6 Ways to Repurpose Old Christmas Cards

It's the New Year, and you're probably taking down Christmas decorations, and amassing a huge pile of Christmas cards to go into the recycling.
Maybe you're looking at some of the artwork reluctantly, thinking, "It seems such a waste to just throw these away..."

You're right. 
Which is why I've been beavering away to put together this post of 6 Ways to Repurpose Old Christmas Cards.
For the most part, these little crafts are easy--if you can cut and stick, you can do these!
Some of these will also help you save some time next Christmas.
Some are best done now, whilst some are worth leaving until closer to the festive season, when - provided you've dedicatd some time to chopping up old cards this January - you'll have all you need to crack on with some Christmas crafting (without having to fork out for expensive store-bought stuff).

So, starting with the most obvious...

Brown Paper Packages...

'Tis the season when the makers of gift-wrapping products are rubbing their hands in glee.
Well, sorry rich dudes, but I wrapped all my presents for the grand sum of 89p.

(Yes, 89p!)

Christmas Window Display

As I've mentioned here previously, I volunteer at a charity shop. One of the great perks of volunteering is that I get to flex my creative fingers in putting together window displays!
Being a charity, we don't have a huge budget to play with (or any budget, really) so it's a case of being super-inventive with reams of donated stuff and scrap card/paper/etc.

Get your skates on and grab that charity bargain before someone else does!

This year in particular, I've tried to make some displays that are more visually interesting! I've intended to post about some of them for a while, so will eventually share pictues of the summer and autumn-themed windows I created.
For now, here is our Victorian Christmas-themed display!

Ivy & Pine Cone Wreath

With Christmas in just a couple of weeks, Channel 4 have gifted us with more Kirstie's Handmade Christmas. One of the features on this week's episode was an ivy wreath. It was made to be hung up horizontally, and was adorned with candles and little paper stars in true Scandinavian style.

I was inspired to make one myself, but opted for one to hang vertically on the door. I ended up with the wreath in the picture above, which I decorated with some ribbon, baubles, and good old pine cones.

Hopefully this will hold together during Christmas--the ivy is remarkably easy to manipulate and holds itself in shape, but last night we had really strong winds (luckily I'd seen the forecast and brought the wreath indoors!) For a first attempt, I'm pleased with how this turned out!

Upcycled Festive Heart Decorations

Yesterday I made these Scandinavian-inspired heart decorations for our Christmas tree. They're very simple to make, and almost completely upcycled!

The method is so easy it's guessable, so I didn't make a proper tutorial, but here's a quick run down.

I used:
Template (from junk mail)
Fabric (old pillowcase)
Filling (from knackered old pillow)
Embroidery thread (from charity shop)

Using the template, I cut out hearts and sewed them right sides together, leaving a gap for turning.

Then I turned them so the right side of the fabric was facing outwards, and stuffed them with filling.

After sewing up the gap, I threaded a darning needle with 5-6 inch lengths of embroidery thread and pushed it through the top of the hearts, tying the ends in a knot to make a loop.

Here they are on our tree! Also seen here are several homemade items I've posted about in the past:
Recycled Magazine Garland
Tin Can Tea Light Holders
Felt Doves and Peace, Hope & Joy Stars Decorations

Easiest Christmas Pine Cone Ornaments

Alright, so I haven't updated here for ages, and it's been even longer since I shared a DIY!
So here I am, with a shiny new tutorial for pine cone baubles!

This how to is ridiculously easy and obvious, and there's a no-sew version, yay!

You'll need:
Pine cones
Ribbon
Drawing pins
Needle and thread to match ribbon (skip this if going for the no-sew option)
Fray stopper/clear nailpolish/glue to stop ribbon fraying
Scissors or pinking shears

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all followers that celebrate it :) Hope you have a wonderful day!

Above is a photo of the presents I'll give this year!
They were cheap to wrap because I used things I had to hand, and things that were easy to get hold of. I also put presents in boxes because boxes are far easier to wrap up than odd-shaped things. Also, it makes it harder to guess what the contents are ;)

Pom poms for the ladies, pine cones for the men. These aren't all the presents, but women far outweigh men in our family!

Thanks to Samantha (At Home with Mrs H) for the pom poms! If not for these, I might not have come up with this wrapping idea :)

DIY Spoon Decorations

As long-time readers will know, I volunteer in a charity shop and utterly love putting together window displays! The manager had decided for the Christmas window to be done this week, so I made these unique spoon decorations from some donated spoons, to go on our Christmas tree!

Thought I’d take pictures along the way, so I can share this DIY.

