Pot Creatures

• Once your old clay pots have chipped or cracked, you more than likely just toss them in the garbage. Instead of dooming them to a landfill, use the different-sized pots to create junk creatures that will guard your garden. Use metal wire to string the pots together, threading it through the drainage holes. Add flowers or cactus plants into any pots that are facing upward. For additional decor, plant flowers into the laps of the pot creatures and add stringy vines or mosses to the seams where the limbs met the torso of the pot creatures.
  
  

Metal Creatures

• If you possess creativity and talent with a braising torch, use old silverware, metal skewers or rusty nuts and bolts to create metal junk creatures that will hold candles, scrap paper or pens. Design your creatures on a piece of paper before beginning. Gather your materials and begin to piece the scrap metal together with braising. Braising is the process of heating a metal other than the main metal to a high temperature and wrapping the molten metal on the seams to form a bond between the metals. Braising is less expensive than welding and requires less eye protection, so it is easier to learn. Add on small metal disks or springs to hold candles or pens. A paper clip attached to your statue will easily hold scrap paper.
  
  

Recycling Monster

• Use old cardboard boxes, egg cartons and plastic bottles to create a junk monster that will make your children enjoy recycling scrap paper. Use a large cardboard box for the stomach of your creature. Tape the upper flaps of the cardboard box shut so that the surface of the box is flat. Cut out a square hole from one flap of the cardboard the size of a cereal box for the mouth. Remove half the cereal box, and glue it onto one side of your cardboard box. Use a smaller box the size of the cereal box for the head of your creature. Decorate the outside of the creature with construction paper and markers. The bottom of the box should be folded together so the recycled paper will stay in the box.
  
  

Art Creatures

• Use old art supplies to create inexpensive junk creatures with your kids. Scraps of construction paper can be folded into a makeshift spring for the torso of their creature. Dried-out markers can be glued into the creases of the spring. Kids then glue scraps of cardboard on either side of the spring for additional support. Kids can cut a face out of a cereal box for the head of the monster.