Newspaper is often reused for a lot of things such as packing, lining animal cages, and making fire logs, but have you ever thought of turning it into something that is not only practical but pretty as well? Apparently many people have and are working wonders with it as an arts and craft supply.

 

The crafty ladies from the Women's Multipurpose Coop of the Philippines is a fair trade organization that brings internationally made crafts into the North American markets. As for their paper items, they have created everything from newspaper bead earrings to coiled newspaper wall clocks. This looks rather time consuming and difficult to be honest. Maya verified in her blog that it is not as easy as it looks, but that it was fun trying.

A simpler project is this eHow article on making a kite from newspaper. This would be a great project to share with your children to help them learn about recycling.

 

If you are tired of buying disposable slippers to wear when you paint your toenails and want to dispose of that whole idea, try making your own from newspaper as shown on Craft Bits. Of course, you will have to figure in the problem of having newspaper print all over your feet!

Of course newspaper lends itself to papiér maché projects, and using that craft technique lets you create anything from jewelry to vases.   You'll be stunned at the possibilities of newspaper beads at Paper Bead Crafts, although I like the simple black and white ones.  Call me old fashioned!