Upcycled Jars

I had a little time to play the new Frilly and Funkie challenge today, which is Upcycling.  {The items I upcycled for the challenge are the glass jars, old books and maps and a vintage button.}

I plucked two glass jars out the recycling tub and created a pair of votive holders.  I glued small scraps of vintage paper (maps, music and dictionary pages) around the center.  I finished them with seam binding, a button on one and a little tag on the other.  Very simple, but kinda cute!

  

Remember to link up pictures of your studio space at the end of this post.  I'm dying to see where you create!

Hope you have a creative weekend!

6 Ways to Wrap Gifts Using Vintage Paper

 

I've been having a lot of fun including vintage paper in my holiday gift wrapping this year.  I thought I'd share with some ways that you could incorporate some lovely old book pages or vintage sheet music into your packaging too.

1.  Vintage Paper Gift Wrap

Use old book pages to wrap the entire gift.  This works well for small gifts because you're restricted by the size of the pages.  Here I used vintage sheet music to wrap an iTunes gift card and finished it off with seam binding and a gold accent.

2. Vintage Paper Bows

Cut strips of old books to form a bow.  Here I used over sized dictionary pages - the large loops were cut to 1" wide and the smaller inner loops on top were cut to 1/2" wide. I finished off the center with a vintage button.

3. Vintage Paper Bag Toppers

Transform a plain bag into something special by creating a bag topper from vintage paper.  I just folded a rectangle of sheet music in half, stapled it to the top of the closed bag and hid the staple with a bow.

4. Vintage Paper Belly Bands

Cover the gift in regular wrapping paper, then create a belly band from vintage paper to bring it up a notch.

5. Vintage Paper Tags

Use a die cutting machine or handheld punch to create tags from old book pages and sheet music:

6. Vintage Paper Accents

Cut a piece of an old map or sheet music and glue it to the front of a parcel.  Here I used spray adhesive to attach a map of the East Coast to a gift wrapped in simple kraft paper.

There are more pictures of my Christmas packages in this post.  Got a great idea for packaging gifts using old book pages?  Leave a link and/or comment below.

Linking to:

A Crafty Soiree
Hodgepodge Friday
Crafty Happy Scrappy 
The Shabby Nest

Savy Southern Style

Happy Wrapping!

Ali

3 Paper Trees

Do you ever see a project and it just makes you squeal with delight?  Well, I do - often!  And if it involves old paper or music, I'm totally sold.  Well, here's one such project:

It was created by MJ from 517 Creations and she very kindly said I could post her picture here.  Head over to her blog for the scoop on how to make this fabulous holiday tree!

Got a little more time?  Here's two more gorgeous paper trees to check out:

Recycled Magazine Tree by Renee Anne

Cupcake Liner Tree by Centsational Girl

Happy crafting!

Ali

My Recycled Christmas Wrapping

As always, I was late getting my Christmas gifts in the mail to my family in the UK and Sweden.  Every year I buy all the gifts early and then never mail them in time - sigh.....  Even though they might arrive a day or two late, they were wrapped up nicely :)

Here are some of the gifts I wrapped up for the men in the family.  The first two used recycled kraft paper, old book pages, bakers twine and hand stamped tags.

 

The final boy gift is for one of my brothers who loves New York City.  I bought him a piece of artwork in Greenwich village a few months ago and the package features a map of the East Coast.  I guess I could have used a subway map, but this was lying around my studio from another project, so on it went!

  

The girly gifts also have recycled kraft paper as their base and they're jazzed up with some rich berry colored satin ribbon, old sheet music and vintage buttons.

The lovely rosette on this package (for my mum) is from a kit very generously sent to me by my blogging buddy, Donna Vere.

I still have piles more to do - I wonder if they'll be as pretty as these ones?  How's your Christmas wrapping going? If you've posted any cool ideas or pictures on your blog, feel free to leave a link in the comments. 

Happy Wrapping!

Ali

Vintage Paper Holiday Inspiration

I have some inspiring vintage paper projects to share with you today.  Check out these beautiful holiday ideas:

Becky Shander created these fabulous vintage cooker cutter ornaments.

Darcy Tidd created this fantastic vintage paper tree based on a tutorial on the Martha Stewart site.

I found this fantastic origami creation on Mistybliss' Flickr feed - isn't it amazing!

Jeanne Oliver created these charming baubles with vintage paper and a healthy dose of glitter for Flea Market Style magazine. 

Finally, check out these beautiful Christmas tree tags created by Vicki from It's a Stamp Thing - I just love those rusty bells!

Happy holiday crafting!

Guest Artist - Donna Vere

Check out this gorgeous card I received in the mail from paper artist Donna Vere.  It took my breath away when I opened the envelope.

I just love how she used the vintage sheet music, both as a surface to stamp on and to create the medallion on the front.

Donna recently created some beautiful Christmas ornaments using a similar medallion.

Thanks for making my day, Donna!

You check out more of Donna's work on her blog Paper, Crows and Dragonflies.