Christmas Wrapping: Recycled Road Atlases

Since mine and my husband's families live so far apart (Idaho and Arkansas), we are used to driving long distances to visit family members. As a result of our cross-country trips, we have acquired several road atlases over the years. And when it comes time to update to a more current atlas, I don't throw away the old one . . . I DRAB TO FAB it :).

This is my favorite way to wrap presents for the following reasons:

• cheap
• pretty
• recycling
• cool
• easy

I rarely even have to use scissors!  I just tear out a single sheet (or lift out a "double sheet" from the staples in the middle) and it's ready to go. {I don't recommend buying a spiral-bound atlas for either driving OR wrapping, because the pages you use the most get torn out when you still need them to find your way, and, you don't have the "double-sheet" that the staple-bound atlases give you for wrapping}.

If you have a larger gift, carefully remove
a "double sheet" from the center of the
atlas by pulling it up from the staples.

If you travel Tom-Tom style with a GPS and don't have a road atlas, snag an old one (or an outdated world atlas) at your local thrift store.  Siam and Burma may not exist on current atlas anymore, but we can keep them alive under our Christmas trees!

Tulle is my favorite "ribbon"
material, though I don't think it
goes with the map-wrapping as
well as the examples below.

Colored rubber bands:
cheap, easy, festive . . . 

. . . and cute!
The card is a folded 3x5 card from my
surplus of office supplies--I think it is the
perfect compliment to this type of wrapping  

If you want to use ribbon, get
pastel colors that compliment
the typical orange/pink/yellow/
green/blue color scheme found
on most political maps

Kitchen twine is always a classic choice
for your packages and parcels.
(Sneak preview of one of your gifts, Bon!)

One other fun idea is to add a toy car or two
to the outside of your package--especially
if it goes with the gift!

Stay tuned for more ideas from my wrapping-savvy sisters!  Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

Brown Paper Packages

I wanted to show you all of the ways to use recycled grocery bags all at once, but some of my craft supplies are buried in the mountain of remodeling stuff. 

So I will have to show you a few ways over the course of the next few weeks!

Start asking your grocery boy to bag your food in paper bags now, so you can have a great stock pile to wrap with!

This first way is SUPER easy. 

And FREE!

So let's do a homemade gift bag, shall we?

First, get one of your old grocery bags out.

 Next, cut it in half.

 Third, get an old empty cereal box. 

(Start collecting them)

Make sure to take out the lining and cut off the top tabs!

Next,  cover your box with your grocery bag that has the words turned in!

 Now on to decorating. 

The possibilities could be endless. 

But I just pulled out a simple stencil packet I had purchased a while back. 

(Got it at Walmart for $1.97, and it has all the stencils pictured)

 Simply stencil the stencil of choice on the front of your gift bag, stuff your box with the presents you will be giving, and add some tissue paper.

I wanted to add a cute ribbon handle, but all my ribbon  is in that remodeling pile somewhere. 

So you will just have to envision it!

A perfect recycled way to wrap!

The best part of the box is that it stands so perfectly.

Happy Wrapping~

Book Page STAR

In Keeping with my book page Christmas Theme for this year, I am making star ornaments for my tree.  Soooo easy to make.  Buying these type of stars at the store are usually anywhere from $5-$10 a piece.  This one:  FREE NINETY FREE!!! And it seriously only took me 5 minutes!

You only need these 6 things to create these GORG stars!!!

Draw a star on a cereal box in any ol' way you'd like with permanent marker.

Cut out star and add score markes.  from tip to center, and from inner corners to center.  Score each with a box cutter (be careful not to cut all the way through.)

Cover side Opposite of the scores with an old book page.  Then cut off the excess.

Flip over, fold, then Ink to your hearts desire!  Now it's ready for your tree!!!
Now go make some ornaments of your own!!!

Finally

Remember two years back when I redid my kitchen?

I still have projects. 

