Upcycle Living

Although I make a point to tell all my friends not to give me any presents to avoid unwanted gifts and excessive gift wrapping, I still get nicely wrapped gifts from time to time. When I do I will unwrap them very carefully and keep almost everything - from the gift wrapper, greeting cards to the ribbons and trimmings - and reuse them whenever I can. This month I happen to have some gifts to give away, so I've recycled these wrappers and cards. The purple patterned wrapper in the foreground is from a Christmas present I received in 2008. The white tissue wrapper in the background came from a clothing packaging. The dark pink tissue wrapper underneath is from another gift I received some years ago (which will be used for wrapping the other present) . The gift cards are cut out from old birthday cards. The ribbons are taken from an old top I dismantled. Nothing is new here except for what's wrapped inside, which is the most important thing. But I think they still lo...

This Christmas is going to be a quiet one for us as we are in the midst of moving, so a big(ish) tree like previous years is just impractical. But not having a tree at all would make it even sadder. And the solution is: a tiny, mini, tabletop cardboard Christmas tree!  The making is pretty simple: View larger image in new tab or window 1. Material: some patterned or printed cardboard (old Christmas cards, Christmas merchandise packaging, etc), I cut these from last year's Christmas crackers packaging box. 2. Cut them into equal sizes: 2 per tree. 3. Take 2 and stick them together, back to back using double sided tape. 4. Make sure they are adhered nicely together, trim away any jutting out edges. 5. Cut each piece into 2 equal pieces. 6&7. Using a pencil, trace the outline of a simple pine tree onto each piece with a cut out shape prepared ahead (it can also be just a simple triangle). 8. Place 2 half-tree shapes together and secure with cellotape al...

Before I learned how to make mince pies, we used to buy them from the shops, and have kept the packaging boxes which I knew will come in handy one day. The red colour and the festive patterned borders on the box can be used for making any Christmas decor. So we thought we'd make a Christmas wreath out of them. I cut the boxes into short 4-5-cm strips and stick them in a random crisscross pattern to make a circle, with cellophane tapes. I've also used some left over old sequins (taken off from an old bag), an old red ribbon, and a "Happy Christmas" wording cut out from an old Christmas card. Easy peasy.

Greeting cards are one of the biggest consumerism scams to get people to keep spending and "saving" time on writing sincere messages to their friends and family. Yes the cards can be so pretty that you can easily be tempted into buying some and send it to someone. But the clutter it creates is beyond imagination. I don't encourage anyone to send me cards, nor do I buy any greeting cards to give to anyone. But, as and when I can, I will try to make some cards using used and/or old material (not the type you make from ready-made trimmings and decoration/stickers you buy from the shops). I have just made 8 Christmas cards (one of them already sealed in the envelope) to send to our family and friends - exactly 8 families. They are all made according to whatever I can find in my craft box: old felt I collected from God-knows-where, pretty pictures cut out from old magazines, old greeting cards, old mince pies boxes, tissue wrapping paper saved from packaging, sequins...

Last Christmas was the first time we ever had guests for dinner. So apart from the tree and pressies, I wanted to give the table a festive feel too, without having to spend too much or creating too much waste. My sister once brought over a stack of old season's greetings cards from the company she used to work for. Those cards were unused but just out of date. I can't send them to anyone as they had the company's logo on. So I cut the covers to make tiaras for my nieces (forgot to take some pictures of those), but we still had some left overs. So I tore the inside of the cards where the greeting message is, into long strips (by pressing a steel ruler over it). I then rolled them up and secure the ends with double sided tapes, and I got ourselves some rustic looking DIY disposable napkin rings in no time!

It's only November but most shopping malls already have their Christmas decorations up. Everywhere you go, there are promotion counters lining up on the terrace between shops, and promoters jumping at you trying to flog you cosmetics or spray some new "Christmas party" fragrances at you. I try very hard to decline nicely every time, but all I want to do is to walk through that walkway in peace, why can't I even do that? These people whom I call commodity owners, tend to think that the best way to sell their products is by having heavily-made-up promoters harassing us all the time. And they thought by doing so will get us all to buy! Anyway, we can't have Christmas without a Christmas tree. People are discussing which tree to buy, a real one or a plastic one? What's the theme of the tree this year, green or gold, angels or baubles? How many boxes of tree decoration? Should there be a star or a Barbie angel on the tree top? Nope I can't afford that, and c...