Published 6 November 2015 ● Last Updated on 8 October 2020
In Sepetmber 2015, we launched the #Under50Dollars Challenge, our creative twist to #SG50, to commemorate the 50th birth-year of Singapore. It was devised for our readers to appreciate the inherent value of things used and old. If you have a good eye, enjoy upcycling… and have some dollars in the pocket, you too can join in and take up the challenge!
Our latest entry comes from Ekta Mukati in Singapore. A mumpreneur and mother to two, she is well-experienced in devising “crafty” ways to keep restless hands occupied! This festive season, she came up with this Under50dollars, in fact, Under10dollars activity, that is bound to add sparkle to any child’s eyes! Here is how she involved her children in the festival of lights, in her own words:
With Diwali just around the corner we can literally smell the excitement in the air with houses getting spotlessly cleaned, shopping carts getting loaded with aromatic sweets, diyas and gifts, the best of fragrant food tingling our taste-buds- all to celebrate the victory of good over evil and to welcome Goddess Lakshmi (goddess of wealth) in our lives!:-)
Preparations for Diwali in most Indian households begin at least 10-15 days in advance and one of the key activities is home decoration: cleaning and decorating the house with new things, lighting up diyas (traditional Indian tea lights), putting rangoli, making flower arrangements, and so on, each being followed as a tradition through the years.
This year, as a part of the “clean-up the house” project I came across some old CDs of movies/ music which on a usual day would have been readily disposed in the dustbin.
However, this year I tried to do something different with them with two intentions- recycle in a useful way and more importantly, find an activity to engage my 5-yr-old daughter in and to involve her in the Diwali preparations.
A quick online search gave some really cool ideas for recycling used CDs and we decided to upcycle them into homemade diya bases for Diwali.
The transformation was fairly simple and quick with minimal materials needed. All you need are old CDs, superglue and a few decorative beads, sparkling stickers, buttons, etc or anything else you can be creative with- the ideas are endless.
I simply picked some self-sticky stickers easily available at any stationary store or Daiso worth SG$2 (we used the ones used on mobile covers). These are easy for kids to handle make no mess. To make it more exciting for your little ones, do let them choose the stickers themselves.
After that, it is all about becoming a 5-yr-old again and enjoying sticking those super sparkly diamonds on the CDs (in keeping with the bling theme for Diwali!). The results are for you to see- a really simple idea but a great transformation.
The other idea we explored was to actually convert the CDs into coasters by simply cutting some thick felt sheets into desired shapes and sticking the CDs on them.
So here is to a more fun-filled, engaging, exciting and maybe even environment friendly Diwali.
– Ekta Mukati
Ekta is a mother of two and HR professional. She quit corporate life to start something of her own, thus co-founding online kids store Made for Tots which specializes in unique and personalized kids products.
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