Recycling magazines into Christmas gift bows

Easy recyled bows and they're festive and pretty too!

I've been wanting to try this project that I found on How About Orange to craft your own gift bows using magazine pages.  I made several using her method of staple and glue, but they came out a bit bulky due to the staple in each layer.  With a little experimentation I found a method that worked for me.

Here's what you'll need for this recycle craft project:
     * Paper cutter or sharp scissors
     * Hole punch
     * Brass plated fastners - You can find these at the office supply store, or even some grocery stores.  I found mine in the school supply section at Albertsons
     * Colorful magazine pages

This is a fastner.  The point is 2 pieces that open up to secure your paper

So the first thing you'll do is choose a colorful page from your magazine.  Garden magazines are good for full pages of color photos, or I found that the ads in other magazines were good sources for color I wanted to use.  For this bow I'll show you with a beer ad.  Don't worry, when the bow is done you'll be suprised it came from this:

Now, trim off the torn edge and set aside for recycling.  Then align your page with the edge of the cutter and cut off a strip.  Repeat until you have 4 strips cut.

Next, rotate your paper so that you are cutting from the short side.  Cut one strip.  This short strip will be the center of your bow.

Now, rotate your paper back to the long side and cut off 4 additional strips.

You should now have 4 long strips, 4 slightly shorter strips and 1 very short strip.  Starting with the shortest strip, form it into a tube where the 2 ends overlap by about 1/2".  Punch a hole in the center where the overlap is like so:

Push the fastner through from the inside of your tube and then pull the 2 ends of the fastner apart just enough to keep the tube from falling off.  Don't tighten it all the way yet because you'll  still be working with it.

Now grab your first shorter strip and fold it in 1/2 to mark the center.

Open your strip back up and you'll see the fold line marking the center.  Now take 1 end and fold it over twisting it to form this:

Make sure your ends overlap here by about 1/2" and punch a hole in the center like this:

Now place the fastner (still attached to your tube) through the hole.

Repeat with all 4 shorter strips rotating each section as you add it to the fastner.

Then do the same with the 4 longer strips and add them to your bow.  When you've added your last strip adjust the fastner to secure.

You can't really see the beer ad anymore, all you have is a beautiful

recycled bow to finish off your holiday packages!

That's all there is to it!  When you're ready to add this to your Christmas gifts, simply add 2 sided tape and attach.  I thought these came out so great I made a whole stack of them to use on my gifts

Pretty in Pink, Purple, Yellow and Green

They're festive in Blue and Turquoise.

But of course my favorite are the GREEN!

Have fun with this project and try experimenting with other papers too.  I think some of my junk mail could make pretty bows, but I already shredded it up and put it in my worm bin.  Next time, I'll be saving some out for this project.  Another good one for Christmas would be those Netflix red envelopes.  No limits, let your imagination run wild!

Recycled Christmas Cards to Gift Tags

I save everything.  Every little bow, ribbon or scrap of rafia that comes my way via gifts and packaging.  I have a bag in the laundry area where these things get accumulated throughout the year.  It's great because when it is time for me to wrap gifts I have a lot of recycled items to choose from to make the perfect presentation! 

I've also been saving Christmas cards that we've received.  Someone posted a great idea about making gift tags from recycled Christmas cards on the Facebook Fan page back when we were running our Green for the Holidays Giveaway.

I decided to combine my stash of bows and ribbons with that idea and create some gift tags for our canned food & goodie baskets we're giving out to our friends this year.

Gather your supplies. 

This is a pretty, easy, and earth friendly project you can do in a short time.  All you need are some scissors, a hole punch, a stack of last years cards, some ribbon and a pen.

Choose an overall pattern to cut out for your tag.

Be sure there's no writing on the backside of the picture.

Each card is different, so you'll just have to take a look and decide on a pleasing pattern for the shape of your gift tag.  This one I simply cut out following the over all shape of the main design on the card.  Once you decide on your pattern, cut it out using the scissors, then find a good spot in the design to punch your hole. 

