Recycled vs all new craft items

I finally perfected gave up on further improving the tiaras for the girls:

That will do for now. They look gorgeous on little heads in the sunlight and the wire scrunches up very satisfactorily so it doesn't flop about.

We went to another third birthday party on Saturday and it turns out my friend Noel has had the same idea as me about doing away with overblown party packs. She produced these little butterflies for all the kids to take home:

I think these are just lovely. The bodies are made of broken Christmas tree lights and the wings from old paint colour samples (left) and leaves (right). It's really made me think about what can be produced from "junk" -- the tiaras are pretty but they did involve a lot of expensive wire and beads. So I'll be trying more stuff like this in future.

And while we're on crafty stuff, JJ has found yet more uses for shiny muffin cups:

This was inspired by the incomparable Little Hands Art Book, but she took it a couple of steps beyond their basic suggestion by adding the berries on the tree, and a few companion birds. And, once again, lots and lots of sticky tape.