It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Upcycled Clothes Pin Snowflake Ornament}

Tis the season for repurposed or upcycled decorations! Frannie loves upcycling because it takes something that would normally be thrown away and makes it new and usable again. Upcycling is a great way to reduce our waste and conserve water! 

How does upcycling reduce waste and conserve water? 

Upcycling reduces the need to use new, raw materials when making a new product. By using old materials instead of new materials, less energy and water is used. Even better, air pollution and water pollution are reduced!

Upcycled Clothing Pin Snowflake Ornament:

Frannie was looking through her home for fun items to upcycle when she came across some broken clothing pins. With some creativity (and the help of Pinterest), Frannie decided to make a snowflake ornament out of her broken clothing pins!

What You Need:

• 8 clothing pins (or 16 halves of clothing pins)
• white paint
• paint brush
• glue
• string

Instructions:

1. Gather together your 8 clothing pins. You'll need both halves of each clothing pin for a total of 16 pieces. 
   
2. Paint each clothing pin white. 
   
3. Glue the clothing pin halves together as shown in the photo. You should end up with 8 snowflake pieces. Thread a string through the hole in one piece. 
   
4. Glue four snowflake pieces together into a "+" shape as shown in the photo. 
   
5. Glue the final four snowflake pieces into the corners of the already glued pieces, making sure the snowflake piece with the string is located where you would like the "top" of your snowflake to be. 
   
6. Congratulations! You have just made an Upcycled Clothing Pin Snowflake Ornament! Hang it up as a winter decoration or wrap it up to give as a gift.

For More Fun:

Get creative! Add color to your snowflake or a touch of glitter. Write a special message on it or have all your family sign their names on it. Have fun!

Share:

Share pictures of your family and your snowflakes with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or by sending them in to info@groundwater.org. Happy Holidays!

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Upcycled Reindeer}

Happy holidays to one and all!

Frannie loves making holiday crafts with her friends and this year, they decorated their homes with upcycled toilet paper roll reindeer. It's so simple that all you need is a toilet paper roll (or a paper towel roll cut in half), a pencil or pen, and a pair of scissors.

To make your reindeer extra fancy, you can also get a red button or cotton ball to be glued on as a nose, sticker or googly eyes, and crayons or markers. Be creative!

Start by squishing the toilet paper tube flat. Lightly draw lines, as seen below, that you will then cut along to form the antler and legs of the reindeer.

Cut out the legs completely, making sure you cut through both sides of the roll. Next, cut along the top line, making sure you cut through both sides of the roll. Separate your antlers by cutting the top of the tube along the crease, as shown below.

Now it's time to shape the antlers. First, take one of the antlers and make a twist inward so that the antler points forward. While holding the first twist in place, make a second twist so that the antler is now pointing towards the tail of the reindeer. Repeat with the second antler.

Fold the cut edges below the antlers down so that one side covers the other. Now that you've finished the body of the reindeer, you can decorate it any way you'd like! Frannie wanted to make Rudolph so she colored him in with brown crayons, drew on eyes, and gave him a nose with a bright red cotton ball.

Have a great holiday, everyone! See you in the new year!

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!