Passing on the Type A Tendencies in Honor of Earth Day

*Earth Day is Saturday, April 22nd, go mark your calendars!

The Princess knows all about recycling and reducing waste.

She understands that wasting paper means that more trees will have to be cut down.

However, having the information and remembering not to draw one line on each paper in a notebook of 100 pages are not really the same thing.

Oh well.

I try.

Of course when I say "I," I really mean Elmo and the rest of the Sesame Street gang during a special recycling episode. But I let her watch it...so that makes me an awesome mom.

A couple of months ago I saw a great idea for a headband holder on Pinterest that uses an empty oatmeal container. With Earth day coming up we could use it as a jumping off point to talk about reusing items in our house instead of throwing them away. It really spoke to me because it was organization that I could pass off as a craft! Also, the majority of diy hair accessory organizers that I've seen are made to be hung on the wall and then the bows and clips attach to ribbons. I'm not a fan of holes in my walls, so this is perfect.

Materials:
Large oatmeal container
Contact paper (I used white)
Scissors
Stickers, etc to decorate

I cut the contact paper to overhang the length of the container by about a half an inch and to overlap 2 inches. Cut out the amount you feel comfortable with...I had never used the contact paper for anything round, so I wanted to make sure I allowed for any crooked application. I tucked the start of the top edge under the lip of the container and used it as my guide applying slowly. Turns out I didn't need the extra on the bottom , but it trimmed very easily. I then did another layer because the oatmeal label still was showing through. Next, decorate however you choose. Strawberry Shortcake pretty much rules all things around here, so we went with that. We go through a ton of oatmeal so if she wants a different theme later, we'll make another.

I should be concerned about how excited she was to organize her hair accessories. She put the headbands on and then changed the order around until they were just right. Then she wanted to put her clips on a stretchy headband so that they would be together too. I know I should be worried..but I was too busy color coordinating bows.

Check back later today for two more earth day crafts!

Bryn