Paint over the red,

redo the fixtures,

fix the air vent above the stove, 

and etc. etc. 

Well I FINALLY did something!

Here is the oven hood before....

Super Ug, I know.

But after some black paint and a clear coat of lacquer finish it is looking soooo much better!

Old, dingy, and wretched to New, fab, and gorg!

 One more project down, a gazillion more to go!

See you next week with my wrapping post!

xoxo

Bon

Old Book Page Wrapping

Super easy wrapping.  Using Old book pages (Or new book pages inked up.)  Our favorite place to go to find inexpensive old books is Deseret Industries.  (click link to see our cool D.I. blog) 

start with empty boxes - croutons have a ziplock top, the rest have lids or easy open/close tops.

There are several ways you can wrap.  Be creative and come up with your own!!! I like using a glue runner (like for scrapbooking) as my adhesive.

#1: lay book pages out straight.  Don't worry about overlap. You don't need to cut it, you can either tuck it under, or let page you glue down on other side line up with the overlap! 

I keep old tags from jeans we buy.  simply cover with a book page, and cut around the outside for a perfect fit (Or wrap page all the way around the tag.)

Ink the edges/middle.  Use Hole punch to attach the tag. Add an inked christmas tree and VOILA!  Crouton bag done! 

#2: you can crumple a book page & then after you uncrumple, ink the creases.

It will look like this when it's inked.

Add to surface

and I like layering some packages with pages in different directions!

Spray paint lid to christmas color of your choice!

#3: strips of paper.

Ink each strip before gluing down to surface.

#4: Full pages.  don't ink until after they've been glued down.  Only ink the creases of the box!

And now a little Book Page Christmas Bow Tutorial.  Super easy.  I'm going to make a lot of these!!!

Strips of paper.  Inked and folded from both ends into the middle.  Staple. and repeat.

do as many layers as you'd like.

Once you reach the top, start folding to make loops stand up!

If making it a permanent part of your gift.  curl two strips of paper and staple to top of box.

staple finished bow on top of your curled ribbons. and you're done!!!

Finished Products!!!!  (although I think I am going to add more bows to the rest of them!) 

The Great thing about the packages I chose is I can re-use them EVERY YEAR!!!  Stay tuned later this week for an Inexpensive Christmas Present Idea using book pages!!! Happy Wrapping!!!

Christmas in November

Get ready for

XOXO,

The Drab to Fab Sisters

Book Wreaths

Saw these on Pinterest and had to tweak it and make our own.

Things you will need:

Foam Pipe Cover

Duct Tape

An Old book (Or new book & ink the edges)

Hot Glue Gun - I found out the hard way, get a LOW TEMP gun.  A high temp glue gun will burn through your foam!!!

Foam Pipe Covers.  INEXPENSIVE way to do a wreath. $2.95 for a pack of 4 at Walmart!  Bend into a cirle, and Duct Tape ends together.

Fold page into an S.  Glue one end to foam. Do not crease the folds, (Unless you want a zigzag look instead of a flowing look.)

First layer of pages. Hot glue to foam.  The more overlap, the closer your pages, the fuller your wreath.

Flip the wreath over.  Your first layer becomes the BACK of your wreath (so it will lay flat against the wall)

After first layer, you can fold the ends to make pages stick out in the direction you want.  

Keep going layer by layer until you are satisfied.

as you near the final layers, your foam will become covered up (You could also hot glue a ribbon along the inside to hide the foam.

You don't have to add anything to the wreath, they are gorgeous by themselves.  But I wanted to hang something in the middle of mine.  Since it is going above my bed, I decided the word LOVE printed on an extra page of the book would be great in a frame.

center your book page on a regular sheet of paper and put in your printer!

spray paint a frame to the color of your choice.  I simply glued my frame to the wreath itself, but you could get fancy and hang it with a ribbon!

Finished product on an old door for decor

Finished product on an old window & frame added to middle!