10 (mostly) paperless ways to wrap presents

Christmas is so exciting but usually after all of the presents are opened, this is the scene:

Eco-guilt sets in. Especially in some parts of the world where this paper is sent to the dump instead of recycling. Well, what else can we use? Here are 10 mostly paperless (and re-usable) ideas for wrapping presents that can work for almost any holiday (not just Christmas):

1. Old paint cans: Clean them out well and take the label off. If you need to remove any sticky goo then you can get a product to do that. Get two cans of spray paint: one a primer and the other in a color of your choice. Then, spray the paint can first with the primer, allow it to dry, then paint it with the second color. After drying, find a present and some embellishments!
2. The wrapped box: instead of ripping the wrapping paper off of a box, pick some that have lids like shoeboxes and wrap the box. Wrap each part (the box and the lid, or just the lid) separately so that you can reuse it every year. Tie it shut with ribbon, twine or yarn and add a tag and embellishments.
3. The colorful box: you can buy boxes in almost any store (Zellars, Walmart, Dollarama) that have a decorated lid and a bottom. So, instead of wrapping it like the above option it is already done for you.
4. The paper bag: try this tutorial that I did for painting a paper bag.
5. Fabric bags: try this tutorial that I did for making reusable fabric bags.
6. Felt gift bags: try this tutorial that I did for making felt gift bags.
7. Mittens, scarves, hats, etc: wind a scarf around a box and tie it with ribbon or stuff a mitten and carefully fold it over. This way, the present (and the wrappings) are one and the same!
8. Dishcloths, dishtowels, etc: In addition to mittens and scarves, try wrapping the smaller presents in dishcloths and tie shut with twine, ribbon or yarn. You could also use towels, shower curtains, tablecloths or bolts of fabric for the larger presents.
9. Storage boxes or cubes: try buying a set of these (that are part of the gift), add the gift, close and wrap a ribbon around it. If you are gifting a cube, basket or such then cover the top with fabric to hide the gift then add the tag and an embellishment.
10. Reused materials: every Christmas, save the gift bags and wrapping paper so that the next Christmas, you can reuse them. We do this at home and these materials are used to wrap presents (mostly stocking stuffers) for the family.

Stenciled cup towels

Yet another project that adds a touch of Christmas to every room! This time, it's my kitchen. I bought these simple white cup towels and stenciled them with blue paint, almost the same way that I did my shower curtain so I won't bother repeating the instructions.

Cup towel # 1:

Cup towel #2:

Notes:

• As these cup towels are now painted, I don't think that they can be washed -- even by hand. So, sadly, these are decorations only and cannot be used. They look nice though! I will work on an idea that is washable for next year.

Stenciled brown paper bag

I was about to throw this bag out when I remembered that Christmas is coming and I needed to wrap some items. So, I got out my stencils and started painting. Why not reuse something like this? It's just going into the recycle anyways.

For this project, I used some leftover newspaper, a stipple stenciling brush, acrylic paint in pink rose, an orphaned container to hold paint, tape and plastic snowflake stencils.

I used the same method as I did for my snowflake shower curtain: use the tape to adhere the stencil to the paper bag (in this case), use stipple brush to paint the stencil, remove stencils and then let it dry.

Stencil the back then the two sides. Done!

Estimated time for this project: about 1 hour, including drying time for the stencils. It was a very nice Saturday afternoon project!

Notes: 

• There was a hole in the paper bag where a staple had fastened it shut but I stenciled over it to hide it. 
• I have to note to properly clean that stipple brush after painting with it. I now have dried paint goo in it and once it's dry, it's hard to remove. Note to self!! 
• To wrap, simply place the item in the bag and roll the top down. Staple or tape into place and add a pink yarn pom-pom or some other pink bow and a tag (perhaps a monogrammed felt one?).

