Recycle Wrapping Paper and Christmas Cards
If there are two things you will see plenty of at this time of the year, it is wrapping paper and Christmas cards and we have a few ideas on how you can save and use these.
21/12/2021
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When Christmas comes around every year, you can be guaranteed to see lots of Christmas cards and wrapping paper. Unless, of course, you don't celebrate Christmas in your home. I thought I would get this article in early this year so that everyone can save wrapping paper and Christmas cards and show you a few ways to recycle both of these in practical ways that will save you money next Christmas.
Make Decorative Bows & Flowers
Christmas presents, or any presents for that matter, look prettier when dressed with bows and if you save all your Christmas wrapping paper, you can make your own pretty bows for presents.
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Mimicking the design of a beautiful poinsettia, recycle Christmas cards into pretty flowers to embellish Christmas gifts. Draw a flower shape as a stencil to use for cutting out additional flower shapes and then use a hot glue gun to assemble and add embellishments.
Make Pretty Gift Tags
Purchase a pad of colourful paper that you can use to make your own personalised gift tags. Cut out the greeting or images from wrapping paper or greeting cards and affix this to the card to make tags for any type of gift.
Make Christmas Decorations
Christmas might be over for 2021 but you are still going to need decorations for next year, right? Keeping all the wrapping paper and Christmas cards you receive and putting them aside will give you plenty of material to work with to make decorations for the next year.
better homes and gardens magazine
To make these colourful Christmas tree decorations (above), all you need are some Christmas cards cut in circular shapes ranging from small to large. Some of the cards can have a straight edge and others can be scalloped. Cut a small triangle shape in the circle so that you can form into a cone shape. Use magic tape to seal the cut edges and then place these on top of each other.
For the tree ornaments below, purchase ready-cut 3mm supawood circles or cut your own from supawood, pine or hardboard. Drill a small hole to hang on the tree. Cut out wrapping paper and Christmas cards and glue these onto the shapes.
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Make Christmas Tree Ornaments
Why waste money on expensive tree ornaments and decorations when you can make your own and start a family tradition. You can use Christmas wrapping paper or cards to make these ornaments to hang on the tree. To make, cut out the shapes on a piece of card and glue them together to make the shapes. Cut and glue wrapping paper or cards onto this and add a pretty ribbon or strip to hang the baubles.
better homes and gardens magazine
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Make An Advent Calendar
Recycling last year's Christmas cards is a great way to use them to make an advent calendar for next Christmas. Cut out interesting pictures and number them from 1 to 25. In the advent calendar shown below, fabric was used for the backing and thin dowels glued onto the fabric as dividers.
craftynest.com
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Make Christmas Coasters
I love this idea for taking the lids from food containers and turning them into coasters. Use ModPodge to secure cut wrapping paper or Christmas cards inside the lids and apply several coats of ModPodge on top to offer protection.
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If you don't have any jar lids that you can recycle, you can always use thin pieces of timber or board or buy a small sheet of hardboard. Again, use ModPodge to stick the paper or cards onto the wood and apply several more coats to provide adequate protection.
