Homemade Recycled Gift Boxes

This Christmas I am trying to avoid waste that comes with wrapping paper. So I decided to make my own boxes made from my old greeting cards.
To make cute recycled gift boxes you will need:

A pen, ruler, tape, old Christmas cards and scissors

Cut the card at the fold line and mark an x with your ruler to find the center of your cards.

Next fold all four sides towards the middle of your x

Next cut the fold lines on the 2 sides across from each other. So you will make 4 cuts in total

The cuts will be your tabs to fold in to make the sides of your box. You will need to tape these in place

Now you are finished the top of your box. You can trim any uneven tabs that may be sticking up

As you can see in this picture I had some tabs to trim before moving onto making the next box

Now you will have to repeat the steps above with one small change. You will have to cut the opposite fold lines than the ones you did on your first box. This is so your boxes won't be the exact same size and will fit into each other.

Instead of cutting off the excess tabs that stuck up I folded them in and taped them. Then just add tissue paper and a little gift item. These are our recycled crayons that fit nicely inside.

And now you have a gift all ready for giving without the guilt of making too much waste.

Here are some more examples of the different sized boxes we made. I used scrapbook embellishments for one of my boxes. Depending on the size of your cards you can make bigger or smaller boxes.

Having trouble following my tutorial? You can follow this one for the exact directions or if you like things that are more advanced you can follow this one. I personally like the first one listed as that is how we did them when I was a little girl. However, I just don't have the time to wait for glue to dry so I used tape.

Have fun!

Advent Day 14: Apple Cinnamon Ornaments

Today we made our traditional apple cinnamon ornaments and then decorated them. This was an all day activity with many steps that took lots of patience.



First we made the dough (1 cup apple sauce, 1/4 cup white school glue and lots of cinnamon until you get the consistency you like). Mix together and roll flat (I used my palm to flatten the dough) onto wax paper. Cut out shapes, poke top of ornament with straw to make a hole for hanging after cooking. Bake at 350 for approximately 40 minutes.


This picture was before baking. This part of the activity took all morning

And this picture was after baking and tying on the strings

Next the children added lots and lots of glue and stuck glitter gems, pompoms and buttons onto the ornaments. This part of the activity took a good 20 minutes. (Jada refused to get out of her P.J's today. Pick your battles right).

Let dry completely. DO NOT LET YOUR TODDLER TOUCH THEM IN THE DRYING PROCESS! I turned my back for a second and Jada broke a few snowmen in half.

What a great job!

Aren't they pretty? The last few years we made these we didn't decorate them. We just cut the shapes and hung them on the tree. I think the decorated way is my favorite

I think Jada did a great job. She did try to eat them a few times though lol

Advent Day 12: Cookie Party

Sunday was our very first time hosting a cookie party. Such a simple idea that I'm sure many people have had for the little ones in their lives around Christmas. In total there was 8 little girls here with their parents. So much excitement and joy all because of frosting and sprinkles.
This picture captures the mood of the party

This is just some of the many, many cookie decorations and frosting to choose from. I felt like we were in the candy shop!

Licking her icing cup

It was a very successful party but I am exhausted! Now to pack up everything for next years party...

Introducing Our Newest Family Member

Introducing Cooper Pickle Our last Name. Can you guess who named him the pickle part? Cooper is a 8.5 week old Beagle and we are so in love! Could do without the 2 times a night pee run outside. But he is still a baby so I guess I better get used to it:) Anyway here he is.........................


Cooper Pickle

Advent Day 10: Rudolph

This Rudolph activity took all day! First you has to wait for the hand prints to dry so you could cut them out. Then you could put the rest of it together. Jada is really coming along with her gluing skills.


Jada was really impressed with the glue this time around because it wasn't the regular school paste. She really dislikes the paste because it gets all over her fingers. She thought this glue was funny "yucky Mommy!" but in a laughing voice apposed to the frantic "yucky Mommy. Off! Off!" What a particular girl I have...lol

Advent day 8: Christmas Tree Cones

Christmas tress made easy! I got this idea from my go to blog for seasonal ideas The Shafer Family.


I'm not overly happy with the icing color. I only had neon food coloring so I really had no choice. Next year I think I will make my own icing too. This icing was from a can and way too soft. But the children loved it! lots of licking of the fingers going on for this activity.

Jada's favorite part of this activity was sampling the smarties

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Wordless Wednesday

From this past weekend waiting for our wagon ride