Ideas:

• This will work with any stencil and almost any color paint. I did this in pink to match my mom's Christmas decor as that is where I will be this year. However, I could have easily did this in red or brown for my own Christmas colors. 
• Every time a brown paper bag comes into the house, save it for this project. This one was used to deliver Thai food to my door. It wasn't stained so I reused it. Can you imagine how many bags you'd have if you use them for your groceries or delivery? You'd never need to buy wrapping paper again.

Website discovery: Essortment, Ehow and WikiHow

I have just discovered the websites Essortment, Ehow and WikiHow and I have to share my favorite links of the moment. I love these three websites because the articles are written by people who have experience in how to do something thus they post it for all of the rest of us. I love knowledge-based articles!

These are my current favorite links on Essortment:

1. 25 Places to Meet New People
2. How to Make Your Own Facial Scrub or Mask
3. Uses for Old Coffee Grounds
4. The History of Root Beer
5. Do it Yourself: Fixing Scratches in Wood Furniture and Trim
6. Make Your Own Scented Body Oil
7. Making Homemade Milk Soap
8. How to Remove Sticker and Tape Goo
9. Burning Patterns into Wood
10. Laptop vs. Desktop

These are my current favorite links on Ehow:

1. How to Make a Brown Sugar Lemon Body Scrub
2. Sore Throat Pain Remedies
3. Homemade Bath Salts
4. Homemade Lip Balm - made from coconut oil!
5. Make Curls Overnight Using Rags
6. How to Live Thrifty
7. 20 Holiday Trees Gone Wild
8. Category: Sewing and Upholstry
9. Techniques for Stenciling Furniture
10. How to set Food Portion Sizes for Young Children

These are my current favorite links on WikiHow:

1. How to Stencil Fabric
2. How to Make a Glowstick
3. How to Make a Candle with Essential Oils - bonus! makes body oil
4. How to do Pranks with Garden Gnomes
5. How to Set up a Sewing Room
6. How to Make a Crop Circle
7. How to Go Green at Work
8. How to Avoid Workplace Flu
9. How to Stop Procrastinating (and, even better, the Category)
10. How to Get Rid of Junk Mail

Stenciled Christmas Tree Skirt

After years of searching for something my style in stores around Xmas time, I decided to make my own decorations. My Xmas style is rustic, woodsy and natural so I wanted decorations that reflected that without looking plastic or fake.

For this project, I had 3 yards of cream-colored burlap fabric, 3 yards brown polyester fabric (for lining the bottom), 3-4 yards brown blanket satin ribbon and matching brown and cream-colored thread. For the stenciling, I used 1 bottle chocolate-brown colored fabric paint, 1 plastic stencil with a pattern that I liked, 1 stipple stencil brush, masking tape, newspaper and a small container for holding paint. Also used was a dressmakers pen, measuring tape, scrap yarn, scissors, seam ripper and an iron.

Cutting out the burlap

To start, I laid the burlap out on an ironing table and ironed it flat so that I could cut it properly. I did not have a pattern so I cut out two halves the old fashion way: with a dressmaker's pen and a string. I laid the cream burlap fabric out on the floor and smoothed it out completely. I measured the height of my fabric (mine was 40 inches). I took my dressmakers pen and tied a 32 inch piece of scrap yarn to it.

My husband held the end of the string as I pulled the pen towards the cut end of the burlap. I got as close as I could to the edge and marked it with the pen. He held the string at what was now the centre (I marked that too) and I pulled the string in a half circle, marking the fabric as I went all the way around until I had reached the other edge.

I cut this half-circle out with scissors then I used this piece as a pattern. I laid the cut half-circle of burlap over the next yard of burlap fabric, loosely pinned it in a few places then cut a second half-circle of burlap. I did the same with the brown lining fabric and I cut out two more half circles. I was left with two half circles of cream burlap fabric and two half circles of brown lining fabric.

