Ecocrafts Gorgeous Gifts: Use Recycled Materials to Make Cool Crafts »

Wow friends and family with eco-conscious, cool, and highly individual gifts that cannot be found in any store — perfect for birthdays, holidays, and much more! From cute and colorful sock puppets for a younger brother or sister to a stylish stationery set for Dad and a beautiful bracelet for Mom, these accessible and easy-to-follow projects will keep children engrossed for hours.

Children's Literature

Our earth s resources are finite and we need to take an active part in preserving them, which is easy and fun to do using this craft book that focuses on recycling everyday items found around the house for materials. A great tip at the beginning of the book will hopefully stick with readers: The three R s to recycling are reduce (use products with little or no packaging), reuse (find ways to use durable items), and recycle. The craft ideas contained within the book have easy to read and execute, step-by-step instructions that are accompanied by colorful photographs. Some of the projects in the book include a puppet theatre (from a large cardboard box), what appears to be a balsa wood airplane (using the foam packaging that comes with packages of ground beef or chicken) and bracelets (made from old newspapers, flour, and water). Using an inside out potato chip bag as a shiny gift bag may be taking it a little too far for some readers, but it stems from good intentions. This is part of the Ecocrafts series of books and is highly recommended. Reviewer: Cindy L. Carolan