Craft Projects > Recycled > OtherAugust 03, 2010

Crafts that Reuse Tissue Paper

I dislike seeing things thrown away without ever being ever. We have thrown away large handfuls of gift tissue that comes in those gift bags and this is such a waste. I am thinking that we could put gifts in those cloth bags and use pretty towels or hand towels in it instead of the tissue. If you do have gift tissue, this can be recycled into beautiful crafts and things like stained glass windows, collages, and flowers to put into little pots and bottles or to wear in your hair. Here's some ideas I came up with when checking about.com and brainstorming with the three Rs, which are reduce, reuse, and recycle
  • Faux Stained Glass Window: Paint a window with liquid starch, stick on tissue paper, and paint over that. As long as the window doesn't get wet, it stays there. This wouldn't work in the winter months, but I can see myself making faux stained glass out of two sheets of plastic and hanging it on a pressure rod in the window to let light in during the winter when the window gets wet from the weather.

  • Tissue Paper and Pipe Cleaner Flowers: I am going to keep a box of pipe cleaners, I love the number one, and number two. They can be used to make flowers instead of the gift tissue going into the landfill. To make the flowers, cut out a circular shape with scissors or pinking shears. Make a "J" at the top of the pipe cleaner to hold the flower circle shape on. Put the flower on at the bottom of the pipe cleaner by pushing it through. Bring it on up to the top and kind of squish it around the top of the pipe cleaner.

  • Pipe Cleaner and Tissue Paper Butterflies: Take a couple of squares of different colors and and secure with a pipe cleaner, making the two ends look like antennae. Then put on a clothespin for the body and hang up with a thread.

  • Decorative Jars: I am going to make some stained glass jars by putting tape around the jar with the tissue paper arranged under the tape. I won't overlap the tape. I could use decoupage stuff, but I probably won't.

  • Paste Flowers on Construction Paper: We did this at the library and it was great fun! We took a flower picture that was not colored in or we drew one, then we cut out little pieces of the tissue and wadded them up and pasted them on. I've included a picture of one we did for Christmas, it is still on our wall from years back. There are actually some beans on this decoration, but I probably won't do that on mine.
Blessings and have fun reusing things and recycling

By Robyn Fed from Hampton, TN

Feedback

Read feedback for this post below.

By
08/28/2010

Why are you buying paper, decorative bags [defeats your purpose]?
Just wrap the gifts in a large cloth napkin, towel etc. or better yet.
use the fabrics from old sheets, napkins etc. and sew either by hand or machine a simple envelope bag to put the gift into.
Use a tag made from an old gift card front etc, and tie it to the gift, with a thin strip of the fabric.
Use another thin strip of that fabric to tie the top of the gift up after you have pulled the edges up together.

What do you do with all those faded-out art projects made from tissue paper, flowers etc. They end up causing lots of added dust allergy problems.

Send your paper bits to the local nursery schools and public schools, to reduce the money your school boards have to spend on buying all this great stuff for art classes.
Your taxes pay for it as it is!

Related

Post Feedback

Your thoughts are welcomed and appreciated. Enter your feedback here!

Feedback:

Image Upload:

Add an image to your post! Click the "Browse" button above and select an image from your hard drive. Please only select gifs or jpegs. If you have any problems, please contact us.

  

facebook like arrowLike ThriftyFun on Facebook

Browse Topics

Over 80,000 tips, recipes, questions & crafts.

Ask a Question

Submit a question to the TF community.

Subscribe to ThriftyFun Newsletters!

Email: