Good Garbage Gab - Creative Wrapping

One week until Christmas!!!!! I'm so excited!!!! How about you? Are you ready? This coming week I will be busy finishing up some handmade gifts, picking up the last few stocking stuffers, baking and  wrapping gifts!

There is nothing more fun to me than watching kids and adults ripping into a beautifully wrapped present. That is a big part of the fun for me! I really hate buying Christmas paper. Spend a fortune for it to last all of a minute before it's tossed in the trash. So, what alternatives are there? Just look around! You can use newspaper, comics, brown paper bags, and book and magazine pages. Add special touches by making your own bows from the same papers or scrap fabric. And if you are just dead set on bags... Then make your own from newspaper!!!

If you are making goodies like muffins, cookies, or candy, use some of these fun containers: aluminum box wrapped for muffins, Pringles cans wrapped for cookies and a toilet paper roll for candy! 

For instructions and more ideas, check out our Pinterest page. There you will find some great ideas for all kinds of repurposing! 

Please send us pictures of all your wonderful repurposed holiday crafts! We would love to share them on our blog and Facebook page! And if you use store bought wrapping paper (and don't fret, I am too, as I have paper I have purchased over the last 10 years I'm trying to use up), be sure to save the cardboard tubes. We will be using these for some wonderful gardening ideas and future crafts after the first of the year!

Anne and I want to wish you and yours a very, very Merry Christmas!!!! 

Good Garbage Gab - From Trash to Gifts 12/5/12

Today I'm hoping to inspire you to not only handcraft some wonderful Christmas gifts, but repurpose things you my have around your house to do so. Saving you money and of course, stuff from the landfill!!! 

Crayon Initial artwork

Do your kids or you have a lot of crayons that are broken? No, I'm not going to tell you to melt them into new mixed colored crayons... Take a piece of poster board, cardboard or construction paper, just as long as it is strong enough to hold the glued on crayons, an old frame (don't need a shadow box, just remove the glass from the frame), the broken crayons and some glue and make the initial of the gift recipient. You can write the name like here in the picture, or decorate any way you would like. These are great gifts for babies, families and babysitters.  

T-Shirt Scarves

Oh man... Did I ever get into a frenzy making all kinds of these last winter. I have so many different ones!!! They are awesome gifts this time of year and can be sewn or not. The one pictured here is actually unsewn and embellished with odd buttons and such that can be glued on. How? Just lay your t-shirt on a flat surface and cut a strip from the bottom (after you cut the hem off),  that is 4-6" wide. I usually do 4" just because that is the width of my straight edge. Take the circle piece and cut along one of the seams to make a long rectangle piece.  Cut the fringe and add the embellishments if you wish. Voila! Done!  

Jean Slippers

Who couldn't use a new pair of funky slippers???? This one I haven't done yet, but it is on my to do list for someone this Christmas!!! To see how to make these, come on over to our Repurposed Gift Pinterest page. Recycled Lovelies has a great tutorial. The blog is filled with wonderful ideas, but unfortunately she no longer updates it. Hopefully it will stay up for a good while! 

Come follow our Pinterest page and find lots of wonderful repurpose/recycle/reuse gifts as well as other great ideas. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

From Cards to Boxes...

Over the weekend, Barbara, a Facebook friend, asked for instructions on using a Christmas Card to make a box. I found these instructions from Margie's Mark...   Greeting Card Boxes  

Be sure to checkout our Pinterest page for this and many more creative reuse ideas! 

Good Garbage Gab-Reusing Christmas Cards, 11/27/12

Good morning everyone! We sure hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend!!! We both had weekends full of wonderful family time!

Now that we have marked one more holiday off the list for 2012, we are moving ever closer to the winter holidays which are full of gift giving. We celebrate Christmas! Today I'm going to give you suggestions for reusing Christmas cards. If you saved your stash from last year, awesome!!! If not, no reason you can't use the ones you receive this year as they come in!

The first idea is to cut tags out of the pictures and use them as name tags on packages. You can cut many shapes, circles, triangles and rectangles then punch a hole in the top and add a ribbon or piece of yarn, Voila!

You can also use them to make placemats. By using a sheet of 11x17" construction paper (or other things like news paper, poster board, etc, cut to size and doesn't have to be 11x17"). Cut the front part of the cards off at the fold. Arrange them on the paper over lapping as necessary. I used double sided sticky tape, but you can use glue, etc. Once arranged like you want an secured to the paper, you can use clear vinyl contact paper or a laminating machine to cover and make water proof. I'm not a big proponent of using the plastic so I am still looking for an alternative way to preserve and use these with out that part of it. But they are very cute!

There are many, many other ideas for using your Christmas cards... I thought pictures might be better than instructions. These seem pretty self explanatory. For even more ideas, check us out on Pinterest (Good Garbage).

Happy Crafting!

-Lynn & Anne