Make: Eco Planters

by Designing Mom Liberty


As you may have picked up - around our house we do our best to re-use , re-cycle, and re-purpose . That goes for everything from old clothing, to old food containers, cardboard boxes, and even the tiniest fabric scraps.

Which brings me to today's project.

I make a habit of keeping some of the better containers from food on hand... We keep the larger yogurt tubs and sour cream containers for sand toys - I've had a number of the kids' new acquaintances express sheer delight when they learn they can REALLY keep this (not so pretty) container that we loaned them for making mudpies or collecting shells. It pays to have a few extra on hand and the lids make them really fun.

Other containers I keep around the house for the odd day, like today, where we need a quick project. I love art projects, but I don't love making things that I don't want to keep. Some of that must have to do with the fact that I hate wasting... so I try to help the kids do projects that are usable, easy to make and clean up, fast, and that an adult might actually find a use for.

What you can see in this picture are some planters that we made today. Mine is the second from the left. I used fabric scraps and Mod Podge on the bottom half of an old gallon water jug that I cut the top half off. (When I actually plant something in this, I will punch some holes in the bottom, and weight it with some rocks to avoid tipping) The process is basically the same as the one that we used for our candles a few months ago.

Today, it's summer, and we had a neighbor kiddo with us, so I picked out from my stash, the containers you see here... An empty glass pasta jar, a rigid paperboard Carnation Instant Breakfast container, and another gallon jug cut in half. Everyone had a great time between the paint, the Mod Podge , tearing out paper from magazine clippings and some cut up holographic origami sheets.

The whole project was started and finished in about 40 minutes, and I let them dry on the porch where our neighbor was able to come and pick it up later to take home to mom.