Recycle trash into travel toys

My 3 year old daughter seems to be more intrigued by real-life things she can manipulate than the small toy-store-worth of toys sitting in her room. And while the mountains of stuffed animals and miniature figures go untouched there isn't a cap in our home that doesn't get screwed to a plastic bottle, a penny left not clanking into a piggy bank, a pot and pan not hammered with a wooden spoon or a light switch not turned on and off and on and off and on and off and on and off...

And as I've mentioned a couple times before we're doing a lot of traveling this summer so I'm on the hunt for activities that will occupy my kids mesmerizing them into a good 20 minutes or so of sweet, sweet silence.

Putting together travel backpacks gets expensive and there's no guarantee that the travel-size checkers set that cost you $10 at Target is actually ever going to be played. That's why I love the idea of crafting a few activities from recycled household items.

Julie K in Taiwan has posted a tutorial for making a bottle cap game from a recycled plastic bottle and a few bottle caps. A genius idea...repurposing those harmful babies into a useful toy any tot would go crazy over and you can feel good about seeing your baby giving his digits a severe workout. So simple to make and with the addition of twisted chenille stems securing the tops to the bottle you won't be fishing for the caps under any car seats anytime soon.

This second idea for recycling juice tops into sewing cards courtesy of One Inch World is magnificent. Anybody with a toddler knows how important lacing practice is for developing those fine motor skills. While lacing cards can be costly, Lakeshore's run $10 and up, there are tons of items lying around the house that can be transformed into cards saving you money and a trip to the store. The tutorial has clear directions and pictures with a cutie-pie crafter illustrating the steps proving just how easy it is to make. Although my family doesn't drink frozen juice concentrate ever we do consume tons of yogurt so I'm thinking I'll make my daughter a set out of plastic yogurt lids which should be pretty wreck-proof.

I love that these easy-to-make toys serve so many purposes...providing loads of entertainment for your wee traveler, promoting eco-consciousness, saving you time and most importantly saving you money so you can buy your family those matching tees in Honolulu.

(via One Crafty Place)