It’s So Easy Being Green and Light Green, Dark Green, Olive Green, Lime Green..

With Earth Day right around the corner, we can all think about ways in which we can do our share while having fun and being creative.  Look for coloring books that are made with recycled paper and soy-based inks; this saves trees and resources.

Here are some creative ways to reuse your finished coloring pages.

For gifts - Use pages as wrapping paper or cut out your picture and glue it on a plain paper bag to make a unique gift bag.  You can also cut pages in different shapes and sizes to make greeting cards and gift tags.

For home – Take your favorite pages to a local copy shop and laminate them so they can become place mats.  You can even cut up the laminated pages into smaller shapes and now you have wonderful ornaments for a Christmas tree, objects for a hanging mobile,  or decorations for your bedroom. 

For making memories – There are so many ways you can use coloring book pages for a scrapbook.  Use the pages as a background and place pictures on top.  Or cut up your coloring design into shapes and letters as decoration for your pages. 

For someone else – Brighten up someone’s day by giving them a picture you colored.  Create a story based on the pictures you colored.  Write out the words below the pictures and you have a book you can read and share. 

For some fabulous bling – Make your own beaded jewelry with your coloring books!  To make paper beads, cut long, skinny triangles out of your pages.  Turn the triangle so the colored side faces down and dab a bit of glue at the long, pointy end.  Starting at the wide end, roll the triangle using a pencil, marker, crayon, toothpick, or any other round tool.  The smaller the tool, the smaller your bead will be.  Roll tightly.  Glue the tip of the triangle to the rolled paper.  To make your beads last longer, you can coat them with clear glue or clear nail polish.  String your beads together and you now have a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry!