Re-wrap: Repurpose and Recycle Wrapping Ideas

This is a post I first wrote a few years ago. But it's one I love to rerun during the holidays because so much of what I said in 2009 is still true today... 

Did you know that most wrapping paper can't be recycled? Many communities require you to just throw it away. Especially if the paper is metallic or glittered.

Many years ago I did a few workshops about recycled, repurposed gift wrapping and each time people were surprised by how great the finished gifts looked. I think people generally have this idea that it won't look as good as conventional wrapping paper, but I think it actually looks better.

Now I'm not going to lie- it does take some extra time. And I'd love to say that I don't use any store-bought wrapping paper- but that's just not true either. But I figure, if at the very least I've cut down on what we would normally use then that's something. I also buy paper that can be recycled whenever I can. The other really wonderful thing about repurposed wrapping paper it that it's an inexpensive.

You can use some really common materials to wrap gifts. Here I've used just a brown paper grocery bag. I glued some paper punched snowflakes on it after I wrapped the box, and tied it with a scrap of red ribbon. Would you ever guess this was a grocery bag!

You could also use the scraps of paper you have left after using the paper punch as a stencil. I painted some flakes onto another grocery bag- which was certainly faster than gluing the individual punched flakes onto the bag.

This one is very quick and easy. I covered the outside and lid of a mason jar with leftover pieces of scrapbook paper. They are great for holding things like tee shirts, scarves, mittens, hats, cookies and candies. And the jars do double the work because they can be reused from year to year.

Upcycled mailing tubes also make great containers for more than just posters. Clothes, candy, even knitting needles fit perfectly into these tubes. I used a sharpie to color red lines- but you could also use paint, ribbon or stickers to decorate it. Or cover the entire tube with a pretty scrapbook paper.

Making your own gift tags is also a great way to reuse materials and they can be recycled once the holiday is over. 

Decoupaged Egg Ornaments

Here's my latest handmade ornament. And one of the best parts about these is that the materials were 100% free... so nothing came out of my $20 budget.

I started with a coupon for a free dozen eggs. And blew them all out so I was left with just the empty shells.

Then I colored them using some leftover dye tablets I kept from an easter egg kit.

I often buy more than one easter egg kit to get the perfect combo of colors. I keep the leftovers because you never know when you might need something to dye eggs with - case in point Christmas ornaments. I had three tablets leftover- emerald green, dark blue (almost navy), and pink. I really wanted a nice teal blue so I played around with mixing different amounts of blue and green until I got the right shade.

Since the eggs were blown out I needed to weigh them down with a small glass while dyeing them.

Once the eggs were dry I punched snowflakes out of scrap paper, glittery holiday cards, and tin foil. Then decoupaged the flakes onto the eggs.

Last but not least I glued some loops of scrap yarn into the eggs for hangers.

And since these ornaments were 100% free (yippee) they took $0 from my budget and I still have $10.27.

Snowflake Ornaments and a Challenge Update.

My latest Crafty Christmas Tree ornaments are these delicate looking snowflakes made from- can you guess what...

coffee filters!

But they've been stiffened to make them more rigid and ornament like. And as an added bonus the fabric stiffening medium I used gave the filters a semi-translucent icy look.

As you probably already know I love to craft with coffee filters. (As demonstrated by this post, this post, this post, this post, and this post) Not only are they cheap but they're so versatile. And at only a dollar for pack of 200, they were definitely on my list of materials for the tree.

Now you've probably seen more than one tutorial on how to cut snowflakes from coffee filters so I'm just going to give you a brief overview of those steps.

Step One: First smooth the filter out so it's flat. Then fold in half. Fold in half again, so it's in quarters. And then fold in half one more time.

Step Two: Use a craft knife to cut the folded filter.

I made some cuts along the edges and inside the middle to get a really detailed and delicate looking flake.

After you're done cutting unfold to reveal your beautiful flake. I cut each one randomly so no two are alike- just like real flakes.

Next it's time to stiffen the filters up with fabric medium. I used Plaid's Stiffy product but I'm sure any liquid (paint on) fabric medium would work.

Step Three: Lay the snowflake on some wax paper, pour on some drops of fabric medium, and smooth the medium over the entire filter. I used my finger instead of a brush, that way I didn't bend or fold any of the delicately cut areas.

