Tuesday 25 October 2011

Pretty present wrapping with recycled Christmas cards

It's that time of year again, so I thought this would come in really handy for you as an project idea- so I will re-post this super simple and fun project.....Today I wanted to share how you can make use of old Christmas cards .
If you have a present, say, a couple of books,  first  get a cardboard box ( cat food box will do) .
Put the books in the box and wrap the box  in simple brown paper as below.
 Fold the corners neatly like this.
And make into a neat brown parcel like this.
You are now ready for the decorating bit.
Get a heap of old Christmas cards and sort them in colours-like for instance  red, green and gold like here below.
Decide on the colourscheme you want to go for.
I decided to go with gold as I has quite a lot of cards with gold bits on them.
Draw a silhouette of a seasonal Christmassy shape, for instance, a star, Christmas tree, reindeer,  or use a cookie cutter to help you to get the silhouette- draw this silhouette on a white sheet of paper.
I decided to go for a stag, stars and Christmas trees.
Cut the silhouette out with scissors so you will be left with a piece of white paper where the silhouette is cut out of, of your chosen shape( the stag in my case.)( see below)

Put the white piece of paper with the "open" silhouette shape on top of a Christmas card on a bit that is purely colour-and draw with a pencil , using the white paper with the silhoutte, as a guide to help you draw the silhouette on the coloured paper.
Cut the shape you drew on coloured paper,  out.
You will now - in my case - have a stag- or whatever shape you chose- in gold.
To the right in the picture here above you can see what I mean about the white paper with the silhouette left out.You will use this to put on bits of Christmas cards which you have grouped together so that the gold bits overlap and you only have gold card .
Play around a bit with the cards that you have and the white paper that has the silhouette so you see what it looks like and what looks best, then cut out your shapes and glue them on the brown paper.
You can let your imagination run free and go for whatever design you like.
Here you can see the top of the box- I used cookie cutters as a shape to guide me to cut the Christmas trees.The trees are all gold, but are from different cards, just play around a bit and see if it looks OK.
Add a couple of ribbons that go with the rest of the colours and you're done .
And there you are : a re-cycled gorgeous piece of present wrapping for practically for free ! I just love that, don't you !
I will show more wrapping ideas soon,  until such time- enjoy your wrapping- see you then!
Have you wrapped all your present yet?? I look foward to your comments!



13 comments:

Diane H said...

Great idea, thank you. I have so many beautiful old cards that I don't know what to do with.

Mariette VandenMunckhof-Vedder said...

Dearest Bea,

Congratulations on this marvelous idea for going 'GREEN' with great results. Nobody would second guess that underneath this glamor you hide a Felix cat food box!

Enjoy your endeavors and I wish you a Merry Christmas!

Mariette's Back to Basics

Michele {The Scrap Shoppe} said...

What a CUTE idea!! I love this! So very creative. Thank you for linking this up to Homemade Christmas!

Janie said...

What a great idea! It turned out really pretty...

Unknown said...

Beautiful and very creative! Glad I found you at Smile with Me Saturday. You'd have fun at www.magicalmouseschoolhouse.com. Current post is on Christmas at Disney's California Adventure (Disneyland). Hope you can stop by!

Marty@A Stroll Thru Life said...

Oh what beautiful wrapping. Such creative idea. I think I would just want the box, I wouldn't care what was inside. lol Thanks so much for linking to TTT and I hope you have a very Blessed Christmas. Hugs, Marty

Donnie said...

What beautiful ideas. I'm learning to save everything and come to these wonderful sites to get ideas. Your packages look lovely.

Judy @ In His Grip said...

Very nice. Your presents are beautiful!

HollyC said...

Wow! I'm so glad you shared this with us! I would hate to open a gift like that!! It's so beautiful!! Happy TTT and Merry Christmas!
~Holly

Michele {The Scrap Shoppe} said...

Hi there! Just wanted to let you know I featured this today for the Homemade Christmas Gifts roundup. Thanks again for participating! :)

Mid-Atlantic Martha said...

What a pretty and clever idea!

God's Little People said...

That is just a fabulous idea - what an exellent use of old cards. Your ideas are just lovely Bea.
P.S. Thank you SO much for your encouraging and warming words - you are such a sweetheart.
xo

Mariette VandenMunckhof-Vedder said...

Dearest Bea,

Still a SUPER idea to follow. Being a bit more Eco-Friendly too.
Love to you,

Mariette