Chica and I love to enter crafting contests. It’s a lot of fun for us to be given parameters and then we have to come up with a creative solution. For the latest contest, the people over at Mrs. Butterworth’s asked for submissions on how to recycle their containers into something for moms or kids. We could enter as many entries as we wanted and after a couple of brainstorming sessions, we came up with three different ideas.

Our primary goal was to avoid just recycling the container into another liquid holder of some sort. We thought that a bit too obvious and wanted to “think outside the bottle” so to speak. We also wanted our entries to be something a kid could help create as well as use. Finally, in the spirit of recycling, we only used items we already had in our house (besides the purchase of one bottle of syrup). With these self-inflicted parameters in mind, here are our entries:

1. Pick Up Sticks: a favorite game of both mine and Chica’s from childhood. The bottle was the perfect size to house the game and we put the instructions for play on the back of the bottle. Check out Chica’s post for a complete how-to including a free downloadable template for creating the front and back labels.
2. Tooth Fairy: My daughter helped me decorate this glittery fairy. Twist off the top and let your child put his or her lost tooth inside the bottle before bed. The next morning, the Tooth Fairy will have known where to look for the tooth and replaced it with some small prizes or change.
3. Bead holder: Lots of little girls love to make beaded necklaces and bracelets. This bottle makes a great container for holding sets of beads in a cute way on a workspace. We added a small skirt to the front for decoration.

We’ll let you everyone know if one of our projects is lucky enough to be selected. We also hope we have inspired you to look at bottles in your pantry a little differently instead of just tossing them in the trash or the recycling bin.