Making the Most out of Waste: A DIY Paper Plate Craft

As an art and craft teacher by profession, most of my articles are related to art and craft ideas.

Turn Recyclables Into Art

Make the most of your trash! Some of the things that would otherwise end up in the dustbin make great materials for craft projects.

Here are a few examples:

• Paper, including envelopes, scraps, and colored pieces. It's good for the environment and saves money to use good paper rather than toss it out.
• Old magazines contain photos and other graphics that can easily be cut up and used in art projects.
• Old newspapers are useful for papier mache and collage.
• Clean ice cream and popsicle sticks.
• Fabric, ribbon, lace, and buttons.

Creating new things out of waste is very satisfying, and this certainly is one of the best pieces I have created. Since I started making art out of recycled materials, I have developed a habit of saving things. I can make small flowers out of bits of colored paper, pencil shavings, ice cream sticks, and beads. The possibilities are almost endless!

I've broken this project into step-by-step instructions so you can make a beautiful wall piece out of waste material that can be easily found at home.

A thermocol styrofoam plate

1 / 3

Materials

1. One styrofoam plate
2. Acrylic paints and a brush
3. A few sheets of colored, textured, and shiny paper
4. A glue stick
5. A pair of scissors
6. Some paper with shapes or figures that you like
7. Six ice cream sticks
8. Ribbon or double-sided tape

Step One

Using acrylic paint and a brush, paint the plate. Choose some textured paper and cut out a circle the same size as the plate's interior. Paste it into place on the plate.

Step Two

Place three ice cream sticks next to each other vertically, one inch apart. Then glue three other sticks horizontally over the first three. Place a heavy object on top until the sticks are firmly attached.

Step Three

Using another sheet of colored paper, cut out eight small flowers. Using some glittery paper, cut eight small circles and paste them in the center of the flowers. Create some diamond shapes on another sheet of shiny paper and cut them out.

Step Four

Create one big flower and paste a smaller flower on its center.

Step Five

Cut three more flowers of varying colors.

Step Six

Using your thumb and fingers, bend the petals a bit to create a 3-D look. Cut out a few leaves and shapes from the design you chose (I chose butterflies). Glue the leaves to the back of the big flower. Glue the big flower, small flowers, and other shapes to the ice cream stick base.

Step Seven

Now paste the base onto the plate. Be careful!

Hang Your Craft and Enjoy!

Your new wall piece is ready! Use double-sided tape to attach a ribbon on the back, so you can hang the piece or use it as a centerpiece on a table.

Comments

Gurleen on June 06, 2018:

Very nyc and please show me the scenery with waste materials

khushi hooda on December 16, 2017:

It is so amazing

Rs on November 10, 2017:

Wonderful

Dinesh Yeshi on October 20, 2017:

Very nice

gopi on September 27, 2017:

Nice

Shreya on September 14, 2017:

Can we use something else in place of ice cream stick ??

Sharwari Thakur on July 03, 2016:

Very Attractive,,, lovely and gorgeous wall hanging

VN on June 20, 2016:

very nice

ais on June 17, 2016:

very very very very beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MONIKA on June 17, 2016:

VERY NICE

shyamal on May 10, 2016:

very nice

ajay k sharma on April 19, 2016:

marvellous ,beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

renuga on March 10, 2016:

very nice

Rishita Chauhan on January 25, 2016:

it is tooooo nice

Aradhya on November 15, 2015:

Very niceeeee....

simran on November 13, 2015:

ossum idea!

Darsh on November 10, 2015:

fantastic idea to learn waste make best

selina on November 04, 2015:

awesome

kavitha on October 28, 2015:

nice and super for school activities!!!

HD on October 20, 2015:

Nice

n on October 18, 2015:

Supper

rahul on October 15, 2015:

very nice

jeyshree on October 11, 2015:

Good thinking

Smart

Nice

Easy

Beautiful

Bhawna panchal on October 11, 2015:

It is tooooooo!good. Really.

shreya on October 10, 2015:

very ossum i liked it very much

princess sai on October 10, 2015:

its so amazing!!!

tanvi shirsat on September 17, 2015:

i like you have shown me

prerana kukreja on September 06, 2015:

very ousum !very very nice !

