Holiday Gift Ideas: Paper Crafts

It's *that* time of year again!



The Top 10 Ways I Know it's *That* Time of Year:

1. The stores have all started to smell like cinnamon.
2. Egg Nog lattes are back! So are the holiday cups. Sad, but true, a Starbucks drink marks the beginning of the season.
3. Last night, I saw my first Swiss Chalet Christmas commercial. A Canadiana Christmas Classic.....but whatever happened to the Toblerone?
4. Our house is aflutter. A hive of Christmas crafting/preparation and mess. Love.
5. I have butterflies. And a warm, fuzzy feeling......and I haven't been drinking.
6. I've been feeling the urge to dig out Love Actually and watch it one million times.
7. I've made an appointment to have snow tires put on the car.
8. I'm homesick.
9. Winnie heard "jingling" on the front porch last weekend and she's 99% sure it was Santa.
10. There's only 7 weeks until the BIG day!

So, it's time to get busy. Once again, through November and December, I will be posting weekly Christmas crafting/gift ideas.
I love this!





Paper Crafts

You all know by now that I LOVE to make Christmas gifts and decorations. But, it's not always possible, is it? There's never enough time or money at this time of year. Paper crafts are a great way to exercise that crafting muscle, even if you aren't crafty or have a tight schedule/budget. Most of the crafts I'm showing today can be made with things you have around the house or can pick up for free/cheap.

1. A Recycled Cardboard Kitchen.
Jamie made this for Winnie two years ago, for Christmas.



It's made from cardboard (we picked up BIG boxes at a local furniture store, for free) and Mac Tac (you know the stuff I'm talking about? The self adhesive water-proof liners for drawers) The Mac Tac was NOT cheap, but the only expense in the project. We used a floral Mac Tac, as you can see, but they have all kinds of patterns....I really love the faux bois (see below). It would make a super cool kitchen.



You can get the pattern HERE, from the forty two roads Etsy shop.

2. Christmas Card Trees.
These are adorable. I love to see them all over the house. Trees made from old Christmas cards. We all have them lying around, whether they were given to us in previous years or left overs from those we sent, this is a great way to re-use and reduce.





I actually couldn't find my cards (we're still in LOTS of boxes over here) so I bought a huge bag of old holiday cards from Value Village for $1.99. Instructions: cut circles of various diameter from your old Christmas cards. Cut a slit from the edge of each circle to it's centre. Fold the flaps over each and glue to form a 3D cone. Stack your cones!

3. Paper Art Canvases?
I'm not sure what to call these? I got some Pinterest Inspiration and then started making these at break-neck speed. There's always a new baby or birthday or shower and these make great gifts. I think personalized canvases would be lovely for kids and Christmas-themed canvases could make amazing gifts for mums, aunts, grandmas, etc.








How to make them? Couldn't be easier. Get yourself some decorative paper (this can be expensive, but I just saw a HUGE beautiful pack of Holiday paper at Homesense for $12.99), some canvases (on sale at Michael's or at The Dollar Store) and some Modge Podge (watered-down white glue). Plan out your design and then: RIp and glue. Rip and Glue. Keep layering until you're happy your canvas is complete. To finish, give the entire canvas a coat, or two, of Modge Podge.

A few other things you can use for your canvases:
Old Golden Books from a flea market. 6 for $5, or less. I tore these apart and used them as background. I don't usually agree with destroying books but these were scribbled in and, to be honest, the ones I ripped apart had terrible outdated story lines (what? the princess ate NINE chocolates in a row?? She can't be a REAL princess....)

A Punch. There are TONS of these in different shapes and sizes. I bought this Martha Stewart Leaf punch at Michael's. It gives a nice, professional look to the canvases.



That's all for this week folks! Check in next Friday (and maybe once or twice between now and then) for more Christmas craft/gift ideas.

XOXO
Jill