How to wrap gifts for free !

I love reusing magazine pages for so many things !

Some are just so lovely.. This photo above is a block of chocolate wrapped up in a page from a magazine ..

that I gave to a friend for his birthday ..I have used them to make lolly bags for my son Jack's birthday, ..used them to make cards..bows for gifts and you can wrap so many small gifts..free wrapping paper ..I rarely ever buy magazines these days ..so expensive ..I have heaps in my sewing /craft room..I used to buy some from our library 6 for 50cents...when I get to the library I can read all the latest magazines for free.. I'd love to hear what else, others use magazines pages for ..I'm also currently working on 2 projects that I'm using the magazine pages for..I'll share with you when completed...

Christmas Recycled Gift Tags !

                                                 Christmas Recycled Gift Tags !
I made these gift tags a few weeks ago from recycling an old school dictionary and brown paper that Kev's National Geographic magazine comes in..
I just folded the dictionary pages in half then I sewed around them on my sewing machine in red cotton. I then printed out Merry Christmas using FlemishScript BT with font size 44.Then I sewed around that on the folded dictionary page..I think they look rather rustic and cute... And on the back I stuck a piece of brown paper to write to the recipient wishing them a Merry Christmas. Below you will see I used them on 3 gifts ..One for Jack's school teacher , one for Jack's bus driver and one for our wonderful postman. I bought tins of quality street chocolates and wrapped them in calico ham bags, that I bought on sale some years back ...That way there isn't any thing to throw away ..hopefully they will keep the gift tags and use for book marks..Or reuse by giving it to some one else attached to a Christmas gift, by either removing the paper from the back or covering it over with another piece ...Could even be used for a Christmas tree ornament .

Make Your Own Christmas Crackers !

I made Christmas crackers for Jack to give to all his friends in his class room !
Another recycled project ! I cut out pages from an old magazine cut all the ends with special zig zag scissors. I also used cardboard cereal packets to make into tubes that I stuck together with sticky tape and then I filled them with a wrapped lolly and a joke. I looked up a website for children's jokes and picked the best ones and then I printed them out on white paper .Then I also printed out a label for each one with Merry Christmas from Jack CW & Family and glued them on each cracker where the paper join was ,to help keep them secure.Then I scrunched the ends and pushed them in to the tube end . I made 24 of them. Cost was 8cents each for the lollies. Jack will take them the last week of school to give out to all his class friends !