannie wants to focus on the second R - Reuse. One way we can reuse things is by repurposing them or upcycling them. Upcycling is the process of taking something that would normally be thrown away and making it new and usable again. Upcycling is a great way to reduce our waste and conserve water! 

How does upcycling reduce waste and conserve water? 

Upcycling reduces the need to use new, raw materials when making a new product. By using old materials instead of new materials, less energy and water is used. Furthermore, air pollution and water pollution are reduced!

Over the next four weeks, Frannie is going to share some of her favorite holiday upcycling projects! All of these projects are made from common items you may find around your home.

This week's project: 
Upcycled Clothing Pin Snowflake Ornament

Frannie was looking through her home for fun items to upcycle when she came across some broken clothing pins. With some creativity (and the help of Pinterest), Frannie decided to make a snowflake ornament out of her broken clothing pins!

Materials:

• 8 clothing pins (or 16 halves of clothing pins)
• white paint
• paint brush
• glue
• string

Instructions:

1. Gather together your 8 clothing pins. You'll need both halves of each clothing pin for a total of 16 pieces. 
   
2. Paint each clothing pin white. 
   
3. Glue the clothing pin halves together as shown in the photo. You should end up with 8 snowflake pieces. Thread a string through the hole in one piece. 
   
4. Glue four snowflake pieces together into a "+" shape as shown in the photo. 
   
5. Glue the final four snowflake pieces into the corners of the already glued pieces, making sure the snowflake piece with the string is located where you would like the "top" of your snowflake to be. 
   
6. Congratulations! You have just made an Upcycled Clothing Pin Snowflake Ornament! Hang it up as a winter decoration or wrap it up to give as a gift.

For More Fun:

Get creative! Add color to your snowflake or a touch of glitter. Write a special message on it or have all the girls from your troop sign their names on it. Have fun!

Share:

Share photos of you or your troop with your Upcycled Clothing Pin Snowflake Ornament here! 

It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish! {Saving Energy, Saving Water: Part 6}

This week is our last week in our Saving Energy, Saving Water series on Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! To end our series and kick-off the holiday season, Frannie wanted to share ways you can save energy and save water by how you use (or don't use) holiday lights!

1. Use LED holiday lights. 
As Frannie shared in part 4 of the Saving Energy, Saving Water series, LED lights are more efficient than standard incandescent lights and use less energy!

Frannie loves hanging LED icicle lights from her fence.

2. Limit the light you use. 
Only turn your outdoor lights on when it gets dark outside and remember to turn them off when you head to bed. If you have trouble remembering to turn your lights on or off, you can use a timer to automatically turn your lights on and off during certain hours every evening. Also remember to unplug any indoor holiday lights (such as tree lights) when you leave a room! 

3. Utilize fire instead of electric lights. 
If you have a fireplace, you can use the fireplace to help heat your home while providing light for a room, helping to save energy in two different ways! Even if you don't have a fireplace, using candles instead of electric lights can help save energy as well. Remember to never leave a burning candle unattended and always ask an adult for assistance when lighting a fire in a fireplace. Fire safety is very important!

Frannie enjoys lighting candles during the holidays to decorate and add light to a room.

4. Don't throw away those old, burned-out lights. 
You can upcycle them into beautiful ornaments, centerpieces, or wreaths and re-purpose them. Upcycling is a great way to reduce waste and reduce the amount of water we use in the creation of new materials. It is also a lot of fun! Frannie enjoys upcycling so much that she plans to devote the next four weeks to holiday upcycling projects. So, stay tuned for fun activities you can do with your family, friends, and troop that will help reduce waste and conserve water!

How are you saving energy and saving water this holiday season? Do you have more ideas other than the ones we discussed the past six weeks in Frannie's blog series? Share them here!