Stenciling

Lay sheets of newspaper out on the floor (or a crafting surface if you have one large enough). I added masking tape to the top and bottom of each stencil to hold it into place. I used the same stencils as my burlap garland and in the same order so that they matched. I placed the first plastic stencil on the fabric about 1.5 inches from the edge. I followed the curve of the fabric then painted the stencil with the brown paint. I stenciled both halves of the burlap fabric along the bottom edge and along the center like so:

Sewing

Now that the stencil was done and dried, I started the sewing. First, I sewed the two halves of the burlap fabric together on one edge only (the other side is not sewn together so that it can fit around the base of a Christmas tree). Once the two halves are sewn together, I took the entire piece and did a zigzag stitch along the edges on the outside to secure the cut burlap edges in matching cream thread. If you have a serger, that will work better.

Next, I sewed two halves of the brown lining fabric together in the same way so that it matched the cream burlap top. I pinned the burlap, with the stencil up, to the brown lining fabric along the edges and sewed the two pieces together. I now have a Christmas tree skirt that is stenciled burlap on the top and when it is flipped over, it is brown.

Ribbon

The last step is to line the Christmas tree skirt with ribbon. I used a brown satin blanket ribbon which I pinned around the circular edge, up the edges that were not sewn together and around the center. I sewed the ribbon to the skirt with brown thread.

Estimated time for this project: 3 evenings at 3 hours each. I did the measuring and cutting one night, the stenciling, then the sewing. It does take time but the results are so worth it.

Notes:

• I wish that I had a serger for this project as the burlap fabric tended to shed and the fibers came out on the cut edges. I noticed this when I was stenciling.

Ideas:

• This can easily be done with any stencil and color combination. What about snowflakes and the bottom in a matching color? Burlap is available also in white, red and other colors so it could be very nice.

Burlap Christmas Garland

To go with my burlap Xmas tree skirt, I also made a nice wide burlap garland for my tree.

For this project, you will need a measuring tape, dressmakers pen, scissors, 1 yard cream burlap fabric with both matching cream and contrasting brown thread. For the stenciling, you will need 1 bottle chocolate brown fabric paint, 1 stipple stencil brush, newspaper, masking tape, 1 plastic stencil (mine had three designs) and a plastic container to hold the paint.

Measuring and cutting

The first thing that I did was to measure how wide I wanted for this garland to be. I wanted it to be 4 inches wide so I measured four inches on the burlap from the bottom hem and marked it with a dressmaker's pen. I made a few more marks until I reached the edge then I cut out this strip. I continued on the burlap fabric, making marks of where it was 4 inches wide all the way to the end (about every 12 inches or so) then I cut out the strips until the fabric was all cut up.

Sewing

Next, I took each strip and joined two of them together to make them longer. I pinned the two together with about 1 cm of seam allowance and I sewed them up with matching thread. Now I had three long garlands. I sewed the edges with a zigzag stitch in contrasting chocolate brown thread to make sure that it wouldn't fray or warp.

Stenciling
Once all of the edges were sewn, it was time for the stenciling. I laid newspaper out on my floor and squeezed some paint into the small container. I secured the edges of my stencil to the fabric with masking tape so that it wouldn't move while I was painting.

Dip the stipple brush into the paint, dab off any excess and blot the paint onto the fabric through the stencil. I had a pattern going between my three stencils so I taped them to the fabric, stenciled them with paint then moved the fabric to the left (or, out of the way to dry) before taping and stencilling again.

I continued this pattern with all of the strips of burlap fabric until I was left with this mound of stenciled garland:

So it doesn't get wrinkled, I keep it wrapped up like this:

Estimated time for this project: about 3 hours or a full afternoon. The cutting and sewing takes time, at least an hour to an hour and a half. Then the stenciling takes about that amount of time (another hour and a half). It is fun though!

Notes:

• This can be done with almost any fabric with any color of fabric paint or stencil. I recommend firm fabrics like linen or burlap so that they can keep their shape. 
• The fabric that you use should be a solid color to really make the stencil pop. 

Ideas:

• Why not try this with a snowflake stencil, perhaps red snowflakes on white linen -- or the reverse?

