cludes with an Earth Action that presents great ideas and resources to address current challenges to our environment such as the erosion of beaches and how children can help preserve these important nat ural resources For Kids Organic Crafts is your guide to having fun in the great outdoors and you'll learn new ways to look at nature by turning things that come from the earth into a work of art The art you create will give you and your friends a chance to discover nature and learn ways to help care for our environment too The environment is all the things in nature living and nonliving that surround us everything including us so it's really important Although art is fun to look at and make art can also be functional Functional means that it's some thing that you can use such as a vase birdhouse or a game Don't worry if you don't have all the craft and natural materials needed for an activity You can use your imagination to find other materials or sup plies and make your artwork that much more unique In chapter 6 Reduce Reuse and Recycle you'll learn many ways to reuse leftover materials to create new and beautiful works of art Have you ever been asked to bring your sneakers to art class Probably not But with Organic Crafts sneakers are a must Walking around and seeing the
sights of nature is a big part of what we do as earth explorers and how we grow into nature artists Most of the stuff you'll use in your art will come from nature You'll need to take walks to collect the raw materials you'll need for these activities such as leaves twigs stones and seashells Let's begin with three important recipes A recipe is a set of directions that tells you how to make one big thing out of a lot of smaller things One of our recipes is for homemade Natural Glue one is for homemade Natural Paste and one is for natural paint made from cornstarch These can be used in place of store bought glue paste and paint and will make your nature crafts that much more organic So when ever you see a recipe that calls for craft glue paste or paint you can try these natural alternatives too Before you begin any activity gather all the smaller things called ingredients together in one place and find a place where it's OK to work ask an adult before you start to follow the directions Natural Glue Measuring cup 1 2 cup skim milk Measuring spoons 2 tablespoons white vinegar Spoon Short drinking glass 3 paper towels
Rubber band 2 teaspoons water 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 Pour 1h cup of skim milk into the measuring cup 2 Add 2 tablespoons of white vinegar Mix well with the spoon 3 Let the mixture stand for 5 minutes 4 While you are waiting take one paper towel and cover the open end of the short drinking glass 5 Push down just a little on the center of the paper towel to create a small paper towel bowl inside the glass Put the rubber band around the glass This will keep the paper towel in place with the little bowl shaped dimple still in the center of the paper towel 6 After 5 minutes pour the milk and vinegar mix ture through the paper towel into the drinking glass 7 Let this sit for about 1 hour All the water will empty out of the mixture into the glass 8 After the hour is over use the spoon to scrape up the dried mixture that is left on top of the paper towel 9 Gently press this dried mixture between the two clean paper towels Make sure to squeeze out all the extra water It is very important to squeeze out all the extra water so you may want to let the
mixture sit for a few minutes until the water dries up 10 Scrape off this dried mixture and place it back into the measuring cup Add 2 teaspoons of water and 1 teaspoon of baking soda 11 Mix well Your Natural Glue is now ready to use You will only need to use a little bit of this glue for your paper projects because it is very thick and very strong But your Natural Glue will take longer to dry than store bought glue Natural Paste Adult supervision required Measuring cup V4 cup cold water Saucepan 1 h cup flour Spoon 1 Pour the cold water into the saucepan Slowly add the flour into it while stirring 2 Mix well with the spoon getting rid of any lumps 3 With the help of an adult put saucepan on the stove and heat on low Slowly stir mixture as it heats until it is a thick paste This takes about 20 minutes 4 Let it cool Now you can use this in place of
