• You can use tin pie plates to make different types of crafts.Pie image by Antonio Oquias from Fotolia.com
  
  Most people toss tin plates in the trash after baking and eating a pie. One way to cut down on your waste a little is to recycle these plates into various items. Using tin plates in various craft projects is a fun and inexpensive way to entertain your children. Tin plate crafts can allow your kids to express their creativity while learning about recycling.
  
  

Tambourine

• This project is a great way to make a usable percussion instrument. Clean two tin pie pans thoroughly. In one pan, place a handful of small materials that will make noise when shaken. Good materials to use include dried beans, popcorn kernels or beads. Add a bead of glue all the way around the rim of the pie pan and place the other pie pan on top. Place a heavy book on top of the top pan for about thirty minutes to allow the glue to set. Once the glue has dried, decorate the pans with paint and stickers. Shake and tap your tambourine to make exciting rhythms.
  
  

Ornament

• This tin plate craft allows you to make your own Christmas tree ornaments. Trace various shapes, such as reindeer, trees, candy canes or stars, onto tin pie pans. Use templates or draw the shapes freehand. Cut out the shapes with a pair of scissors. Decorate the ornaments by gluing on ribbons, plastic jewels and sequins. Cut a piece of pipe cleaner about 1.5 inches long. Bend the pipe cleaner so that it forms a U shape, and hot glue the two ends to the back of an ornament as a hanging loop. Another way to hang your ornament is to punch a hole in the top of the ornament with a hole punch. Then thread a ribbon through the hole and tie it.
  
  

Bug Net

• This tin pan project is a way to make a bug net for young insect enthusiasts. Create a hole in the middle of the pan with sharp scissors. Insert the scissors into the hole and cut away the entire center of the pan, leaving only the outer rim. Lay a piece of netting on a flat surface. Place the rim of the pan bottom side down on top of the netting. Pull the netting around the edges of the pan and cut the netting all the way around the pan, about an inch from the edge of the rim. Hot glue the edges of the netting onto the rim of the pan. The netting should be larger than the rim so that you have some slack in the netting. Hot glue a ruler onto one edge of the rim as a handle. You can decorate the ruler if you like in order to add a little pizazz to your bug net.