5 Ways to Up-cycle and Re-purpose Toys

Is it just me, or do you also have a mountain of toys taking up space in your home? Ideally, toys should be purged / sold when they are no longer used, but up-cycling and repurposing old toys is another fantastic option. Today, I'm sharing a few of my favourite ways up-cycle and re-purpose old toys.

1) Create custom art supplies - Every parent has a bin of old, broken crayons... and it is super-easy to transform useless crayon bits into adorable custom crayons in fun shapes. Simply:

• Peel the paper off the crayons.
• Break up the crayons and put them in a silicon muffin tin or candy tray.
• Melt the crayons in the oven at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes. (Make sure you place the silicon tray on a regular cookie sheet so that you can easily remove the melted crayons from the oven.)
• When all the crayons have turned to liquid, carefully remove the tray from the oven, and let the crayons cool completely.
• Pop the crayons out of the tray.

These crayons make cute party favours, and you can make fun holiday versions too.

2) Make unique picture frames - Start with a dollar store wooden frame, and use hot glue to attach old toys. I used old LEGO pieces to create a fun piece of decor for my son's room, but any small toys would work. I think it would be adorable to use old toy cars or old scrabble pieces.

3) Create toy covered monograms - Big wooden letters are easy to find in craft stores, and they make adorable pieces of room decor when they are covered with old toys and craft supplies. Consider using a glue gun to cover a monogram with old crayons, pom poms, toy cars, bouncy balls, etc... It's a simple and fun idea.


4) Transform old sports equipment into room decor - Kids often have tons of old sports equipment gathering dust, and some of it has sentimental value. I turned my boys' first hockey sticks into room decor by attaching wooden letters. You can find the full tutorial here. 

5) Re-purpose old books - When you spend hours reading the sames books nightly to your kids, it is easy to form sentimental attachments to the stories. I love the idea of using old books to create artwork for a child's room or playroom using inexpensive frames. Book artwork is perfect for a reading nook too!

There are many simple ways to up-cycle and re-purpose old toys. Do you have any ideas that I could use? I'm always looking for DIY inspiration!

♥
Gina (aka East Coast Mommy)