Easy Gift Wrap Ideas from your Recycling

Scenario #1: You've got the gift bought and you're ready to wrap it and OH NO! Not a shred of tissue paper/wrapping paper left in the house- What to do??? You run back to the store, shell out another $8-10 on a card and a bag (not forgetting the tissue paper) and wrap it in the car, in the Target parking lot. You are, of course, late to your event, and there's tape stuck to the back of your dress.

Scenario #2: You've got the gift bought and you're ready to wrap it and OH NO! Nothing to wrap with. But you're crafty and don't despair because you know there's SOMETHING in the house that you can make look good. You walk over to the recycling bin and take a look and find a few tin cans, some saved brown paper grocery bags, and assorted boxes. A little paint or glue, some ribbon, and you've all you need for a fantastic presentation. Go to it girl!!!

I've had a few occasions to buy gifts for lately and have made the commitment to using recycled materials to wrap them with.The purple can? the previous night's fire roasted tomato's. The paper wrapping? Grocery bags.

Here's a birthday card I did up recently- I cheated with this and used some left over scrapbooking papers and letters I had on hand. But the inside of the card is a page torn from the flyleaf of an old book and technically the button is a found object.... :)

There really are so many options. Sew an old sock shut, use a toilet paper tube, Shona Cole and Lisa Guerin had a fabulous article in the first Greencraft about transforming old cereal boxes into beautiful gift bags. Following their cue, I prepped up a bunch of boxes recently and am embellishing them in my spare time. My hope is to get a small stockpile started so that when I do need a quick bag or box I've one on hand and can avoid that last minute rush to Target. Hopefully this post has given you some ideas too!

Doodle- Love Valentine's Craft

A pile of t-shirts, a black sharpie, and a large table top. On Wednesday, between cleaning the house up and a play date, I had the unexpected pleasure of sitting and sketching. My 5 year old's preschool Valentine's Day party was the next day and I'd promised to provide the craft. When I asked my son what he thought we should do, his idea was to have everyone sew hearts to fabric and then hang them on the wall. Super cute idea but I explained that it had to be something that wouldn't require one on one attention from an adult- or band aids. Instead we decided to do t-shirts and instead of sewing the kids would color the hearts.

Except I couldn't stop with just hearts. I had to design owl's with hearts for the girls and then robots holding hearts for the boys. The owl shirts say "Who heart's you?" and the boy's say http:/love/you/: My techie husband thought that was only kind of clever as it wasn't actual computer lingo- I still think it's cute though.

To make the shirts I did freehand sketches directly on the t-shirts with a sharpie (probably should have used a fabric marker for this). Then the kids colored them in with fabric markers. To make it easier for the kids we had pieces of cardboard that slipped in the shirts and stretched them out quite a lot. I also showed the kids that it was easier to color on fabric if they made marks in one direction and didn't try to scribble back and forth. They did an excellent job. I thought they might get frustrated, but no one seemed to and they all loved the idea that they got to take them home and wear them.

Cost? The t-shirts were a little over a $1 each (Hane's, Target), and I purchased 24 of them. I bought the fabric markers at Michael's and probably spent $28 on those. I bought two of several colors though, anticipating demand for those. So not a super cheap craft (I donated all the supplies) but I think it had a great value and the kids not only enjoyed making them but are excited to wear them as well. The bonus was that I had a great time drawing the designs AND watching the kids as they enjoyed coloring them. They did a great job!

Tutorial: How to Spell "BOO"!

Inspired by the season, Shelley of Singlestone Studios and I have put together a couple of projects to share with you this week. So swing on over to her blog after this for some more harvest inspirations! Here's my first contribution, a quick little project I created this weekend just for you bloggers! It's a little "Boo" sign that is both simple and cheap to create. I estimate that the entire thing cost less than $5. I did it myself but you could easily involve your kids in this one too!

What you need:
Materials
3 little unpainted wooden plaques (JoAnn)
19 gauge steel wire (hardware store)
4 odd cream buttons
chalkboard paint, black
paper towels
1/4 yd. approx. orange and black fabric (JoAnn)
glue stick

Tools
Craft drill
sandpaper
scissors
wire cutter
needle nose pliers

The HOW-TO Part:
Step One: Glob on some of the chalkboard paint to the top of each plaque and rub it in with a paper towel. We're going for a glazed look so if you get too much in areas- wipe it off. I put just enough on to cover the wood completely, but still see the grain. Let dry.
Step Two: I used my craft drill and put holes in the top corners and bottom corners on 2 of the plaques but on the third only drill 2 at the top corners.
Step Three: Sand your edges to get a nice worn and spooky look.
Step Four: Cut out a "B", and 2 "O's" from the orange fabric. I handcut mine but you can blow up the letters in your word processor and then print them out for insta-templates. Just hold the paper and fabric together and cut around your shape. It's an easy way to get a certain font. I think hand cut works pretty well for this project however. Rough looks nice here.
Step Five: Cut about 12" of the wire and thread one end each through the top two holes of one of the 4 hole plaques. This will be the hanger, so leave a little slack and then wrap the ends around the wire and then trim excess. If desired you can make a little loop in the center where it will hang.
Step Six: Cut 4 lengths of wire approx. 6" in length. Thread through holes from back and connect the plaques one below the other and so on. I spaced the plaques as I wanted and then twisted the wire. Then wrap one end around the other and then clip the excess. The second end gets trimmed to about a 1/2" length and then you insert it through a button. Wrap the wire over into the second button hole and then under for security and then trim any leftover wire. Do this 4 times to finish.

So there you go 6 easy steps and you have a stylish and spooky bit of home decor you created yourself! This same project could be altered so that the plaques are side by side and say trick or treat or use a harvest theme such as Be Thankful. Instead of text you could also get creative and do a trio of bats or pumpkins. If you go harvesty painting the plaques a pumpkin or deep red tone and then accenting with a bit of gold paint would be very pretty. You could also use these to go 3-d. Simply drill through the plaque where you would like to add your skeleton keys or sticks or whatever and then wrap the item with wire and twist behind to secure. I think using old wallpaper on these would be fun too. SO a simple shape but lots and lots of places to go with it. I could see a triptych created from these as well.