Recently I’ve become more and more interested in the earth—I’m saving and reusing more than ever. My husband and I are starting a vegetable garden. I’m buying from local farms and trying to eat more whole foods. But even still when Earth Day rolls around, I feel weird about it.

I so want my  kids to honor God’s creation. I want them to understand that we are stewards of God’s earth. But Earth Day usually seems to focus on Mother Earth and not the Father God that created the beautiful earth out of love for us!

Today I decided to do a little craft recycling and talk to Lydia about God’s Earth. We read Psalm 104 (which is one of my very favorite chapters in the Bible. If you ever want a glimpse of how big God is, read this chapter!) and focused on verse 24:

Lord, you have made so many things!
How wise you were when you made all of them!
The earth is full of your creatures.

Yesterday we went hiking in our back yard. We found several lone violets growing out from among the fallen leaves. At each one we brushed away the leaves and sticks to they violets could have a little light and rain. Today we looked up violets online and found out they are good for fragrance, medicines and even making marshmallows! We talked about how wise God is to make something so incredible!

We made this adorable recycled flower I saw somewhere to go along with our verse and pretty violets outside…

Don’t you love it?! It’s easy, too. Well, a little time consuming, but easy!

Just collect a toilet paper tube, some leftover tissue paper, an old skewer, paint, scissors and some green construction paper.

Then make a row of cuts along both edges of the tube.

This is actually easier said than done for a 4 year old. It may have been easier if I had drawn a line around the tube in order to keep the cuts even. But I also like the unevenness of it, too.

Once both sides have been cut all the way around, simply fold them back to see your flower!

(yes, I let my 18 month old use paints!)

Now, comes the fun part! PAINTS! With all the tiny petals, you got lots on your hands, but we had fun painting our violets purple!

After drying, we balled together some tissue paper. A real violet has a beautiful yellow tongue inside, so we tried to imitate this. But really, any color would look pretty inside…even plain white!

Then I poked a skewer through the bottom and right into the tissue paper until it hit the top of the flower. We added a green construction paper leaf and now we have a gorgeous violet!

Don’t you love it? I want to make a bouquet in lots of colors!

So, Happy Earth Day? Yes, indeed! I want to do my part to make sure “the Lord [is] happy with what he has made!” (Psalm 104:31)

For more fun recycled crafts join Make and Takes’ Recycled Art Challenge! Also check out the craftiness at Made By You Monday at Skip To My Lou, Get Your Craft On at Today’s Creative Blog and Kiddos Create at Mama Jenn!

reduce-reuse-recycle graphic by blankdots