Earth Day Recycled Paper Project

I think it’s pretty awesome that Earth Day is such a big deal these days. I think it was a thing when I was a kid but it certainly wasn’t treated as a huge thing if it was. I lived in West Texas during the Oil Boom of the ’80s and the only thing anybody seemed to care about (from the perspective of a kid who isn’t too reliable) is making money. I don’t recall anything about recycling or saving water or anything like that until I got considerably older and moved to Oklahoma.

Although it seems ages ago now, I still remember when we were told the impact leaving the tap running while brushing our teeth could have on the environment. It was something like 5 gallons of water get wasted every time you brush your teeth and leave the water running. And why exactly do you need to keep that water going? You don’t.

So these days when somebody leaves the water going when they walk away from the sink for a few minutes or scrub a dubs their pearly whites with that water shooting straight into the drain I have a tendency to give them a piece of my mind. It’s not like I have a small carbon footprint but I do try to be good about what I can. And turning that stinking tap off is a simple start!

Today I’m sharing a project I think little me would have liked very much. From construction paper scraps I’ve collected over 4 or so years of craft blogging, I decided to make an Earth Day reminder of how pretty our little planet can be. And while I couldn’t find my old papers (because I just moved, dang it!) this project only took 1 piece of each color to complete so I don’t feel so terribly awful about it. But let’s get after it, shall we?

For this project you will need:

• Earth image printed (see above)
• Foam core board
• Glue stick
• Blue and green construction paper

Print your Earth in the size you want you or your children to create. I went with a big, ol’ 12-inch Gigantor and it took me a good long sit down in front of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt to finish mine so keep that in mind!

If making a large planet Earth you’ll need to piece together multiple pieces of paper. Rather than print 4 pages, I guesstimated up part of outer circle to save some paper.

Glue your Earth onto a piece of foam core and cut out using a sharp knife, like an X-acto knife. Now I used a scrap piece of $1 foam core from the dollar store!

Tear your construction paper into shapes to loosely fit with the shapes of the landmasses (green) and sea (blue).

Using a glue stick, apply the paper to cover the globe.

Now isn’t that fancy?

I thought I had an idea of how this would turn out, but in the end, it came out so much better than I had hoped and that is AWESOME!

Whether you’re an adult making these, or setting them up for a kid to make, this is a fun little project to remind us just how big and beautiful our world is. And l et Earth Day be our reminder to treat our planet well!

Allison

A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.