Help middle school students create jewelry to wear or to give to as a token of friendship to another student. Provide string and beads to create necklaces or bracelets. Add charms for a more decorative look. Students can even make their own paper beads by cutting decorative paper into elongated triangles. Tightly roll the paper from the wide to the narrow ends. Secure the paper with glue to prevent unraveling and paint it with clean nail polish to give it a glossy finish. Use a needle to thread the bead onto string to create a necklace.
Provide inexpensive craft materials for middle school students to create decorative items for their lockers. Use old magazines and clear, flat river rock marbles to create magnets. Find a small picture or word in a magazine that is about the size of a marble. Use white craft glue to secure the decorative side of the paper to the flat side of the rock. The image should be seen and magnified through the domed side of the marble once the glue has dried. Add a magnet circle to the back of the marble to create a magnet.
Give an old T-shirt new life by enhancing it with fabric paint, scraps of fabric and other embellishments. Have middle school students design their own T-shirts by applying fabric paint over a stencil. Sew ribbon, buttons and fabric patches onto the shirt for embellishment. Have a student make a design on a computer graphic program and print the image onto iron-on transfer paper before transferring it to a T-shirt.
Another inexpensive craft for middle school children is making masks out of papier-mache. Use chicken wire to create a form and dip torn newspaper pieces into papier-mache mixture and apply to the mask. Use paint to embellish. Have the students create a scrapbook. Print snapshots from a computer and use stickers, decorative paper, ribbon and other embellishments to create a scrapbook.