BLOG: Frannie's Upcycling for the 4th of July

Frannie the Fish loves looking for new ways to upcycle. Upcycling is when you take old, useless things and make them into something new. Upcycling helps protect our water supplies by reducing the amount of waste that gets into our landfills and prevents you from buying new products that take lots of water to make.

Since this week is the 4th of July, Frannie wanted to make some patriotic decorations. Her first stop was the recycling bin to see if she had any unwanted items she could use for her project. She found lots of used paper. She decided this paper would be perfect for making one cut stars!

She also found a few other things laying around the house to help her make the stars. Here's what you will need to make stars of your own:

• Used paper, preferably with one clean side. 
• A pen that is out of ink, or a broken mechanical pencil
• Markers (for 4th of July you might want to use red and blue) 
• Scissors 
• Tape
• Optional: Any other craft supplies you might have around the house 
• Optional: Glue to glue the other craft supplies to your star

Start by making your your star. You can trace a star if you have a star stencil, OR you can use the one cut star method. To make a one cut star, use the directions below or checkout this video that gives a great explanation of how to make them!

1. Start with an 8.5" x 11" piece of used paper

 2. Fold it in half horizontally (the short way, not the long way)

3. Create horizontal and vertical creases by folding it in half again, unfolding it, and then folding it in half the vertically. Unfold it again so it is just folded in half once with creases going up and down, and side to side.

4. Starting at the vertical crease (the up and down one) fold the left top corner to the horizontal crease (the side to side crease).

5. Fold the same corner back so the top folded edge aligns along the fold you created in the last step.

6. Fold the upper right corner towards the left corner along the last fold you made.

7. Fold the right corner back until the top folded edge aligns with the edge from your last fold.

8. Now it’s time for your one cut. Cut at an angle (as shown) on the side with the smaller triangle.

The small piece that falls off is your star! Unfold it and you’re ready to decorate.

Decorate your star however you'd like. Frannie decided to do a flag theme. She colored the star and then put a few left over craft supplies on it to make it sparkle!

Finally, Frannie taped the used pen to the back of the star so she can hold it at the 4th of July parade!

Frannie doesn't want her new decoration to go to waste after the 4th of July, so she plans on using it as a plant decoration! Can you think of any other ways to use your new decoration around the house?

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!