oodles of bubble wrap

 

My parents traveled to spend Christmas with us this year -- it was fantastic -- and they didn't want to carry much luggage, so they mailed most of their gifts ahead of time. Thus, we ended up with lots of bubble wrap!

 

We've been painting it....using it to make prints....and cutting it out in shapes to make stamps. Please share if you have any bright ideas for bubble wrap! I'd love to think up all kinds of ideas to re-use Christmas leftovers, but I may have to brainstorm all the way 'til next year if I want to be of any use, 'cause I think most people's wrappings are in the trash or recycling by now!

 

Tissue Paper Art

I apologize in advance for the poor-quality photos in this post. My "good" camera was in the shop!

Here is a simple way to make tissue-paper collages....

1) Take a piece of cardboard and wrap the front of it with aluminum foil.

2) Cut out shapes of tissue paper -- or just rip them with your fingers.

3) Mix a small bowl of diluted glue and brush it over the surface of the foil. Lay pieces of tissue over the foil in any arrangement you wish. Keep layering tissue, brushing a layer of glue over each piece to hold it down.

4) When you feel you are finished, let your artwork dry for a couple of hours. These make very pretty pieces. It was hard to capture here (especially with my "backup" camera), but the tissue pieces sort of melt into each other for a lovely, tie-dyed, almost batik effect.

This was an easy craft, very inexpensive (mostly recycled), and enjoyed by my 4-year-old and 2-year old. Cleanup was minimal -- just some stickiness here and there from the glue! (And, as you can see, I have totally given up on the kitchen table. I don't even put down newspaper any more. Bad me!)

T.P. Tubes as Card Holders

I know, I know. The very title of this post is giving you heart palpitations. If you feel giddy about composting; get chills on your child's birthday not because of the gifts but because of the cool boxes the toys came in that you just know you can turn into some vague kind of "art"; and save glass food jars because you think that some have a particularly pretty pattern, well, here is a little idea for you.

 

I didn't think of this myself.....I got the idea from the very cool blog maya*made. Anyway, this Maya lady has a strong affection for empty T.P. tubes and security envelopes; I admire her. She uses empty T.P. tubes -- painted, of course, and dressed up a little bit -- as holders for handmade cards. I saved up a bunch of tubes for just this purpose, but then got sidetracked when some internet order of my husband's arrived in the mail stuffed with these crazy-awesome little rectangles of corrugated cardboard. I snatched them up, with the devilish glint in my eye that probably makes my daughter sigh to herself, "Oh, no. Mommy's gonna be makin' me paint THAT thing."

She was right.

Actually, she was engrossed in another project, so I did most of the painting, and then she helped me affix a bunch of paper and felt hearts to the card holders, and she glued on the buttons. And then she wrote her name all over the place like crazy, 'cause she just likes to do that.

 

We used scraps of felt from other projects, so we didn't have to buy a thing for this project, and we still got to show some friends a little V-day love.

So, why am I showing you a project for a holiday that's a month past?....Well, because it's endlessly adaptable. You can use little rectangles of cardboard as holders for any card, gift card, or token of your affection. St. Patrick's Day, a birthday, Administrative Assistants Day (although, if you are at home making things out of scraps of cardboard like me, then you probably do not have an administrative assistant...and if you do, make sure she gets some real nice gift card inside your old T.P. tube, okay?). These are admittedly more charming with the touch of a child, although I made my husband a recycled-cardboard Valentine myself, and he at least pretended to be pleased with it, which was nice of him.