Here's a few in process.  You can see I just cut them out

following the overall pattern of the picture.

Now add a cute bow made from your recycled ribbons

Add your message to the back

So spread your holiday cheer and feel good because you are recycling and giving a gift to the earth too!

Here's the tags I made!

Quick N Easy Holiday Swag

Holiday visitors are coming, but my front door is still sporting my end of summer flower wreath.  Oh shoot!  What should I do? 

Here's a quick and easy project to spruce up your front door with holiday greenery that you may have growing nearby or even in your own yard.

What you will need:

* Gardening gloves

* Pretty holiday Ribbon (about 2 feet)

* Wire

* Wire Cutters

* Pruners

* Scissors

Gather together your materials and find a flat workspace preferably outdoors to save time on cleanup.  Then don your gay apparel.  In this case that means your garden gloves.  Now grab your pruners and head to your nearest cedar tree with low branches.

If you don't have a Western Red Cedar growing near your home, no problem, just substitute your favorite local evergreen.  Avoid Hemlocks because they drop their needles really quickly once they've been cut.

Prune off some nice boughs about 2 1/2 -3 feet long.  You'll need a good size stack.  Don't worry if they're not all perfectly proportioned for your swag, we'll trim them to shape as we go.

Start with 3 of your larger cedar boughs.  Lay these on top of each other to form the base layer of your sway.  You should stack them so that the leaves of each layer fall in the gaps of the previous layer. 

Once you have them nicely stacked, cut about 2 feet of your wire and wrap around the crook on the branch where the first row of leaves start. Wrap the wire fairly tightly and wrap around the branches 3 times.  You'll have a long tail of wire left for the next layer.

Now using your pruners, cut the top of the swag so that all 3 of your branches are even.

Next you'll want to add some more layers of cedar branches for fullness.  Go through your boughs and choose the branches that look the most beautiful.  Layer them onto your swag,  trimming them to length.  Now wire those in as you did the first layer. Wrap wire tightly, tie off and snip off any excess wire. Reserve any parts that you removed for the next step.

Next we'll make the accent with our trimmings.  The great thing about this cedar is the 2 tone color of the leaves.  The backside of the leaves has a brighter tone than the front, so for the accent piece we'll use the back of the leaves. 

Snip off 3 boughs at about 8 inches.  Layer these together much like you did for the swag above.  Now trim individual leaves from the remaining branch and add these for fullness. 

Cut a 6 inch length of wire and wire this tightly together and then add it to the large swag for accent and to cover any of the wires showing through the first layer.

Next we'll add an accent bow.  Click here for instructions to make your florist bow.  Using your pretty ribbon, create your bow and wire it onto your swag to cover any wires that are showing.

Now you can add any other embellishments you like.  I added a silk poinsetta and a cluster of ball ornaments to match my ribbon.  Other ideas I've done in the past:  Rose hips, pine cones, more bows, and baby's breath.

Viola!  Your holiday visitors will be greeted by some beautiful greenery when they come to your door.  And since this project only takes about 15-20 minutes, you still have time to set out the hors de vors! 

*** I used my left overs to make a mini-swag for my bathroom door too!

How to get your Christmas cactus to bloom for the holidays

This blog is a little late to use for Christmas this year, but I thought I'd share how I get my Christmas cacti to bloom for the holidays each year. Christmas cactus are actually a succulent plant called Zygocactus. They are native to Brazilian rainforests.

Beautiful blooms for the holidays!

There are a few requirements to get your Zygo to bloom for the holidays.  The first thing is to stop watering your Zygo at Halloween.  These little plants are quite drought tolerant, so this won't hurt the plant at all.  You'll notice that the leaves will start to shrink up and shrivel a bit, but this is just fine.

Some say to place your plant in a dark closet for the month of November to encourage blooming.  I never have done that.  These plants need 12 hours of darkness each day to set bloom, but where I live in the Pacific Northwest, the natural daylight hours during the winter season work out just perfect to get a December bloom!

