How to Make Gift Boxes From Recycled Christmas Cards | eHow.com

Seeing as though Christmas is gonna be biting us in the ass soon here (It's my first Etsy Xmas) I thought gift boxes would be cool.... Here is a link for how to make recycled gift boxes!!!

How to Make Gift Boxes From Recycled Christmas Cards | eHow.com

By rearley66, eHow Member

Make Gift Boxes From Recycled Christmas Cards

If you keep all of your Christmas cards that are sent to you ever year to recycle or repurpose, you have access to a gift box. Making little gift boxes out of Christmas cards is a great way to reuse the cards. It is also a really handy skill to have because it seems like there are a lot of times in our lives that having a little box would have been nice.

What these have been good for is small gifts like earrings or pins and even gift cards. Sometimes, those items do not come packaged attractively out of the store so this is a good way to create your own pretty packaging that will not even need to have wrapping.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Christmas cards
• Scissors
• Ink Pen
• Scotch tape
• Tape measure
• Cotton balls

1. Step 1
   
   How To Make Gift Boxes From Recycled Christmas Cards

   Choose a Christmas card that has the same size front as back. Cards with die cut fronts will not work for this project.

2. Step 2
   
   Make Gift Boxes From Recycled Christmas Cards

   Cut the card apart at the crease.

3. Step 3
   
   Make Gift Boxes From Recycled Christmas Cards

   Measure in from the outside about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Using an ink pen, make a mark. Do this on all 4 sides of the card.

4. Step 4
   
   Make Gift Boxes From Recycled Christmas Cards

   Once the marks are made, fold the card where those lines are both on the long side and the short side. This helps to create a crease where the box can be formed.

5. Step 5
   
   Make Gift Boxes From Recycled Christmas Cards

   Using the scissors, make the cuts on the slash marks you created in step 3. Because you have the folds and the cuts, you can now form the box with the tabs that have been created. Put these on the inside and use tape to secure them. If necessary, you may need to trim a bit if the marks were off. Do this with both top and bottom.

6. Step 6
   
   Make Gift Boxes From Recycled Christmas Cards

   Put the box top on the box bottom and make sure it fits snuggly. You can use cotton on the inside of the box to hide the wording from the inside of the box. This can be glued down but it is not necessary to do so.

Tips & Warnings

• The measurements on the top and bottom are going to be the same. The cardstock is flexible enough that precise measuring is not necessary.
• Since you are using a pretty card for gift giving, you will not need to use any additional wrapping paper.

Resources

• How to Recycle Christmas Cards Into Homemade Christmas Tree Ornaments
• How to Create Beautiful Framed Art From Recycled Christmas Cards
• How to Recycle Christmas Cards Into Clever Bookmark Gifts
• How to Recycle Christmas Cards Into Usable Gift Tags With These Free Instructions
• How to Repurpose Sweaters Into Decorative Throw Pillows

Read more: How to Make Gift Boxes From Recycled Christmas Cards | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/print/how_5618213_make-boxes-recycled-christmas-cards.html#ixzz0wCQCv7FS

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Making a Charm From Spare Parts by GreyPuffin

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For the purpose of this post, I’m making a charm out of old broken watch parts, one of my favorite mediums. To make it I used scrapped watch parts, E-6000 glue, tweezers, toothpicks (reusable ones work fine), scrap paper (old flyers, in this case). You can always get blank necklace findings at jewelry or craft supply stores as well.

I started off with the base as my inspiration, which is actually the back side of a day date wheel (part that says what day of the week it is). It already had holes punched in it, so I didn’t need to worry about that. The gears from an unworking parts that would fit in theme with the base, as it has a gear in the middle already, and just as importantly, that would actually fit on my base.

After that I prearranged it on the base to get an idea of how it would work, and how I wanted it to look. I took a picture of the setup to be sure I remembered how I wanted it (and to document it). As this piece requires working with an adhesive, I wanted to be sure to quick reference it so I didn’t have to stop and worry about placement, or moving it around after attaching it to the base.

As I mentioned before, for this piece I am using an adhesive, E-6000. Any strong glue works well, or epoxy, such as Loctite Instant Mix. I place a dollop of glue on an index card, both because I don’t need a lot, and that way I don’t have to continually open the tube. Using a toothpick to take a small portion onto each gear work the glue around the sides evenly, and as the pieces can be small, make sure not to get too much on, or it will smear when placing on the base. While putting glue on the pieces, I use tweezers to hold them, more to assist in placing the gear without it sliding around and smearing glue.

After placing the gears and making sure they are fully touching the base, you wait! To be sure that the glue does take full effect, I usually wait at least overnight, but check the instructions on your adhesive. After that, it’s a matter of testing the gears to be sure they all properly adhered, and then attach it with a jump or chainmaille ring, or however you decide!

You can see that the final product didn’t turn out exactly how I had placed it, and that does happen sometimes. The actual pre-placement gave me at least a rough idea of where I wanted the pieces at. If I had been completely unhappy, and wanted to change it, all I would need to do would be to take off the gears and wipe off the glue to ensure the next attempt wouldn’t have a glue buildup. Check your adhesive instructions as many will quick set (begin to cure and harden) in 5 minutes, but will also explain how to remove residue in case you need to.