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!

It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish! {Saving Energy, Saving Water: Part 5}

"If all U.S. households installed water-efficient appliances, the country would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion dollars per year!" 
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

The types of appliances we use as well as how we use them can play a large role in our energy consumption and water use. This week, Frannie wanted to share a simple way you can help save energy and save water in your household:

Always run full loads of clothing in your washing machine and full loads of dishes in your dishwasher.

This dishwasher is not full enough for Frannie!
She knows she can save energy and water by waiting to run
the dishwasher until it is completely full.

This simple tip can:
  1. Reduce the number of times you need to run the dishwasher and washing machine,
  2. Reduce the amount of water you use, and
  3. Reduce the amount of energy you use!

How will you cut back on energy use this week? Share your thoughts with us here!

It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish! {Saving Energy, Saving Water: Part 4}

In the first week of the Saving Energy, Saving Water series, Frannie briefly mentioned that using energy efficient light bulbs is a good way to save energy and save water. This week, Frannie wants to share more about what she has learned on this topic!

Frannie with a LED, CFL, and incandescent light bulb.

Traditional light bulbs are called incandescent light bulbs. Incandescent light bulbs are generally affordable upfront, but they have a short bulb life, and they consume much more energy than their energy-efficient counterparts. This can make them a more expensive option in the long-run.

There are two main types of energy-efficient light bulbs: CFL and LED. CFL stands for compact fluorescent lamp and LED stands for light emitting diode. CFLs and LEDs typically use between 25-80% less energy than incandescents, and they last from 3-25 times as long (DOE, energy.gov).

Frannie replaced all of her old incandescent light bulbs
with LED bulbs in order to save energy and save water!

It is important to note that CFLs do contain a small amount of mercury and thus require proper disposal. You can find a place to properly recycle your CFL bulbs at http://search.earth911.com/.

Check out this chart from the Department of Energy (energy.gov) for more information comparing incandescent, CFL, and LED light bulbs!

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Have you replaced incandescent lights in your home with energy-saving CFL or LED lights? Share your photos and stories with us here!

It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish {Saving Energy, Saving Water: Part 3}

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE, energy.gov), "Heating and cooling account for about 48% of the energy use in a typical U.S. home, making it the largest energy expense for most homes." Furthermore, the DOE estimates that reducing air leaks in your home can save 10% on heating and cooling costs!

For this reason, Frannie wanted to spend this week focusing on saving energy and saving water by reducing air leaks in her home. To do this, Frannie researched easy ways she could insulate areas of her house that were a bit drafty.

First, Frannie noticed a draft coming through the bottom of one of her doors. To fix this draft, she installed a rubber door sweep. Frannie required the help of an adult to install a door sweep. If you don't have an adult to help you install a door sweep, you can achieve the same effect by rolling up a towel or blanket and placing it against the drafty area of the door.

Second, Frannie noticed another draft coming from her electrical outlets! Frannie was surprised to find a draft coming from her outlets, but after some quick research she discovered that this is a common problem in many older homes. She also found that the solution to this problem was quite simple! All she had to do was place a foam outlet insulator within the outlet. You can purchase these foam insulators at your local hardware store.

Finally, Frannie noticed that some of the windows in her home were also a bit drafty. To reduce the draft, she decided to place a plastic seal on them for the winter. To do this, she purchased a kit from her local hardware store and sealed the plastic with a hair dryer!

All three of these projects were quick and easy fixes for Frannie, and she is excited to see how much energy and water she will save! Now, she wants to challenge all of her Girl Scout friends to search for drafts in their own homes, and to save energy and save water by fixing the drafts! You can share how you have fixed drafts in your own home here.

It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish! {Saving Energy, Saving Water: Part 2}

This week, Frannie is saving energy and saving water by unplugging appliances and electronics that are not being used.

Did you know that a typical American home has 40 products constantly drawing power? Together, these 40 products draw almost 10% of total residential energy use! (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, http://standby.lbl.gov/standby.html)

You can help save energy and save water by unplugging appliances and electronics that are not being used too! For example, Frannie makes sure to power down her laptop and unplug it when she is not using it.

Another way to reduce energy consumption from idle appliances and electronics is by plugging them into a power strip. A power strip can be easily shut off or unplugged and can make unplugging multiple products at once (such as a TV, VCR, and entertainment system) an easy task.

Frannie wants to hear about how you are saving energy by unplugging appliances and electronics! What products will you unplug this week to help save energy and save water? Tell Frannie here.