Recycled Christmas Placemats!

Over the past couple years I've shown you how to recycle your old holiday cards, junk mail, and gift wrap into many festive new objects, including ornaments, gift tags, countdown paper chains, mini gift bags, and scrapbooks (via last month's e-newsletter). What else could there be to use all this old "trash" for?

Today's fantastic recycled Christmas placemat project comes from none other than my extremely creative sister Heidi, of iBusybodies.com! This is a great project to use up those old holiday cards, gift wrap, holiday-themed junk mail & catalogs, and even those PHOTO cards!

Here's what Heidi did...

Cut squares out of all the recycled items you want to use.

She used this square punch, and used the corner rounder (below left) on the corners when finished. I don't have a square punch, so I made some using my cutting board, cutting 1.5" squares.

Here's the fun part that will really personalize your placemats...use photo cards you get in the mail too! Make sure to center the squares around your friends and family's faces. You may want to hand cut or use a cutting board for this so you can see what you're doing.

Then, simply stick down the squares on your larger paper until you fill it up. Heidi used a double-stick tape applicator made for scrapbooking on the back of each square. When I made mine, I laid out a long strip of double-stick tape on my paper backing and stuck the squares to it.



Trim off edges where necessary, and round the corners if you choose. Then, so they can stand up to spills and drips, have them laminated at Kinko's or your print shop of choice.



And you're done! These placemats will be even more fun to look at in years to come as the photos of friends and family get older! Top them with a recycled holiday light napkin ring and you're sure to start a conversation with your guests! Thanks for the great idea, Heidi!! And, kudos to my mom, Rollie Brandt, who took all the great photos!

Turn Food Coloring Containers into Elves

'Tis the season for corny holiday crafts!!!

Normal people would see the below object as an empty food coloring container. Weird people like me, however, see a little elf. No, seriously...see the pointy hat?


Okay, maybe this will help:


I made this one in like 5 minutes so he's not the best looking elf, but you get the idea. I know, I know, this is a TOTALLY cheesy Christmas craft. But, hey, I think it would be a fun one to do with the kids. Just make sure you wash out the containers yourself first! This stuff can get messy, as you know if you've made any spritz cookies this season.

I decorated my elf with ribbon, a green paint pen, and a sharpie (with paper ears). But, I'm thinking paint and a brush would yield cuter results...next time...



I took a pliers and pulled the little red spout off of this one...then it's easy to run water inside, shake it around, and get it rinsed well. Let them dry well too. You can see I was not so patient with my elf above and he's full of moisture.

Naturally, the red one has to be Santa:


I happened to have the google eyes, yarn, pom pom and curly hair in my stash of old project left-overs. The nose it made using the tip of the bottle. I think next time I'd paint on some smaller eyes so Santa doesn't have that reindeer-in-headlights look. But, the whole point is to have fun and be creative! Recycle some scraps of ribbon, felt, or whatever else you have around!

I stuck a magnet on the back of each of mine, but you can just as easily leave them to sit on a shelf. You can get magnets at craft stores...I tend to have tons of them on hand for making my junk mail magnets.

Turn Dead Christmas Lights into Napkin Rings!

Yesterday I finally replaced the broken lights with working ones for my mini Christmas, which I then set up in my studio. If you decorate for Christmas, like me, chances are you've tossed out plenty of dead light strings over the years. After all, they are so cheap now, it's just not worth the time to inspect every bulb to find the one that needs replacing. So, last night I thought I'd come up with a project to recycle these lights into some festive holiday table decor.

I remembered back in grade school, we used to make napkin rings for Christmas out of toilet paper tubes and yarn. We'd cut about a 1" ring off the tube, wrap yarn around the whole thing, and then staple a little piece of garland on for some decoration. (I hope to offer some junk mail napkin rings on Junk Mail Gems in the near future too!) This childhood project spurred another idea for me to make napkin rings out of lights. To keep in the Christmas theme, I used a cardboard wrapping paper tube instead of a toilet paper tube, but either will work. Here are the raw materials...things you find most people toss out during the holidays:



The first thing you have to do is separate the light string. These mini lights are made up of two wires, twisted together. You'll have to take a scissors or wire cutter and cut off the plug, then cut the other end open. Un-twisting them takes some time to do, but I found it easier if I wrapped what I separated as I went. I wrapped around more pieces of wrapping paper tube, which also gave me something to hold on to while I un-twirled the wires. I basically sat on the couch with my foot on the cord, spinning these two tubes around each other and rolling as they separated:



Once they are separated, use a pair of scissors to cut some 1" thick rings off of the wrapping paper tube, and start wrapping with lights! This takes a little time as well, as the lights tend to catch as they pass through the tube. But, it's a great project to do while watching TV, or to keep your kids occupied! Make sure the wires are closely pushed together as you go. I found it helped to crease them around each bend with my fingers as well. Once you get to the end, simply tie the end to a piece of the beginning, hiding the knot inside if you can.

This I believe was a 50-light string, so not a big one. In the end I got two napkin rings out of it:


Insert napkin and place on the plate... Voila! A beautiful, festive table setting for your Christmas dinner! These lights are clear, but it would be very cool with colored lights. I even thought of painting each bulb to add some color, but I think they still turned out pretty cool!

Now go out there and get yourself some LED lights to replace the dead ones, and you're set!

Pop-Up Junk Mail Christmas Cards

I just finished making my 2008 Junk Mail Gems Christmas cards, and had to share, since this is something that pretty much anyone can do!



These cards are made out of 100% recycled junk mail and are sure to get a reaction. If you are a pop-up fan, then you already know of Robert Sabuda's fantastic work. His website is full of easy tutorials for making your own pop-up cards, and this is where I found this reindeer pattern. I added the red nose by simply using a hole punch on a piece of red junk mail and gluing the resulting dot on one side of the folded nose, and then painted on the eyes. The piece on the left side that I wrote on is the inside of a security envelope. I used a menswear catalog for the main card and the reindeer...the front and back covers, since they are a thicker stock.

In retrospect, I should have designed the cards to fit inside a business reply envelope, which I could also have recycled. Well, I guess there's always next year!

Check out Robert's tutorials if you either have a lot of time to make cards, or a small mailing list! :-)

Recycle your old Christmas & Greeting Cards!

With Christmas less than 6 weeks away, there's no doubt you will soon be receiving holiday cards and advertising in your mailbox. This got me thinking I should post some ways to recycle your holiday cards.



The first thing that came to mind for me was these cool ornaments. My mom made some of these when I was little, and you may have seen them around the web as well. Since I had already re-purposed my cards from last year, I made this ornament today out of some of the holiday catalogs I've received in the mail recently. Greeting card fronts work best since they are thicker stock, but catalog covers work as well. Check out the Junk Mail Gems DIY page for complete instructions to make your own ornament!

Looking for something less time-consuming? You can also use your cards as gift tags. Simply cut around the image you like with scissors, and use a hole punch in one corner. I like to use craft scissors with a decorative edge...pinking shears also work for a zig-zag. Use the hole to tie ribbon through, and on the back you can write who the gift is for and from!



Another thing I like to do with attractive gift cards is to cut out the images and use them as embellishments in my Christmas photo scrapbook. They cost 100% less than buying expensive scrapbook stickers, and I add to the memory preservation by noting in small writing next to it who sent that particular card. You can even dress the images up further by adding a little glitter, or adding dimension by gluing cardboard squares underneath it to lift it off the page.