When I was growing up we always had a Button Tin. It actually was an old Cookie Tin that was filled with buttons that had been collected from old clothing that had worn out and had long gone from many years gone by. My Mother and sister would often sit with me and tell me of the outfits that this button or that button had come from. I found it very interesting as I added them to my projects.
As a child I would look through this tin at all of the lovely, shiny, bobbles picturing the beautiful gowns, which in my young mind had imagined, they must have been from. Sometimes I would find fantastically fashioned buttons that seemed to magically appear. They always had gold on them. I would test the gold on each button with my teeth, like I had seen pirates do on TV, wondering of it’s value. Many artistic endeavors were created from that tin that never seemed to have a bottom?
(I later found out that my Mother would find other abandoned button collections at rummage sales and bring them home to add to ours.)
Mothers are magical in themselves aren’t they?

Isn’t it so much fun to get a gift created right from a child’s hands and imagination?.

Here’s some ideas:

Buttons:
-gluing them to a simple wooden picture frame, don’t forget the picture too

-gluing them to a painted can to store pens and pencils in

-gluing them on a piece of heavy cardboard to make a card or again a homemade frame.

Old Cards:
We always saved old cards for sentimental reasons but also because with the Christmas ones we all sat together and cut them down to make ‘new’ Present Tags out of them. The cards came in handy to add special touches to crafts, art, and gift projects by cutting out the pretty parts and gluing them to your design.

Many fun uses for bottles:
Use an old beer bottle or a wine bottle as a candle holder. The wax dripping over the side will make pretty designs. Keep an eye on it to make sure nothing burns. Fill a clear glass bottle with small candies. Make a wine bottle into a vase. Use a larger wine bottle as a bank.

Newspapers:
We used to make large Palm Trees. I think the idea came from Mr. Dressup.
You start by layering newspapers all the same size and then rolling them up into a fairly tight roll.
Tape them well a round the outside.
You can paint the outsides green.
Cut strips from one end of the roll down approx. ¼ of the way, all the way a round.
Then very carefully from the middle, pull out the ‘leaves’ slowly and you will see how the ‘palm tree’ unfolds as you go.
You may want to cut the ‘palms’ longer but you’ll get the hang of it after you make your first tree.
We used to have so much fun with this, my children and I. We'd turn the livingroom into a jungle.


Pine Cone Bird Feeder:
Prepare a food mixture by mixing ½ cup vegetable shortening, lard or suet with 2 ½ cups cornmeal or uncooked oats and blend well. Get bird foods like dried chopped fruits and nuts, sunflower or millet seeds. Take a pinecone and tie a string to it. Cover the cone with the food mixture and roll over the bird food. Now hang it on a tree.

Christmas Outdoor Wreath:

Cut plastic bag into equal length strips and tie around a coat hanger which has been formed into a circle kep going, squeezing the tied plastic together firmly to make a Christmas wreath. When you have as much tiend plastic on there as you can fit for fullness. Fluff it up. Use wider strips of plastic to form bows.

Toys:
Make a child's drum set out of coffee cans and plastic lids.
Attach long, looped strings to the cans and let children use as stilts.

Useful tips:
Use old long-sleeved shirts as a smock for children who are painting and gluiing.
Use old Venetian blinds to cover tables while doing art projects

Ghost Tree Ornaments:

1 white plastic trash bag per ghost
1 round balloon per ghost
1 rubber band per ghost
black paint or permanent
markerstring or thin rope

1. Blow up a balloon until it is as big as you would like the head of your ghost. (Don't make it too bog because then it may pop.)
2. Put the balloon in a plastic bag and situate it so that a corner of the bottom of the bag is at the top of the balloon.
3. tie the bag just below the bottom of the balloon.
4. Draw a face onto the balloon with your paint or marker. The bag should be tied tight enough so that the surface is shaped evenly with the balloon.
5. Make a hole in the top of the bag (make sure you don't get the balloon) just large enough to insert the rope or string. Tie the string tightly & hang from a tree branch.

Bottle Caps:
Everyone probably knows the secret of the boot mat scraper seen at cottages everywhere. Bottle caps nailed to a piece of wood upside down to scrape the mud off.