Step Four: Carefully pick up/peel up the flake and transfer it to something plastic to dry.

For my plastic surface I cut the top and two sides off of large plastic storage bag. Unfolded it and taped the edges down to be sure it stayed flat. That gave me a fairly large plastic area that held 4 snowflakes at one time.

Don't be afraid to pick up the flakes. They will feel very delicate and the arms will probably flop over and stick together- but that's ok because once it's on the plastic you can smooth it out so it's nice and flat and smooth again.

Transferring the flake this way is important for two reasons. One- If you let the flake dry on waxed paper it will be very hard to peel off (ask me how I found that out). And two- If you don't transfer the flake to another surface after spreading the fabric medium on you won't get a flake with open cutout areas. You'll get one that looks like this- see how most of the cutout areas are filled in.

Step Five- Once the flake was dry I gave it another coat of fabric medium by repeating steps three and four. This second coat helps to really make the snowflakes rigid.

Last but not least, I used some of the red embroidery floss, leftover from my last Christmas Tree project, to hang my flakes.

I can't wait to see how they look on the tree! So far I've made about 14- but I'll probably make more.

This project was pretty cheap- $1 for the coffee filters and I bought the fabric medium using a 50% off coupon. So the whole thing, including tax, came to $3.47. And I have a lot of leftover filters and fabric medium!

That leaves me with (insert drum roll sound here please)- $10.27

Now as promised I have an update on the Crafty Christmas Tree Challenge.

Located in the upper right sidebar (just under the Crafty Christmas Tree Logo) is a link list of everyone's blog who participating in the challenge. Please go and check them out- I've already seen some really cool ornament tutorials! I can't wait to see all the finished trees.

There are a few people who expressed interest but I'm not sure are participating- so if I've left your name out of the link list please either send me an email or leave a comment on the original post- here and I'll add you.

And if you'd like to join the challenge- there's still time! Leave me a comment with your blog address on this post- here or send me an email

I'll be doing periodic roundups of the participants ornaments and a reveal of the finished trees sometime after December 15th (details and date to come soon)!

Quilled Heart Snowflakes

Valentine... you melt my heart

Happy Valentine's Day!

Coffee Filter Snowflakes

Back around Halloween when I first made the coffee filter spiderwebs my mind immediately jumped to how perfect the same technique would be for making snowflakes.

Here's how you do it: First fold your filter in half,

then in half again,

and one more time.

Draw your shapes. I used a black pen so you could see it clearly in the photo but if you use a pencil the lines won't be noticeable on your finished flake.

Cut out using scissors (or is you have a really complex shape a craft knife)

Unfold....

And....

viola!

A perfect snowflake.

I just love how the semi-transparent look of the filters mimics the icy quality of real snowflakes. And they are so fast to make, in no time at all you'll have a blizzards worth.

Quilled Snowflake

Ever since I first saw quilled snowflakes over at Ann's blog, all things paper, I've wanted to make some.

You see, I have a thing for snowflakes. I was born in December and they've sort of been a theme surrounding birthday's for me. Some years I had parties in what turned out to be blizzards, other years I got snowflake in the form of a gift. I also have a large collection of snowflake paper punches. For whatever reason, I just love them and had to try making a quilled one.

I've only tried quilling a couple of times before. This time the motions and shapes definitely came easier. Everything felt smoother and more consistent. My slightly wonky flake isn't as beautiful and perfectly shaped as this one-

(Picture from All things paper- by Deb Mackes)

Which I saw on Ann's site and used as my guide. It was designed and made by Deb Mackes, who is obviously a pro at this! I think hers just the most lovely and perfect flake!

I'm happy with how mine turned out, although not as elegant and well proportioned as it's model flake. But feel like with a bit more practice I'll not only be able to get better results, but I'll also be able to come up with some patterns of my own.

I just love how endless the possibilities for these are. In my head I'm envisioning tons of quilled flakes, all different, hanging from the ceiling over the dining room table. Or on the Christmas tree.

And now it's got me thinking, wouldn't some sort of quilled flake exchange be fun! I love the idea of mailing a snowflake to someone and getting another one in return.

I'll keep you updated as my flake making continues.

And if you are interested in making some quilled flakes- here's the page I saw on Ann's blog, there are lots of other beautiful snowflakes. You can also find a pattern from Deb Mackes for another quilled design.