Make an Animal from Recycled Materials

Make an Animal from Recycled Materials

You can make art out of anything! Create an animal from your recycles at home. Watch this video I made to see how to make a sea turtle out of a fruit container, wrapping paper, and foam. 

What you’ll need:

A container for your animal’s body. It can be a box, a container that had fruit in it, a cardboard paper towel roll, a yogurt container…

Glue

Scissors

Pencil

Paper for sketching your animal

Paper scraps from magazines or colored construction paper or wrapping paper to make the animals head, legs, tail, etc. 

Step One: Observe your materials. What shape is the container or box you are using? The student who made the turtle in the photo above thought the container she chose would make a good turtle shell. Perhaps you have a paper towel roll to use, would that make a good form for a snake?

Step Two: Sketch your animal on a piece of paper.

Step Three: Cut your container if needed to form the body then glue your legs, head, and tail on. Let the glue dry then add some details. You can add eyes, nose, mouth, ears if your animal has them. Think about what your animal looks like. Does it have fur, scales, or perhaps feathers? Does it have a shell that has a pattern? You can add these details with markers, crayons, pencils, or paper scraps.

Step Four: Take a photo of your animal and share it with us by tagging the MAC on social media and using #ArtShareMAC!, or email us your photo to info@miltonartcenter.org and we will share it for you!