Recycled Wrapping Paper Basket
28 Dec
We had a ton of wrapping paper after our Christmas festivities. It filled up a huge trash bag and was sitting at the back door ready to go out for recycling. I kept looking at it, thinking that there must be something we could do with all that nice looking paper (besides recycling it). I really didn’t want to straighten it out and actually re-wrap gifts with it. But, I wanted to find a new purpose for that paper.
Here are a few ideas I came up with:
1. let the kids draw on the back side of the paper. They are always looking for scrap paper to write/draw on.
2. cut out shapes from the wrapping paper and make a collage.
3. learn how to basket weave and make a basket out of the paper.
Guess which one we picked?
My Kids Make a Basket {from recycled wrapping paper}, and yours can too! Pull that paper out of your recycling bin and start folding…..
I had seen a post where Life of Perks made a basket out of recycled newspaper. I knew we would one day follow her instructions and make a basket of our own. And that day finally came.
Silas and I started pulling out large pieces of wrapping paper and unfolding them. We managed to find a lot of pieces that were large and not badly mangled. We flattened the paper out, cut off any sections that were badly torn, and tried to get similarly shaped pieces. Then, start folding to make long strips of paper. Make sure that all the pieces have folds that are close to the same size.
Line up all the folded pieces and start weaving. Make the bottom first. The over hang parts will be folded up and become the sides. Then you will take additional strips and weave them into/around the sides.
Use glue to secure the pieces together while you work, just a dab here and there. Once you get the sides standing up and are creating the actual sides, the basket starts to hold together on its own quite nicely. When you run out of strips, or get to the desired size, fold the extra length over or trim the pieces.
We used paper clips to help hold sections in place while we worked. Then: Glue. Glue. Glue. We used a few layers of Mod Podge over the whole basket to help it keep its form. This worked great.
Now that we are done, there is a vote in the house as to what we will fill the basket with. Here are a few options:
Basket for Craft Supplies:
Basket for Books:
Basket for Trash:
Silas actually wants this basket to be a dog bowl for his new stuffed animal dog. The dog is very large and therefore “needs” a large dog bowl. This might sound horrible, but I am voting that this becomes a “basket for trash”. If you knew how MANY tissues that I have to pick up off their bedroom floor, you would vote for a cute little trash basket as well!
UPDATE: Here’s another version of the basket that we made. It is a lot taller than the first one.
I linked up with:
Welcome to My Kids Make. I'm Becky, mom to 2 cuties, Sydney and Silas.
Great idea and project.
You are so creative !!!!
thanks. it seriously is a cute little basket and i wish we had more wrapping paper laying around so we could have made it bigger (or better yet, made another).
You will have more wrapping paper this weekend
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog! I love how your baskets turned out. Glad someone got some more ideas from my basket, I’m going to have to try it with wrapping paper now!! I have so much lying around!
lifeofperks.blogspot.com
Brandy, you have no idea how long I had your post bookmarked! I have been wanting to try this for ages!! Thanks again, keep up the good work!!!
That’s so cool. Keep up the good work guys.
Thanks Will!
Adorable basket Silas and Becky!! Too cute for snotty kleenex!
)
What a great idea. I love this. We have oodles of extra wrapping paper to use, perfect! Thanks for sharing it over at M&T Spotlight!
I totally thought that was our copy of Goodnight Moon sitting in that basket – ours has all the same creases and everything!!
I am DESPERATE for ways to use up our wrapping paper – it’s all sitting in a giant garbage sack in our closet, and the sight of it is starting to make my husband twitch. Plus, I need something to do with the kiddos this weekend, so we might just be making a bunch of baskets!
Beth,
I hope you have fun making the baskets, let me know how they come out! I would love to post a pic of you with your basket….
I think we are going to make more this week, as we still have a huge pile of wrapping paper cluttering up the house.
Hi. I was wondering if I could please use a few of these pictures for my ICT GCSE Controlled Assessment (UK national exams), and whether you want this website to be referenced. Thanks if you say yes, from Emily.
By the way this is a great use for wrapping paper
Emily,
I tried to send you an email but it bounced back. Send me a msg. becky at mykidsmake dot com
Hello. My name is Emily and I was wondering if I could use some of these pictures in my GCSE ICT Controlled Assessment (important exams in England). I’m supposed to find pictures to use in my project, get permission to use them, and give a link to the site they came from.
Thanks if you say yes. If not then never mind.
This is a very good idea for reusing old wrapping paper by the way
What a great idea. I hate throwing away wrapping paper and I would have never thought of this.
I am doing an Upcycling project for an ICT GCSE, and was wondering if I could use this idea of your recycled wrapping paper box to create at my event, thanks, Natalie.
I do crafts all the time and I’am always looking for new ideas. This is an AWESOME idea!
Thanks Tabby!!!!!