ECO GLITTER
15 minutes – a bit of foraging at the beginning and the cutting and putting together can be stretched out, along with label making and bottling
GOOD STUFF
Creativity, confidence, imagination, senses, nature
POTENTIAL FOR MESS
Just a bit of floral debris. In fact, that’s rather joyful debris to have!
PARENTAL ENJOYMENT
I wish I’d done this when I was little; maybe I did in some form during my floral-gathering and potion-making but there was less awareness about being eco-friendly then
METHOD
The sound of my daughter unzipping my make-up bag sets off alarm bells for me. It’s usually lipstick she’s after, but on this occasion, as I leap into the bedroom, I saw the lid being taken off a pot of face glitter! Sadly, I didn’t reach her in time to prevent the joyful sprinkling of it into the shag-pile carpet, or the shower of it all over her face and hair, because a toddler with glitter moves fast! The thing is, I LOVE and HATE glitter – it’s a pain to clean up, and as it is made of plastic it’s bad for the environment, too, but my goodness does it look pretty. I so often want to incorporate glitter into craft; however, I can’t face the utter destruction that it brings with it.
After realising that part of the joy of glitter for Mabel is the process of sprinkling, I decided to start making minimal-mess eco glitter for her. We use it with glue just like regular glitter but it is much less stressful and… natural!
Choosing the most colourful flowers you can, place the petals on a baking tray to dry out for 24 hours so that the glitter keeps better (find a warm spot to help them along). Then get some green leaves and cut them into tiny squares. Once the petals are dry do the same with them and mix with the leaves. Put the mix into a small jar with a lid and use it to decorate pictures and flower crowns or use as biodegradable confetti!