One flower in full bloom and another bud getting ready to pop!

I keep mine in a cool room, away from direct heat source, so don't place yours over your heating vent.  The best thing to encourage your plant to flower is cool temperatures from October through December.  During bud setting your plant prefers a temperature between 45-65 degrees. 

Do not relocate or water your plant when it is setting buds, as this can cause bud drop.  Wait until the buds are fully formed and beginning to bloom, then you can move your beautiful cactus out for display.  Choose a cool spot out of direct sunlight and drafts, but bright, indirect light will help your plant to continue blooming.  Water sparingly and only if the branches begin to droop.  Do not fertilize during this time either.

 

More flowers!

How to recycle 6pack rings into snowflake

I got the original how to information from Craftbits who had a quick tutorial on how to make these, but then I was asked by a couple of followers if I could make a more comprehensive step by step for this project.  Here it is:

Here's what you will need to make 1 large snowflake ornament:

   

    *20 six-pack beverage holder rings

    *1 foot of fishing line

    *Stapler

    *Staples

    *Scissors

 

Take 2 of your 6 pack rings and lay them back to back on top of eachother.  You'll notice that they curve in one direction.  Stack them so they curve away from eachother like the next photo

 

Staple them together here and here

Now you'll fold them to match the Staple marks

 Repeat on the back side

It will look like this when both sides are done

Get 2 more 6pack rings and repeat, then you will connect them together:

Staple at the arrows, flip over and staple in the same place on the other side

Now continue until you've connected 10 of these together like the next photo

Now you'll run your fishing line through 1 side

Now pull the fishing line taut to form a ring.  Knot the fishing line. Now staple to connect the 2 ends. Flip and staple connecting 2 ends on other side

 

Cut off excess fishing line and use to make a ring to hang your snowflake:

Here's what your finished snowflake will look like.  So pretty!

Have fun and enjoy this great recycled Christmas project!

Greening up your holiday

Thanks to all the great greenies who took part in the recent Green for the Holidays Giveaway!  Today I'd like to share some of those entries along with a few other ways to make your celebrations more environmentally friendly.

One of the easiest ways to go green when your doing your holiday shopping is to bring along those reusable bags that you take to the grocery store.  Using your own bag when Christmas shopping has the potential to keep so many needless plastic bags from winding up in the wastestream! You could even wrap your gifts using a reusable bag, that way it's 2 gifts in one!

Speaking of bags.... do you have any of those gift bags and boxes you've saved from last year?  Why not reuse those for the gifts your giving out this year?  Don't forget to save them for next year too!

Or make your own wrapping paper from recycled paper bags.  I've done this in the past using potatoes to make simple christmas shaped stamps like a tree or a star. Or try this.... use the inside of a cleaned potato chip bag for wrapping paper.  The foil side makes for a pretty package.

How about skipping the wrapping paper all together?  A lot us are making homemade goodies like fudge and cookies to give out for Christmas this year.  You could bypass the wrapping paper and instead distribute these treats in reusable tins or baskets.

Repurpose last years Christmas cards into this years gift tags.  All you need is a hole punch and some pretty ribbon!

Another thing a lot of you are doing this year is changing over from old fashioned lights to energy efficient LED Christmas lights.  They burn cooler, last longer and are very pretty.  And put them on a timer for even more energy savings.

Some of you suggested buying used and saving the difference.  Second hand gifts and thrift store treasures can be great gifts that not only save you money, but also save the planet!

Others suggested handmade gifts for your green holiday.  I'm a real fan of handmade gifts.  I think they come from the heart and show how much you really care for the recipient!  It's also a great opportunity for us to teach our children that this holiday and the gift giving is not about the cost of the gift, but the value of the love behind the presents.

Thanks for all these great ways to go green this holiday! When we all do our small part we really can change the big picture. 
Merry Christmas!