I searched through my crafting stash, rummaged through the recycling bin, hit Goodwill Outlets, and searched the clearance bins at Michaels for Busy Bags goodies this weekend. My goal was to spend no more than $1 per Busy Bag, and I think I did great! Not all of the Busy Bags are completed, but here’s what I came up with:

Board Puzzles

 The first Busy Bag was from a box of board cards (like individual pages of board books) meant for infants. It was a sample that came in the mail, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it until now.

I cut up the different board cards to make puzzles. You can see the cut lines if you look closely at the picture. I put them all in the same Busy Bag, which makes putting them together pretty challenging! You could easily do the same thing with a board book that has been outgrown!

Cost to me: Free!

Felt Scenes

Michael’s had felt on sale this week 5/$1. I bought 5 different colors (for this and the next Busy Bag) and created felt scenes — one for summer, and one for winter (or Canadian fall). The shapes can be rearranged and put back together.

Cost: $1

Alphabet Snake

Using ribbon from my ribbon scraps, buttons from my button jar, leftover felt from the project above, and fabric paint from my craft stash, I made a button snake, but wanted to make it a little more interactive as the kids learn letters, and eventually words. I painted commonly used letters on the felt, rather than using the whole alphabet, so more words can be spelled.

Cost: Free!

I Spy Bottle

I emptied out a shampoo bottle this weekend, and it seemed like a good size to make an I Spy Busy Bag activity. I went to my button stash again, and found a fun selection of medical and academic buttons. I took a picture of all of the objects, so they will know what they are looking for. I put the buttons in the cleaned-out and dried bottle, added rice to within a 1/2 inch of the top of the bottle, and then used hot glue to glue it closed. A good shake of the bottle, and the items were hidden. They were fairly easy to find — at least some of them. But I imagine that finding all of them might take a while. (Yes!)

Cost: $1 for the rice

So for spending $2 out of pocket, and using some creativity, I came up with four Busy Bag activities. I’ve got some other Busy Bag projects in the works, which are even better, and I’m have a good time putting them together! It will be even better when there are some kids around to use them!