This is a DIY that will require the use of power tools. Such things are scary and I am clumsy lately, so I enlisted the help of my Dad :)

Happy Holidays

I don't know if I'll update here again before the start of 2013, so here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thank you to all of those that follow and/or have stopped by, pinned, commented, and shared links to my posts. You've given me the motivation to keep this blog going! 

Advent Calendar and Christmas Window!

Whilst browsing Pinterest, I found a great idea to use toilet paper tubes as an advent calendar.

Mind still on the Christmas window planned for the charity shop (more on that later in this post!) I decided to make one!

I painted up a bunch of toilet paper tubes, bent them to shape, and used scraps of ribbon to decorate. The numbers were written on the back of cracker playing cards, cut in half.

In order to hang these up, I used loops of clear elastic (the same stuff as I used for the recycled magazine garland)

 We’re lucky to have this gorgeous lace curtain as a background for the window, so I pinned the advent calendar to it, in a heart shape.

Using a paper decoration kit, I made some woven hearts and stars, along with some interconnected heart and star decorations, some of which I pinned on the curtain around the advent calendar….

Isn’t the straw star cute? A fellow volunteer brought it in for the display. 

Yet again my attempts at photographing from the outside were scuppered by the reflection on the window!

Here’s part of the display. Recognise the printable over the back there? ;)

I utterly love that old lamp. I hope it finds a good home.

Using off-cuts from the woven hearts and stars, I made these paper heart chains as well.  I also sewed the two hanging hearts (they aren’t for sale though!)

Of course, the angel specimen art I created is there, too…

One of these has already sold! Hurrah!

 And here are the woven stars, which turned out to be one of my favourite parts of the display. They are simply strung onto cotton and pinned into the ceiling tiles:

This year, there was a ‘Best Dressed Window’ competition in the town where the charity shop is.  

We won third place!

Angel Specimen Art

The other day I posted about the recycled magazine garland that I made for a Christmas display window at the place where I volunteer.

Today I want to share another Christmas project: Angel specimen art! 

I started off with some really worn out old frames from the charity shop; I actually borrowed these from the shop where I volunteer, in order to give them a ‘makeover’ so they could be re-sold! Originally they were a grubby pink, filthy, and with sticky gunk all over the glass. Yuck!

Specimen art was one of the suggestions I had when I posted pictures of my crafting stash a few months ago.

Here’s a quick how-to, though it’s really pretty simple!

Recycled Magazine Garland

At the charity shop where I volunteer, we were recently discussing a Christmas-themed window display. The manager, Ann, wanted a red and white Scandinavian-inspired theme! I decided to make this red and white garland from old magazines to put in the display.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

I hope you all have a fantastic festive season and make lots of happy memories.

Here's to an awesome 2012!

Tin Can Tea Light Holders

There are only a few days left until Christmas! Are you excited? Exhausted from all the preparation?

Or are you filled with an unwavering certainty that surely, there must be more Christmas crafts to do?

Yeah, me too! I’m excited, worn out, yet still wanting to craft! 

Here’s something I just finished up:

Pin It

These tin can tea light holders were something I saw in Tesco’s free magazine a few weeks ago. They’re basically free to make, and easy at that! They'd make a great last-minute gift or would look awesome at a party in the summer!

Here’s a quick run-down on how to make these:

1. Fill a clean tin can with water and put in the freezer overnight (this gives you something solid to work with)
2. Mark out a design onto the tin using a felt tip (use something that can be washed off!)
3. Use a hammer and nail to punch holes in the surface of the can.

Optional:

Once the ice has melted, pack the can with old newspaper and spray paint the outside.

For a handle:

1. Make two holes either side of the top of the can for the handle.
2. Cut a piece of wire (or cut up an old wire coat hanger) and hook through the holes.

Notes:

• The article I read said to use a screwdriver to make the holes in the can, but a nail worked just fine.
• I found it was easier to rest the tin on a cloth whilst I punched the holes
• The base of two of my tins buckled as the water froze; a few light taps with the hammer fixed this.

Safety:

Obviously being made of metal, these get very hot! If using these I guess it’s best to put them on a heat-resistant surface or a dish, rather than straight onto a table/TV/speakers.

As I already mentioned, this craft cost me nothing! The tins were from soup (tall tins) and pistachios (short tin), the wire and tools were liberated from Dad’s shed, and the spray paint was already in my stash!

Wreath...for Free!

When my Dad potted up the Christmas tree for outside the door, he had to cut off a few small branches. So he left them out for me to 'do something with.'

Of course the most obvious 'something' was a wreath, so I got to work and made this!
I've never made a wreath from branches before and might I say it was pretty darn fiddly!

