Tuesday, October 2, 2012

A second life for toilet paper tubes and chopstick wrappers

Do any of you save stuff to use in your crafting projects?

I do a little...right now I have large bags full of toilet paper (TP) tubes that I have been saving since last Hallowe'en.  Last year I got the "brilliant" idea to make treat containers, rather than buying the little sacks to hold 3 or 4 mini candies (like Snickers, etc.).  I used the decorative waxed paper from Michaels and Hallowe'en paper I found on sale and 85 tubes later had something pretty cute.    We actually ran out, DH had to run to store for more candy.  We ended up with nearly 100 kids!  So since then we have been diligently saving TP tubes and paper towel tubes (as back up), and even got some TP tubes from friends.

I have all the decorative paper and decorative waxed paper cut out and have started making the treat holders.  There's a short video on my YouTube channel, if you'd like to see how it's done.

I also save chopstick wrappers, if they have an interesting graphic.  One of our local sushi places has a wrapper that has green and red colors on it and the text "Oh Happy Day".  I have a stamp with the Chinese character for happiness and a stash of origami and other Asian papers.  When I get a wrapper or two, then I make cards, triming the wrapper to fit the card, backing it with some red or green paper and applying the stamp.  Easy card, looks pretty cute, and it goes to the Soldiers' Angels group in my town.  They collect all kinds of hand made cards, sorted by theme and holiday, and send out boxes to the troops 6-8 weeks in advance of the holiday (usually always mixing in some general cards for birthdays, thinking of you, congratulations, etc.).

Then there are the boutique-sized tissue boxes.  But that's another story.

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