[Summer Vacation Crafts] Not just make-and-done! A collection of practical ideas you can use every day

milk carton pen holder

[Milk Carton Pen Holder] Tidy up your desk! An adorable pen holder—perfect for a summer vacation craft. paper craft

Milk cartons are made of paper, but they’re surprisingly sturdy and long-lasting.

Items made from milk cartons also last a long time, so they’re very eco-friendly and practical.

So, why not make a lovely pen holder using milk cartons that’s gentle on the planet? You’ll need a milk carton, glue, and decorations like masking tape or chiyogami paper.

The basic method is to first open the milk carton flat, then reshape it into a triangular tube.

Secure it with tape.

Vary the heights and connect them together, and you’re done.

If you want it to be more durable, just double or triple the layers of the carton.

After that, decorate it however you like.

A pen holder you made yourself is sure to become something you’re fond of!

Milk carton washi (Japanese handmade paper recycled from milk cartons)

[Basic Edition] Let’s Make It with a Milk Carton: Handmade Papermaking Postcards

The word “ecology” has really blended into our everyday lives, hasn’t it? So, let’s try making postcards out of recycled paper using milk cartons.

First, we’ll make the recycled paper.

Three milk cartons will yield about 7–8 postcards.

Soak the scored milk cartons in water for about three days, then boil them well and peel off the plastic film.

Tear the cartons into small pieces and blend them in a mixer.

That completes the pulp for the recycled paper.

Next, pour it into a postcard-sized screen mold and couch the paper.

There are organizations that lend papermaking frames and screen molds, so try searching online.

Since you’ll be using a mixer and working with heat, don’t make this alone—be sure to do it together with an older sibling or an adult.

Plastic Bottle Cap Calendar

Easy! DIY Blackboard Calendar Made with Bottle Caps! [CAINZ DIY STYLE]

In the old days, when the year-end approached, we used to receive calendars from the local shopping street and neighborhood stores, and our house would overflow with more calendars than we needed.

Now it’s an era where we buy calendars to suit our purposes.

For a summer project, you can make a perpetual calendar using plastic bottle caps—depending on your ideas, it could turn out to be a wonderful calendar.

The materials are a corkboard, pushpins, and plastic bottle caps.

The basic setup is to fix the days of the week—Sun, Mon, Tue, and so on—on the corkboard, and then line up bottle caps labeled with the dates.

Think of hooking them onto large-headed pushpins.

You’re free to decorate the bottle caps with beads or even make them light up with miniature bulbs—the ideas are limitless.

Take the whole summer to create a lovely calendar!

wooden clock

DIY Craft Recipe: How to Make a Wooden Mini Clock

Elementary and junior high school students who are busy with studying and club activities probably check the time many times a day.

Whether it’s in the living room, the entryway, or even the bathroom, you can never have too many clocks when you’re busy.

So how about making a wooden clock for your independent research project? The wooden frame can be made from pieces you picked up at the beach during a seaside trip, or from materials collected in the mountains on a camping trip.

For the numbers on the clock, using a soldering iron to burn them in black looks pretty cool.

You could even make it with tree branches.

For the clock mechanism itself, try combining parts you can buy at a 100-yen shop.

Aluminum door plate

I tried making a door plate using items from the 100-yen shop! [100-yen DIY]

To put it simply, a door plate is a plaque with the room name written on it—like “Science Lab” or “Principal’s Office”—placed in front of a door or above it.

It’s practical to have at home, too, and since it’s made of aluminum, the glossy finish looks cool.

Why not try making a shiny, sleek aluminum door plate for your summer project? You’ll need an aluminum plate, double-sided tape or glue, and alphabet stickers.

The basic method is easy: just stick the lettering onto a rectangular aluminum plate—be careful to keep the letters straight.

Labeling the restroom as “TOILET” and the bathroom as “BATH ROOM” in English doubles the cool factor.

Once your project comes back from school, be sure to actually use it!