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Rarely is there recycling in small towns for Styrofoam. A green and fun thing to do with Styrofoam is to use it to make fun globes. Fun globes are similar to snow globes. Take a clear plastic cup (globe), cardboard (bottom) or cardstock, glue to seal and maybe add beads, army men, or trinkets and make a fun globe using torn Styrofoam as the snow or beach sand. You can paint the Styrofoam first so that it is more colorful.
By Biji from Taylor, TX
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I have a large amount of Styrofoam that I would like to recycle into something - perhaps a craft for children. The main problem is that the Styrofoam is in large pieces, most being about 1-2 inches in thickness, some even thicker.
Do you have any ideas? We are doing a craft table at our family reunion for the children and teens and would like to include it if I can find something. Thanks for your help.
By Karen Jensen from Woodland Hills, UT
You could cut the styrofoam into wreaths and make fabric or gumdrop wreaths.
fabric wreath
www.thriftyfun.com/
gumdrop wreath
kiddley.com/
You can use electric cutting knife to cut the Styrofoam with ease and shape it any way you like.
Cut it into useable "bricks" of different sizes and have the kids build lifesize structures with them, like lego or building blocks on a larger lighter scale. Maybe you could have a judging of what is built and give small prizes. They could even build as teams and get ribbons and small prizes
I just judged at a county fair, and they had shaped the foam into shoes, tennis shoes high heels flip flops and many others. Then painted them. They looked like real shoes.
I use to make a Santa Claus out of Styrofoam, but I forget how. I'm trying to help my grandkids do this. Can someone help me out?
By Jean
First, here is a link that shows how to make a santa claus out of a styrofoam cup.
answers.yahoo.com/
I found out that a low heat or regular heat glue gun is best for holding them together.
Hope this helps. I could not find out how to make a styrofoam Santa but I hope that this helps.
If you are looking for a different Easter decoration to make this year try this cute and eye-catching bunny statue. Learn how to make a Styrofoam ball bunny statue on this page.
Styrofoam is a difficult material to recycle, but before you throw those ice chests into the trash, get creative and use them in crafts. This is a page about crafts using styrofoam ice chests.
The rough porous surface of Styrofoam can make it a challenge to paint. This is a page about how to paint Styrofoam.
Don't put that styrofoam cup in the landfill, make it into a little vase. This is a page about making a styrofoam cup vase.
Recycle white styrofoam egg cartons to make a large candle centerpiece. Cut off the lid and closure flap from each egg carton. Only the cup portions are used to make the candle.
If your eggs come in Styrofoam cartons, why not recycle the empty containers into pretty roses. Let us show you how.
Before decoupaging a Styrofoam ball you may want to apply a paint designed for use on this material, even if it is only a base coat that you cover with other decorative treatments such as glitter. This is a page about using Mod Podge on Styrofoam.
This is a page about making a Styrofoam snowman. Snowmen and women are popular holiday decorations. Make some cute tabletop ones of your own easily using Styrofoam balls.
This is a page about Styrofoam ball ornament ideas. Styrofoam balls are used in making beautiful ornaments.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
What kind of paint should I use on Styrofoam?
By john berry
Any spray paint will work fine; also I have seen outside exterior paint used on a cooler which was then made into a planter and that was beautiful. (09/05/2010)
By katrina
Use "only" water based latex paints on Styrofoam and any styrene foams. Solvent based paints will sooner or later eat into the foam. If the can tells you that the brushes can be cleaned with just water, then it is safe on all foams. You can get exterior latex paints that are reasonably weather proof. You can, if necessary, use solvent or oil based paint or lacquer on top of latex paint, once it has thoroughly dried.
Most binary (two component) epoxy paints are also safe to use.
Have FUN!
DearWebby
http://webby.com/humor/blog (09/07/2010)
By Helmut
Any spray paint will not work, unless you want to change the texture of what you are painting, use the water based as suggested. My son had to make something for a school project and used Styrofoam. We bought a can of spray paint at Walmart and as soon as we sprayed it, the Styrofoam began to bubble like a science experiment! At first we were horrified, but ended up deciding we liked the texture it made. I imagine a small piece would melt altogether! If you want to see what the texture looked like, send me a message and I will dig the project out and take a picture of it, it was pretty cool. (09/08/2010)
