Creative Reuse

Creative Reuse: Transforming Trash into an Easter Lamb

Turn trash into treasure with this creative reuse project! Learn how to upcycle packing paper and household items into an adorable DIY Easter lamb.

Upcycling trash can be a joyful experience, especially when you know you are keeping items from the landfill. With a little creativity, what was once discarded can become something beautiful and new. Today, I’m excited to share a creative reuse project that turns everyday trash into an adorable little lamb for Easter. This craft may not be the easiest one I’ve attempted, but seeing the finished piece brought a big smile to my face.  

Woowee.... I have a creative reuse craft for you, but it is a rather long one. It's okay if you have no desire to try this one out, but I had to see if I could create this for me. And now I am sharing it with you, so... be nice.

Have you ever had this idea niggling the back of your brain, and you were like I have to try this to see if I can do it. This is that craft idea, an idea I had no real path on how to begin, I just jumped in there and said, let's do this. 

With the DIY Easter Bunny basket in the rearview, I said well gal, you have more packing paper, let's use it up! So, that is what I did, or at least I made a large dent in my hoarded stash. I made this little lamb from packing paper, a Planter's peanut jar, a few grocery bags, the weekly flyer, masking tape, and a whole lotta hot glue... don't you just love those creative reuse ideas where trash becomes something new? 

Creative Reuse: Transforming Trash into an Easter Lamb

Materials:

1. Packing paper
2. Planter's peanut curved jar with lid
3. Masking tape
4. Plastic grocery sacks
5. Glue sticks
6. Glue Gun

Instructions:

• Begin by crumbling two plastic grocery bags into a ball
• Place grocery bags onto newspaper, or in my case, the weekly flyer that is delivered every week
• Crumple paper around to create a ball, and begin applying masking tape around the flyer to create a ball
• Place ball onto the end of the peanut jar (not the lidded end) using masking tape to attach the ball
• Add grocery bags to the peanut jar so your lamb has a little fluff and isn't so skinny
• Wrap masking tape around the jar to cover all of the grocery bags, and ensure the head will stay attached to the body
• Make the legs from grocery bags, be sure to create a right angle with the bag and cover with masking tape all along the leg, attach legs to body with masking tape
• Cut packing paper into strips, crumple, and braid, if you need a more detailed post about this, check out DIY Easter Basket
• I found hot gluing the braided packing paper to the legs is what worked best for me since I worked my way around the shoulders, and back down the other leg
• I continued to work my way around the shoulder and back covering the entire lamb with braided packing paper 
• Create the ears and tail with braided packing paper, and attach with hot glue

Ha! I just noticed this looks like a rabbit, kind-of looking like I am heading in that direction, nope!

The Final Touches

Once the lamb was complete, I styled it with my mother-in-law’s Easter basket, a piece of textured fabric, and a small bouquet of flowers. It was finally ready for its Easter debut!

Embracing the Creative Process

Can you believe I made my first sculpture? I honestly did not know what to expect when attempting this project. As I was finishing this little lamb up, my mom stopped by and I told her he looked like the dog from Ghostbusters, which she replied. "Stop it", and told me how cute he was. Mom's, they are are the best in boosting self confidence at times, right?

As I was first getting started with my creative reuse, I thought he looked like an alien, and I kept repeating to myself E.T. Phone Home. Yes, I get a kick out of my crafting projects at times, and find the need to entertain myself. I am still not sure what I think of him, but I said I needed to share the good, bad, and quirky here, so here we are. You can decide where this little guy falls. 

Sometimes life isn't perfect, which I am finding more and more each day. Us perfectionists may never be understood, we are hard to please. I talk about the perfectly imperfect things in life, and yet, I find when I make something, I want it to be perfect. But if I have learned anything, it's that life isn't perfect, it's messy, and sometimes we do not like what is going on around us, but I am learning to shrug my shoulders and move on to the next thing. So, here I am sharing more of my creative journey this year with y'all as promised. 

So, what do you think? Is my little lamb adorable, quirky, or somewhere in between? Gah... here's to not caring, and knowing I had an idea, I tried it, and I shared it no matter what. 

Tell me, what creative reuse project have you worked on lately, and how did it turn out? Remember, you will never know unless you try, and sometimes we must try, try, and try again. Have a lovely weekend friend. 💙

P.S. Since you made it to the end, I have a share, I totally forgot to add hind legs, how horrific for this lamb! So glad he is laying in a basket!

Have a Baa-rific Weekend!

Cara