Mounica Thanniru on August 29, 2015:

Really very good....

sonijeet jeetsoni on August 25, 2015:

Nice and awasome style for waste things

nikki on August 20, 2015:

Its superb and fantastic ..... Reallyy u r creative person:)

tan on August 12, 2015:

really good

prankster on August 06, 2015:

very nice............................................................................ ...................................................................................................................thank you......................................................................................................................................................................

haritha on August 05, 2015:

its wonderful

sangeetha on July 28, 2015:

nice to look & colourful

krishna on July 22, 2015:

It is veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy beautiful.

It is ossom

dolly on June 28, 2015:

Very nice amazing artist it helped me so much veryyy osmmm

Siva on June 03, 2015:

Superb

ritu on June 01, 2015:

Very nice.......

Megha on May 15, 2015:

Thanks to share your photos with us. It's very helpful to make my children school project.

Kajal Rajput on May 15, 2015:

It is very interesting and easy to makeAdd Your Comment...

prabhsimar on April 24, 2015:

Very nice g

Sanjana sawant on March 26, 2015:

Its Amazing...

zeenat naaz on March 19, 2015:

it's really amazing

nausheenkazi on February 26, 2015:

Excellent.and interesting.

vasanth on February 19, 2015:

It Is Really Very Nice

niki on February 15, 2015:

It awesome

Bob Stephen on February 12, 2015:

Really so nice

khushi on January 15, 2015:

its very nice to learn waste make best

anjali on January 15, 2015:

:-) very nice

anjali bhargava on January 14, 2015:

It is very nice

Veenoo (author) from India on December 31, 2014:

Thanks to all for appreciating my work...i had no idea while making this that it will be liked so much....i will soon upload a video of the same.

yag on December 14, 2014:

nice

Khushi on December 11, 2014:

It is Extremely color full

Shubhangi on December 07, 2014:

They are very nice.It helped me in making my projects

Sangam on November 02, 2014:

good crafts.

ammu on November 02, 2014:

thankyou it is very use full to my b.ed cource

rajik ali on October 25, 2014:

Beautiful craft

Rhonda Lytle from Deep in the heart of Dixie on October 21, 2014:

This is so cute! I love the Popsicle lattice work, adorable!

anita on October 14, 2014:

Very cool ideas.can b easily carried out at home

Aditi pattanashetti on October 08, 2014:

beautiful ,interesting to do

shyla on August 26, 2014:

beautiful very creative

Veenoo (author) from India on August 05, 2014:

Thanks all for appreciating.

7879019686 on August 04, 2014:

Very good creativity........

kiran on July 25, 2014:

amazing

dfgghhhj on June 28, 2014:

good

harkiran on June 21, 2014:

i really love this....

Rakhi on June 16, 2014:

Its all so precious and request to all the makers not to finish this art. It's a god gift 4 u.......

Thankyou

priya bhasin on June 15, 2014:

it helped me a lot in my project.

chanchal kundu on June 14, 2014:

its awesome

Veenoo (author) from India on May 26, 2014:

Thanks you all for the feedback.

Chandni on May 25, 2014:

Beautiful creativity

pinky on May 08, 2014:

so unique items.

chetna choudhary on May 05, 2014:

U r such a amazing artist♥

Veenoo (author) from India on April 30, 2014:

Thanks Shruti, Sengottuvel and Nikita for your comments.

nikita bharti on April 30, 2014:

thank you for helping me

shruti on April 17, 2014:

it is just beautiful sir u r extremely creative and artistic and r showing a fantastic ,artistic way to save our enviroment

Veenoo (author) from India on April 16, 2014:

Thanks Roshni....lovely comment.

harshashah on April 12, 2014:

Verynice

uzair ali on February 27, 2014:

nice and easy

Veenoo (author) from India on February 20, 2014:

Thanks neha.

neha s on February 19, 2014:

It is so collourful

prathyusha on January 27, 2014:

It is beautiful

rahul on December 20, 2013:

Nice

mayank on December 19, 2013:

this is amazing, brilliant!

Veenoo (author) from India on October 20, 2013:

Thanks Jaya.

Sanghita Chatterjee from Kolkata on October 20, 2013:

This is just beautiful!!!!

Veenoo (author) from India on September 17, 2013:

Thanks Rajan sir.

Rajan Singh Jolly from From Mumbai, presently in Jalandhar, INDIA. on September 16, 2013:

Absolutely amazing creation. It makes sense to save the environment for the betterment of the future generations.