Use What You Have to Make a Fort Kit Gift

Make a cute fort kit by reusing and upcycling items from around the house

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As a crafter I feel like the aim of at least some of what I do is to help the environment. While I do make things out of new things I also like to find ways to reuse, repurpose, mend and make do with what we already have when I can. It’s creative and puts less strain on the environment.Make a cute fort kit by reusing and upcycling items from around the house

I also like to choose recycled products when I can, so I was excited to learn about the new Energizer® EcoAdvanced™ batteries, the world’s first AA battery made with 4 percent recycled batteries and Energizer’s® longest-lasting battery.Energizer® EcoAdvanced™ batteries

They’re available with all the other batteries at major retailers nationwide — I got mine at Target — and are a great value and a great step toward better performance and responsibility to the planet. Their goal is to produce batteries with 40 percent recycled materials by 2025.

I decided to repurpose and repackage some items I already had in the house with a couple of new things to make a fort kit gift basket including a great little lantern powered with Energizer® EcoAdvanced™ batteries.

Making the Fort Sheet

A blanket or sheet fort is only as good as its covering, and I decided to make mine great by taking an old, not-currently-used, king-sized sheet out of storage and making it a little bit more colorful with the use of dye.

If you’ve never dyed fabric before, this is the easiest way to do it. You just need your sheet, a big bucket and some fabric dye (mine was liquid, in Petal Pink, but you can use the powder as well).fabric in dye bath bucket

Get the hottest tap water you can and mix the dye and water in the bucket. Add the sheet — I tied mine in a few places to give an uneven, lazy tie-dye look — and add more water if needed to submerge the sheet. Use a spoon you don’t mind dyeing or your hands (wear gloves) to stir the fabric around every 30 minutes or so.

Leave it to soak about two hours. Mine had soaked up all the dye and the water was basically clear at this point, but yours might not be.

Drain the water, squeeze water out of the sheet, rinse and squeeze again. Put it back in the bucket, take it to the washing machine, wash on cold and a short cycle, then dry in the machine.dyed sheet upcycle

I love the way this turned out and that it doesn’t use a lot of water or require a lot of attended time.

Make a Fort Kit Giftfort kit lantern batteries

Once your sheet is done it’s really simple to put the rest of it together. Here’s what I used:

  • a basket (which I bought from Target)
  • the sheet
  • a couple of books (new or some that haven’t been read lately)
  • a couple of stuffed animals (if your kid is into that; mine are ones she already had)
  • some rope to hang the sheet on
  • a lantern (I love this one because it has a little hook you can loop on the rope inside the fort)
  • batteriesdiy fort kit

Assemble all this, or whatever necessities your child will want (maybe a coloring book and crayons, a pillow, some snacks?) in the basket.finding the fort kit

I had all this ready to go and the girl declared she wanted a treasure hunt, so we made this the prize. (She’s dressed as an investigator, not a fireman.) She had a good time hunting for clues and turning the fort into her investigator’s office, and later, a tent complete with sleeping bag.using the fort tent kit

I know these are all things we’ll continue to use for a long time, and it would make a great, outside-the-box gift for a child in your life, too!

Learn more about Energizer® EcoAdvanced™ batteries on Facebook. How do you bring upcycling, recycling and reuse into your everyday life? I’d love to hear about it!


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2 Comments

  1. That’s a really neat idea …. I just found your site tonight … I’m enjoying it a lot…

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