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How to Make a Recycled Invention

The Environmental Protection Agency's first recommendation to reduce America's trash is to find ways to reuse what we have. Americans generate millions of tons of trash annually, so a variety of free material exists. Instead of buying a new toy for your children, use the free material you have at home to create an amazing castle. Not only will you be saving space in the landfill, but you will be teaching your children to recycle.

Things You'll Need

  • 6 medium-sized clam shells
  • Construction paper
  • 6 Atlantic Auger (spiral shells)
  • Shoe box
  • Little Debbie Snack Box
  • Cereal box
  • Used construction papers
  • Scrap yarn in gray, black, brown or white
  • Crochet hook (any size)
  • 12 tin cans
  • 6 toilet paper rolls
  • Sheet yellow paper or used plastic food wrap
  • Shimmery silver spay paint
  • Gold or blue shimmery spray paint
  • Broken mismatched jewelry
  • Discarded action figures or small dolls
  • Tiny figures of water creatures such as fish or alligators
  • Mismatched nuts, screws and bolts
  • Used aluminum foil
  • Small dried starfish
  • Hot glue gun
  • Cracked or mismatched glass plate
  • Bottle white glue
  • 1 hole punch
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Instructions

  1. Making a Recycled Castle

    • 1
      The first step is to spray paint the pieces.

      Organize the pieces and spray paint. Put the hot glue gun, the white glue and hole punch to the side. The cereal box, shoe box and Little Debbie box form the main buildings. The 12 cans, three toilet paper rolls and shells make the towers. The action figures, small dolls, creatures, aluminum foil, nuts and screws will be the people who inhabit the castle and moat. Spray paint the boxes and cans silver. Spray paint the shells and toilet rolls shimmery blue or gold. Do not spray paint the action figures, small dolls, creatures, aluminum foil, nuts and screws.

    • 2
      An adult should cut the drawbridge and the windows.

      Set up the boxes so they resemble the front of a castle. Lay the shoe box on its side. Cut the short sides on the top only. Place the Little Debbie box vertically on the front. Sketch two windows on each side of the Little Debbie box and one in the center of the box. Draw a drawbridge below the window on the Little Debbie box. Cut out the windows and cut the drawbridge on three sides, leaving the bottom connected to the shoe box. Punch holes on the right and left corners of the drawbridge. Use a crochet hook to chain stitch the drawbridge chains. The chains should be two inches long when completed. If you don't know how to crochet, just use the plain yarn. Punch one hole in the wall on the left side of the door and one hole on the right side of the door. Slide the first chain through the hole on the left side of the door and hole on the left wall. Use the white glue to glue the ends to the door. Put knots at the end of the chains after sliding them through the wall. Do not glue the chains to the wall so the door can be raised and lowered. Cut yellow rectangles and back the windows. Glue behind the windows so it looks as if light is shinning through or back the windows with cling wrap so it looks like glass.

    • 3
      The main buildings are made from the larger boxes.

      Glue the Little Debbie box to the front of the shoe box with the glue gun. Pull up the section of shoe box that has been cut and make the roof. Place two cans stacked upside down on top of each other on either side of the castle wall. The cans mostly are hidden by the shoe box but hold up the roof. When positioned correctly, glue the cans to the inside of the shoebox at each corner. Use some foil to make a cone shape big enough to slide over the top of the Little Debbie box. Glue a small starfish to the middle of the cone on top of the Little Debbie box.

    • 4
      The towers are made of cans, paper tubes and shells.

      Cut a toilet paper roll in half. Mount a clam shell, fan part of the toilet paper roll and hot glue. Place a spiral shell vertically at the top of the fan to make the top of the tower. When dry, attach the tower to the top of the cans. The first tower is complete. Make five more and place those towers behind the shoe box so they look like the towers of a castle.

    • 5
      Create the castle's inhabitants from action figures, dolls and nuts and bolts.

      Make a long shallow U-shape with the aluminum foil for the moat. Place the foil around the base of the castle and put little creatures in the moat. Use screws with two nuts to make knights that guard the castle. Use action figures or tiny dolls to inhabit the castle. You can make period clothing from scraps of material.

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