Embellish With Cutouts From A Cereal Box

 Give your craft or package a scrapbook look for no cost by upcycling an old cereal box.

The above embellishments used to be part of a box of Mini Wheats glued on an used bubble wrap envelope for a no-cost gift wrap, but it could be used on other projects as well.

When I was cutting out the tokens for the free DVD promotion is hit me to try to decorate a package with the colorful parts off the box.

Items used:

• Cereal box
• Scissors
• Glue or Glue Stick
• Bottle Caps
• Ink pen or pencil
  

I cut out letters from the box into squares of letters and strip from the side for the top of the box.   As there was no letter "i" on the box, I improvised by using a other parts on the box to create the letter.

To make the circles,  I traces around the cap off of a bottle of soda.

"Candle" Recycled Package

 Great for small items or gift certificates!

Upcycle a cardboard toilet paper tube and magazine pages into a "candle" package.

Items used:

• Cardboard Toilet Paper Roll
• Magazine Pages
• Scissors
• Hot Glue Gun
• Glue Stick
• Packing Tape
• Yellow, orange or red ribbon or paper
  

With side you want on the outside facing down, fold up the bottom of the paper so that it is more of a square shape, but still wide enough to so there are few inches on either side of the tube when centered on the diagonal.   Glue the corner of the edge to the center of the toilet paper tube and roll until covered, then glue the other end.

Put the present inside the center of the tube.

 

Fold the paper on each end over and secure it with packing tape.

Draw the letters onto paper and cut out the letters.  Paste them to the front of the candle.

 

 Fold the ribbon or paper over two inches and repeat, then use glue to the top of the candle

 

"Pop Art" Hand Wreath

Use recycled items to quench your thirst for crafting your own unique, trendy wreath.

This wreath is based on the Hand Wreath I made previously, except this is much fuller and hand outlines are drawn on cardboard from 3 cases (24 packs) of Diet Coke.

Items used for this project:

• Cardboard from soda pop cases  
• Cardboard circle from frozen pizza
• Hot Glue Gun 
• Silver Acrylic Paint
• Paintbrush
• Pop tab 
• Silver Bell Ornament made from top of plastic soda bottle
• Red and Gold Fabric Paint
• Ribbon
  

Click on the hyperlinks for tutorials.

5 Minute No Sew Elf Skirt or Cape

To get more in the Christmas spirit, I decided to turn an old oversized sweatshirt into a Elf skirt, but it could also be worn as a cape.  It is based on the the 5 Minute No Sew T-Shirt to Skirt tutorial that I posted previously.  

All you need is:

• A red or green oversized sweatshirt
  
• Scissors
• 1 1/2 - 2 yds of ribbon
• Safety pin
  

On this the only difference is that I cut off the sleeves, then cut across the neckline then cut notches into the bottom (which was formerly the top of the sweatshirt).  

Use the scissors to cut a small hole in the bottom (which will now be the waistline casing) of the sweatshirt and thread the ribbon through the waistline casing and voilà, you have and elf skirt or elf cape.