Recycled DIY Christmas Crafts

You don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of money on buying Christmas decorations.

With a bit of effort and ingenuity, you can easily create different ornaments out of things you already have at your home and may be thinking of throwing away into the rubbish disposal bin. Here are a few DIY Christmas crafts you can try, and why not even get your kids to help you too for a nice day of family fun.

Old CD/DVD Christmas Tree Ornaments

Don’t throw away your old CDs and DVDs for waste disposal. With very little effort, you can turn these into stunning Christmas tree ornaments all your friends and family will enjoy. Use a sharp pair of scissors to cut the CDs/DVDs into different shapes – stars, bells, pine trees and why not even angels! Drill a hole at the top and tie a piece of ribbon or twine to the ornament for easy hanging. Just be careful while doing that as CDs can quite easily break into sharp shards and injure you. Don’t let young kids try that craft and be sure to supervise older ones.

Recycled Cardboard Wreath

This craft is entirely safe for your children too. You will need some scrap cardboard (you can even use empty toilet paper rolls), scissors, glue, ribbon and colorful pencils, permanent markers or watercolors. For the base of the wreath, color and glue together toilet paper rolls in a circle. Cut your cardboard into shapes like leaves, bells and any other symbol you associate with Christmas, decorate those shapes with pencils, markers or paint and glue them to the base of the wreath. Tie a ribbon on top and hang your wreath on your front door. There’s no need to dump old cardboard into the waste removal pile when you can recycle it into something useful and pretty instead.

Light Bulb Ornaments

We all love glass tree ornaments. But did you know you could make your own ornaments out of old light bulbs? This DIY Christmas craft requires a bit more care and precision and it’s not suitable for small kids, but it is not that hard either. Use a pair of pliers to separate the metal part and the wires from the glass part of the light bulb, while being careful not to break the glass. Once that is done, fill the light bulb with colorful paper shreds, glittery plastic balls or fake snow, glue a piece of cardboard or wood onto the opening and attach a string or wire to it for hanging. If you break a light bulb while trying to make this type of ornament, make sure you carefully collect all the glass pieces and throw them away into the designated glass waste recycling container.

Toilet Paper Roll Advent Calendar

Instead of buying an expensive advent calendar for your kids, you can make one with your own two hands. All you need is some cardboard toilet paper rolls, craft paper, paper coffee filters, colorful markers, glue and a selection of your kids’ favorite sweets and treats. Glue the rolls together to form a hive-like structure. You can arrange them in the shape of a house or a tree too. Paint the coffee filters in different colors and write a number on each one of them for each day of the calendar. Then, glue the filters to the toilet paper rolls in such a way that they cover one of their sides. Line the sides of the calendar with craft paper. Finally, fill each cardboard roll with sweets, treats and small toys and hang the advent calendar or place it against the wall. Your kids will certainly like both the design and the treats.

Quilled Paper Decorations

Quilling is a very interesting crafting technique that can be used to create beautiful paper decorations. You can use all kinds of scrap paper for the purpose, like old magazines, newspapers and even brochures and junk mail. Old paper should not be sent directly for waste disposal and recycling if you can find another use for it and creating quilled ornaments is definitely a project you should try. Quilling involves using strips of colorful paper and rolling, twisting and curling them to form various shapes. You can learn more about this technique online and use it to make some stunning-looking tree ornaments and Christmas decorations out of scrap paper.

DIY Can Lanterns

Christmas lights are one of the most fascinating parts of the holiday season. If you want to have unique lights and lanterns in your home, you can use the following easy DIY technique. Get a few old cans, wash them well and strip any paper labels off them. Paint the cans in different colors and let the paint dry. Use a sharp tool – an awl or hand drill would be best – to make two opposing holes near the rim of each can for hanging. Next, use the awl/hand drill to drill holes in the can in a pattern of your liking. Finally, put a tea candle inside the lantern and use a piece of wire or twine to hang it. Light the candles and enjoy the magical light patterns your can lanterns will produce.

These and many more ideas can be used to turn old scrap objects into gorgeous Christmas decorations. So don’t be too quick to dump old stuff into the junk disposal bin – with a bit of thought and creativity, you can turn junk into magical creations.

---

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

---