To put it together, I simply made a circle of wire (pinched from Dad's shed) with a hook on the top for hanging. Then I tied the branches on with raffia (I think that's what it is?! Please correct me if I'm wrong!) also pinched from the shed--there was a big bundle of it left over from when  Dad gave the conservatory a makeover. Once I'd made the basic shape, I added in smaller pieces cut from a branch too large to go into the wreath, which hid all the places where I'd tied everything down!

I threaded in a spray of blooms left over from a bunch of flowers my Mum had (the rest had died) and tied a big bow at the top to finish off.
It's a bit wonky but I don't think it's bad for a first attempt!

A little bit of Christmas decoration that I didn't show you yet is this vase of baubles (it doesn't really fit in with any of the Christmas posts I've made!)  I suppose a vase like this is a no-brainer when it comes to decorations, but this is another first for our house! Usually these baubles are on the tree.

Well I think that's it for my Christmas decor posts!

The Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney with Care...

...or would be, but we don't have any!
Yesterday, I shared photographs of our Chirstmas tree. Today I'd like to share our Christmas mantlepiece makeover!

Our mantlepiece itself is pretty cool, I think. It wasn't an original feature, but when my parents bought the house, the previous owners were ripping it out of their new house! So my parents had it from them :) Dad redid the tiling a few years ago when he had to get a new fire fitted.

Anyway, on with the decs!

I made the tiny hat for the cherub (I wrote briefly about them the other day!). The little wooden, painted ornaments used to go on the tree, but tend to break easily, especially at the mercy of feline paws!

The jar usually holds cotton wool balls on my desk. I took them out and refilled the jar with some scrap organdie and pine cones left over from my wreath and garland. The 'Christmas' sign belongs to Mum; she received it from a friend a couple of years ago! (The angels and behatted charub on the mantlepiece belong to her, too).

Usually these beaded ornaments (the reindeer and the candy canes, plus the bear in the first picture) hang on the tree. The normal case is that Riley steals them one by one and we find them months later under the sofa!

The bronze deer came from a church Christmas fair I went to a couple of weeks ago. It only cost me £1! I don't usually go for metal like this, but I thought he was lovely!

Of course, I had to pop some more cheeky little robins here and there!

I made this 'twisty tree' using a metal thing (candle holder I think) that I bought from a charity shop. There were a pair of them:

It was only £1 for the pair! I think originally they would have been hung up the opposite way around. But I thought they'd be good for an unusual tree! I simply wrapped one with some scrap fabric bought at another charity shop, sewed on some beads and hung the little picture at the top. :)

The little white cherub (there's three on the mantlepiece right now) came from a fantastic outlet shop in Brighton! Most of their stuff is leftover or damaged stock, or slight seconds. The cherubs were 25p each. So I bought 12! Am still making up my mind what to do with them yet, haha.

My middle sister and I have been joking that the bear looks a little shifty. Maybe he's up to no good? Perhaps he's trying to steal candy canes?! Either way, he's up to something...

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Yesterday, I ventured into the loft to find our Christmas tree! We always have an artificial tree since it means less mess and they last longer! At present we have a fibre-optic tree that my parents bought a few years ago, which is great because it means I don't have to fight with strings of Christmas lights! :)

This year, Mum and I decided the tree would be decorated in white, gold and silver. Of course, my handmade decorations are all up there! I did all the decorating myself - my middle sister was going to join in but changed her mind!

This little guy is a tradition for our tree! He's been on the tree for as long as I can remember. Even though he doesn't fit with the colourscheme, Mr Robin had to be there, so I perched him on the top.

We've been through a number of angels and fairies for the tree, from childish creations glued together at school to shop-bought angels. Now we have this plush angel, which I think was something given to my Mum (her friends give her lots of little Christmassy knick-knacks!)

Angels and birds were a bit of a theme this year, too! I'm not sure where either of these decorations came from, but the one on the left is new and the one on the right is another ornament 'older than I can remember'! There used to be a set of them but the others either went missing or broke.

Another couple of decorations given to my Mum by her friends (and still fitting in with the angel theme!). The silver heart was given to her recently by a friend visiting from Ireland. Isn't it sweet?!

Of course, reindeer don't really fit in with 'angels and birds', but they do fly (if they're Santa's reindeer anyway) so they totally count! :) The reindeer are new ornaments, bought this year. I think the bow is yet another pressie my Mum received from her friends!

Moving on...cherubs! I love how the white ones cling to the tree. They're a bit of a pain to thread onto the branches, but they look so cute! Mum bought the gold ones, though I'm not sure where they came from.

We only bought a couple of these cute doves, since there were only two left in the shop that were intact--a lot of them had lost their tails! But I thought they were lovely!
This was another new purchase; along with these doves and the reindeer we also bought some crystal drops and icicles!

And finally, what tree would be complete without a partridge?!