At one time people actually saved things like Popsicle sticks after they ate the frozen goodies. They were 'free', safe and durable. Here are a few treasures we created with them over the years.

POPSICLE STICK HOUSE: Start with a small box. A child-size shoe box is perfect and your local shoe store probably has a few they'll give you.

Take the lid off the box and turn it upside down.

Cut out windows and doors.

Glue Popsicle sticks in a horizontal pattern on the sides of the box for the 'siding'.

After the glue has dried, color the house. We've used brown markers for a log cabin house, but any color works.

Use the side of a cardboard box to form a roof by folding it into an "A" shape. You can either draw the roof, or get really busy and make shingles by cutting short sections of the ends of the Popsicle sticks.

A FORT: We made a smaller version of the house and used Popsicle sticks for the fort walls. Put the small house on a sheet of foam floral base material, found in most craft stores. This also makes moving your project off the kitchen table at dinner time much easier. Paint it to look like grass or soil. The fort walls are made by gluing about five vertical Popsicle sticks to one or two horizontal sticks for the wall support. Press the wall sections into the foam base so they'll stand up.

PENCIL HOLDER: Use an empty soup can or frozen juice can. Make sure it's very clean and dry. Glue the Popsicle sticks vertically so they surround the entire can. After the glue dries, color the pencil holder with markers, add trims, whatever comes to mind. If you're giving the pencil holder for a gift, keep the giftee in mind. You can color it brown or black and add leather strips for a Dad or Grampa gift, or make it pink and purple and add 'jewels' or feathers for little sis.

RAFTS: These are great fun to race on ponds or streams. Make the same basic structure as you did for the fort walls, but use water resistant glue. Make a sail our of construction paper and glue it to a thin dowel or even a little twig. Make a little hole in one of the sticks, add a drop or three of glue, and then push the end of the 'mast' in place and let it dry. Sometimes the kids would have more fun decorating and coloring their sails than they did building the rafts. But the real fun is floating them! If you don't have a pond or a stream, the kitchen sink or bathtub work as well. This is a great rainy-day project as well