Need concert costumes? Paper and cardboard will do.

When you have a budget to meet creating costumes for your children's school concert, what can you do about it?

The kindergarten my children attended, charged RM50 for costumes required for year end concerts. Most of these creations are not suitable for street wear when they were returned to them after the event.

I have volunteered to create chef hats out of "mahjong" paper and wings of parrots out of plastic bags for children performing "Burung Kakak Tua". It is a pity I did not have any pictures of these to post on my blog but you can be be inspired by Ennio Marchetto.



At Instructables, you will be able to find a few costumes to create for your children for concerts or for some fun at home.

Explore using other kind of scrap materials. For more ideas, do a search on the web for "diy costumes for kids" or "diy (?) costumes". Type in the material you intend to use where the "?" is or go to the local library to find such books in the craft sections.

Here are some websites I have discovered:

Make Your Own Costumes, Masks and Face Paint on Squidoo

Costumes at About.com

Need book stands? Find a paper bag and cardboard.

When one of my friends discovered that I can create with waste material, she has been giving me lots of lovely paper bags to work with. Looking through the collection, I noticed lots of bags from mooncake suppliers with lovely pictures printed on their thick quality paper.



I decided to make use of this paper bag and some cardboards I have collected to create a book stand. It will come in handy for my beading books.



Now look at my new book stand. Like it?



I also discover one thin brown paper bag from Kenny Rogers Roaster. So will I be able to create a book stand out of that? You bet, I can.



I used it to store comics my daughter has collected and placed it on the book shelf with the rest of the book stands I have made with cardboard. Since I have created that with the handle attached, she can carry her collection around with her. That way she can read her comics in the sitting room while watching TV during commercial breaks. A great way to encourage her to polish her Mandarin.



Since she will not be able to miss the carrier, she should no longer be misplacing her comics all over the house.

Neat and nice. The way I like things. And of course, you can learn how to make them too.