There’s nothing more beautiful than an art piece that you know will be a conversation starter, and that’s particularly true for art that you’ve made yourself.
We all have a bunch of materials lying around just waiting to be utilized, but most of us just let them go to waste without ever realizing their full potential.
Those old clothes you’ve got in the attic could make a beautiful quilt to display on your sofa, and a bunch of old glass bottles could easily make for unique flower pots with just a bit of work.
Essentially, what it boils down to is whether you’re creative enough to come up with a unique idea of your own, and even if you aren’t, we’re here to help you out.
Your home is your oyster, and with so many materials lying around, it’s up to you to decorate it into a beautiful one.
Nature wreaths
Few things are as relaxing as a quiet, long walk in the woods, and reaching a clearing after a long walk feels incredibly satisfying.
However, taking pictures to remember these moments just doesn’t feel right, and it’s far too modern a solution for an activity as age-old as that.
This is why you can create nature wreaths together with your kids, putting together all the interesting leaves, flowers, and twigs you can find into a beautiful wall decoration.
To make the actual form of the wreath, you can use old t-shirt strips to form a circle, after which you’ll add all the items you’ve gathered into the crevices, finally securing it with some hot glue, or better yet, fishing line, which will be much less visible.
This way you’ll have a nice decoration that you can always look back on and remember the time you spent with your family as you gathered the materials for it.
Quilt
Old textile makes up for as many as 16 million tons of municipal waste every year, and the fast fashion industry is only going to keep increasing this number.
When you look at this, all you can think about is what you can do to help change things, and one of the solutions is as simple as they come: don’t throw away your old textile.
Seriously, old clothes can be put to so many great uses that it sometimes feels preposterous throwing them out.
While you can certainly cut them up into cloth-sized bits to use for cleaning up around the house, there are always more artsy solutions to choose from.
One of those is turning all your old textiles into a quilt.
In fact, most people make sure to use as many different kinds of textiles when creating one, as it can act as a sort of memory blanket, reminding you of all the things you experienced while wearing a specific shirt or dress.
Feed the birds
It’s no secret that a lot of us have bundles of plastic water bottles lying around somewhere in our homes, and while they’re certainly not at the landfill, they’re still useless clutter in your living space.
Thankfully, a plastic bottle can be utilized in a multitude of ways, and if you’re an animal lover, you’ll love to do some good and feed the birds in the area.
A bird feeder is extremely easy to manufacture, and all you’ll need to make one is a knife, some rope, a plastic bottle, and a sharpie to mark down all the spots where you’ll be cutting.
Once you’ve made your makeshift bird feeder, all that’s left to do is fill it with bird feed and hang it at a nearby tree.
You can get your kids in on the action too, hanging bird feeders all around the neighborhood and helping them make it through the winter.
Earth day moss balls
We’re already halfway through February, and it’s about time to start preparing for Spring, which means that Earth Day is practically right around the corner.
What better way is there to pay tribute to this beautiful planet than making some beautiful moss balls to hang inside your home?
Kids are particularly fond of this activity as it allows them to play with dirt, but it’s also educational, as moss can be an ecosystem of its own.
Wrap the tiny moss balls tightly with blue yarn until you’ve got something resembling the blue planet we’re living on, and once you’re done, hang it at a well-lit window to be on display for months.
Your guests will surely be interested in the nature-friendly decoration and your children will learn to take care of their moss ball if they’ve put some effort into making one themselves.
Thankfully, moss balls are fairly easy to manage, and all they require is a light spray of water every couple of days to keep them green and healthy