Make Storage Boxes from Tissue Boxes - More Style Than Cash

Make Storage Boxes from Tissue Boxes - More Style Than Cash

A woman after my own heart - love the recycling stuff on her site.

Recycling greetings cards

I have just recieved around 200 used greetings cards - which always give me a flutter of craft organising.

When I recieve a large batch of files, I immediately sort them into a few batches

• Nativity christmas theme
• Religous Easter theme
• Non-religous Christmas scene in different sizes
• Cards that can easily be turned into tags with a couple of guillotine snips
• Birthday and other greetings cards
• Mens greetings cards (as this is usually only a small amount)
• Backs of cards
• Used coloured envelopes
• Used inserts

Next I look whether I have any cards that are the same and these are put together to do decoupage. I also look for any cards that have inserts as the inserts can easily be taken out and a new insert added.

Then when it comes to crafting I can go to the different boxes according to what Im crafting for.

The nativity scene and Easter religous scenes I cut down and send as prayer tags for the Uganda project I support.

The non-religous Christmas cards are the ones I get most often through Freecycle, they are so useful.

• I make little gift boxes out of them.
• The scenery ones I make into inspirational tags to leave around the town and on the buses to lift people's spirits. 
• I find these are most often the ones where I can decoupage at its simplist two layer.
• I cut out the little characters to use as embellishments/stickers for the Uganda project, which means I can send out a shoe box for the kids to make cards without it damaging the environment or my pocket. I usually stick in a PVA glue bottle, some double sided mount tape and scissors with paper or card depending on weight allowed.
• These are the ones I bring out when I have children crafting, they are always popular

The backs of cards you can sometimes find half of the card with no writing either side - this can easily be sizzixed or stamped or punched. It is espically good when the backs of cards are of different colours. Sometimes though you can only get a small amount of blank card from this method, but still useful for small stamps.

The coloured envelopes I have shown before can be stamped or punched or if really frugal background paper for your cards.

The used inserts can be checkd for any nice design or for the edge strips which can then be used in your design (not for commercial use)

These recycling ideas are good for any toddler groups or schools or churches to take up. I would be very interested to hear if anyone finds this useful in their crafting.

Hula Hoop Rug | Easy Crafts for Kids -- Quick Arts and Craft Ideas -- Kids' Crafts | FamilyFun

Hula Hoop Rug | Easy Crafts for Kids -- Quick Arts and Craft Ideas -- Kids' Crafts | FamilyFun

Fantastic idea for recycling all the old stained t-shirts I have lying around that are not good enough for charity shop.

Summertime

Where did the summertime go?

Summertime has whizzed by so quickly and I have not done much crafting. Though I did manage to go to boot sales and fairs - where I picked up bargains which will see me through winter in the crafts department.

What did I manage through the summer?

• Ive managed a few decorated stones on the beach
• Left a few inspirational tags on the buses for people to find. 
• Had my niece down with her child and made up some recycled christmas cards with old christmas cards and ribbon.
• Made some individualised hair clips for my niece's daughter - to which I recieved lots of squeals of delight.
• Recycled a clear cotton wool box for the clips to go into.
• Decorated some recycled shoe boxes (thanks to my niece) ready for the Uganda project
• Decorated some recycled baby formula boxes ready for Uganda project
• Recieved some stuff for the Uganda project via freecycle and sorted them
• Put some lace on the bottom of one of my skirts - made it really pretty
• Went through all my long skirts and any ones too small put for Uganda project
• Sizzixed some cardboard with crosses and people  for the Uganda primary school project for them to colour in.
• Recycled greetings cards into tags for Ugandan primary school project - so they can turn them into handwriting practice with inspirational/prayer bookmarks
• Organised my coloured wool into sweetie jars
• Organised my ribbon and lace drawers through the use of recycled plastic milk bottles as different sections.
• Recycled my mothers old towelling dressing gown into face cloths for her

What do I want to accomplish before October?

• Pack at least one suitcase for Uganda
• Sort out at least 5 craft kits for Uganda primary school
• Sew a bit of lace on the bottom of my brown skirt and my green skirt
• Sew a curtain for my shelving unit

Well, as you can see I have been busy, and as they say " Time flies when you are having fun"