Styrofoam

Until recently, I've steered away from styrofoam. But I cross paths with it every day, so I feel bound to use it for something.  It's actually not a bad material. The trays come in lots of colors and can be easily cut or cracked. Here are some little sculptures using styrofoam pieces attached with colored Model Magic compound (made by Crayola), although you could just as easily use homemade playdough.  They're decorated with sequins and garbage bag ties (we all have a few hundred of those kicking around).

 

Cardboard Berry Flats

After unloading pint baskets of berries from these flats, any supermarket is glad to have you take the cartons off their hands and save them the work of breaking them down for disposal.  They make great readymade frames or shadowboxes.  They come in several sizes and some even have handles that can be slipped through the holes to make a hanger. Most kids love being provided with a frame to work within.  

Paper Shopping Bags

Paper shopping bags are great materials. The brown grocery bags are free heavy-duty craft paper, and the patterned versions offer all sorts of possibilities for collage, etc.  The castle was made from a grocery bag cut open and backed with corrugated cardboard (an all-time favorite art material of mine). The paper bag quilt was made of two shopping bags, a moons & stars pattern and a purple diamonds pattern.  

A note on the rusty wires

I have hundreds of rusty wires I find while walking my dog in Central Park. They are double loop rebar ties that were used to tie wire fencing to the posts (now they use a heavy duty plastic type). The wires are lying around all over the park. Those that were dropped and are intact have a loop on each end and are great for mobiles and all kinds of other things. The twisted and broken finds are also great.  I use them for flower stems, mobiles, picture hangers, jewelry, all kinds of things.  More to come.

Egg Cartons

Here's an egg carton purse, decorated with paint, paper scraps, and a rusty wire handle.  I filled this one with little items and gave it to a friend as a gift.  Hopefully she won't carry it in the rain.

Bottles and Jars

Save them!  Especially the unusual or interesting ones.  They're great for decorating and filling.  These are decorated with paper and fabric scraps and a little paint, and are filled with colored sand, twigs, a button and a shell, and rusty wires.  More on the rusty wires later.

Grandma Prisbey's Bottle Village

I saw a film many years ago about Tressa Prisbey's Bottle Village.  Tressa continues to inspire me as I scan the world for terrific junk.