Stenciled Snowflake Shower Curtain

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I think that each room should have a little bit of cheer so I came up with this idea. I don't like displaying Santa's everywhere but I do like a touch of winter or Christmas to remind us of the season.

For this project, I started with a white fabric curtain, a snowflake stencil, a stipple stencil brush, green craft paint, tape, and a small container for paint. We had no newspaper in the house so we used old towels. A large, hard work surface is also useful: I used our dining room table.

I set up the towels on the table then pressed the shower curtain to get rid of all of the wrinkles. I also cut my stencil sheet.

Next, lay the shower curtain out over a large surface like the kitchen table.

Add tape to the bottom of the stencil to tape it to the shower curtain. 

I decided to do a cluster of 5 different snowflakes all over the shower curtain instead of stenciling the entire thing. My husband helped me with the painting which was wonderful!

I started in the top right-hand corner so that I could work my way to the left. I squeezed some paint into a container (for me this was a small glass mason jar), got some paint on my brush and I started stippling the paint over the stencil. I found the best way to do the stencil was to start with the corners then work my way in to the center.

After the stencil was done, we lifted the stencil and tape from the shower curtain and moved it to another spot and continued stenciling.

We did clusters of the snowflakes, going down the edge, doing the bottom then working our way in. We didn't want to cover the entire shower curtain in snowflakes.

Our only issue, of course, was that Felix wanted to burrow under the draped shower curtain so we rolled it onto the table so that it didn't drape over the sides. 

Once all of the "clusters" of snowflakes were done, we took another stencil and filled in any gaps with another snowflake stencil.

Estimated time for this project: 2 hours 30 minutes. It took time to set everything up and about an hour to do the actual stenciling for two people. It also took time to clean up after (container, brush, stencils and table).

Notes:

• It was extremely hard to find a white cotton fabric shower curtain. I ended up with a white curtain liner made out of 100% polyester but it took the paint well. 
• I used green acrylic paint. I couldn't find any fabric paint in a color that I liked. This most likely means that this will be a spot-clean shower curtain and cannot be laundered in the washing machine or dryer.
• Keep your hands clean while stenciling. We did this while we were cooking lunch so we were constantly cleaning our hands. 
• Don't worry if a stencil isn't perfect. I made some mistakes on this shower curtain but you can't see it from afar. Even so, it's a sign that it was homemade by you. Here's one of my globby mistakes:

10 projects that I want to do in 2012

I love searching for new project ideas and these are some of them that you may see from me within the year. These are 10 projects that have my head spinning with fabric choices and ideas. This will also be a way for me to keep track of these projects for when the time comes:

1. Fleece argyle blanket: this idea is on CraftStylish and doesn't require any sewing at all. I love anything having to do with argyle. 
2. Pet sleep sack: I have some fake fur lying around and with leftover fleece from the argyle blanket, I can whip up this sleep sack in no time.
3. T-shirt into a Tunic: Calpatch is my favorite contributor on CraftStylish and I absolutely love this t-shirt. 
4. Kitty litter rug: I have an old towel lying around waiting to be upcycled into this litter rug. Felix (my orange/white tabby) doesn't like the litter mat that I bought him into Wal-mart.
5. Felted ball garland: I have never felted before but I love the idea of making felted balls into a Christmas garland. I like the look of it.
6. Stenciled wood coasters: I see these wood coasters on Etsy and they inspire me to stencil them and use them around Christmas time or to give them as gifts.
7. Coffee cup sleeve: I love this coffee cup sleeve and it might have better grip on a coffee cup than a knitted coffee cup sleeve. 
8. An apron for myself: I made one for my husband (actually, I made him three) but I haven't made one for myself. My husband has a pink dress shirt that is now too big for him so I will be making one soon. 
9. Remolded crayons: after my post about crayons, I just have to make this at home! I have two nephews who would love this.
10. Dryer sheet sachets: I don't want to use dryer sheets anymore so I want to make a green project like this one.