Wrapping Paper Christmas Tree Tutorial (12 Days of Green Christmas Crafts)

Do you ever cringe at all of the wrapping paper you throw out on Christmas? One way to be a little greener next time you wrap a gift is to use your child's artwork, paper grocery bags, or dish towels and yarn to wrap presents.

But since we all pull out the gift wrap sometimes, how can we reuse it to make something cute? Go pull some out of your recycling bin and make this adorable wrapping paper Christmas tree to use as a decoration next year.

Gift bags, tissue paper, and wrapping paper from the presents we opened

Cut a block of styrofoam from one of the gifts you received (You can also stack up cardboard and tie it together).

Stick a bamboo skewer (the kind you use to make shish kabob) into the foam block.

Start cutting squares of gift wrap and thread it onto the skewer. Begin with small squares, and push them all the way to the end. You can put a few of the same size squares together, but slowly graduate them by cutting larger and larger squares and threading them on.

Alternating between using tissue paper and gift wrap makes your tree fluffier. Once you have filled up about 2/3 of the length of the bamboo skewer, stick it into the foam block. Wrap some tissue paper around the block and secure it with ribbon. (I used the handle of one of the gift bags). Crumple some more tissue paper and add it to the top of the tree. Voila! This is a fun one for the kids, too!

Do you recycle your wrapping paper? Do you put them in the recycling bin or use them to create a fun craft? Share what you do in the comments below!

Check out some of the other 12 Days of Green Christmas Crafts:

December 14:  Felt Owl Ornaments	December 15: Burlap Ruffled Tree Skirt	December 16: Easy Advent Calendars
December 17: Quick Gift Tags from Kids' Artwork	December 18: Homemade Holiday Banner	December 19: Torn Paper Snowman
December 20: Book Paper Christmas Tree	December 21: Tin Can Luminaries	December 24: A Sleigh and 8 Tiny Reindeer

You can also find more cute crafts at:

Homemade Holiday Banner (12 Days of Green Christmas Crafts)

Next up on the crafty list is a holiday banner. Do you have one yet? This one was quick (and free) to make, and you can even get the kids involved. You can use any materials, but I chose to use burlap and a red wool blazer that I threw in the washing machine to felt up. Use whatever fabric you have lying around the house. Use funky patterns or mis-matched colors. This would be a great, green way to repurpose some ugly holiday sweaters.

You'll basically need fabric for the circles, fabric for the banner strip, yarn, paint, and potatoes. Yup, I said potatoes.

I cut the blazer into smallish circles (I traced around some ramekins from my kitchen to make a perfect circle, but I did it in 2 different days and used 2 different sizes by mistake. I preferred the way it turned out though, with the different-sized circles).

I also used 2 different blazers, and one was thicker than the other. For the circles made from the thinner fabric, I sewed them together with yarn and a big needle. Then I laid out the circles in the order I wanted them.

Now it was time to carve my potatoes into letters. (I did potato stamping to make the letters on my banner). To carve a potato, just cut it in half. You can draw on it with a pencil (it won't make marks, but it will leave indentations). Or you can just freehand it. I just freehanded it. If you have to cut out rectangular shapes, it helps to do it in pieces. Cut a triangle into the corners to get a clean cut.

You don't have to use a ton of potatoes to do this. I used two potatoes (four halves) to spell out "Happy Holidays." If you're cutting an "H," first cut it into an "A" shape and stamp it where you need to. Then, cut out the top of the A to make an "H". This can then become a "P" (if you add the little top part back in). Then, you can cut out all but the side of the "H" to make an "I."

An Important Potato Stamping Tip: If your letters are not symmetrical, you need to carve them backwards so they stamp in the right direction. (See my letter "P" below).

To do the stamping, apply paint to your potato stamper with a paintbrush, then stamp it onto your circles. A nice, heavy layer of paint works great on felt. I used washable tempera paint, but it came out faint. Acrylic would work better.

Now it's time to make the banner. Cut a length of fabric long enough for your letters to fit. (I had to sew two strips of burlap together.)

If you're using a fabric like burlap, you can intentionally fray the edges to give it a rustic look.

Now you're going to attach the circles to the background. Sew a length of yarn through the top of the circle, attach it to the background strip (it helps to have a big needle to do this), and tie the yarn off.

I had my circles dangle at different levels. That's it! I hammered it right into the wall with some nails. The banner says it all!

Check out some of the other 12 Days of Green Christmas Crafts:

December 14:  Felt Owl Ornaments	December 15: Burlap Ruffled Tree Skirt	December 16: Easy Advent Calendars
December 17: Quick Gift Tags from Kids' Artwork

Quick Gift Tags from Kids' Artwork (12 Days of Green Christmas Crafts)

Yesterday, as I was getting ready for the Christmas party at Baby T's daycare, I realized I needed a gift card idea. Fast. (I'm a procrastinator). Baby T had just woken up from his nap and he was in the car waiting for me. That's how fast I was able to do this. I decided to make some personalized gift tags from some of Baby T's artwork.

All you need is your child's artwork, masking tape, and a hole punch.

Here's the piece of artwork I used:

I drew a gift tag shape on the artwork and cut it out. (I just freehanded it. Nothing fancy here).

Then I used that tag as a template to draw and cut out the rest of the gift tags.

I cut masking tape into small rectangles and wrapped it around just the top of the gift tag (where the hole will be punched.) If it extends over the edges of the gift tag shape, just trim it. Then, punch holes where the masking tape is. I have a cute heart hole puncher that I use for everything. I think it gives my crafts added flair. I'm a goof like that.

Then you can tie string, yarn, twine, hemp, or whatever else you have onto the tags and tie it around or tape it onto your gifts. It's a quick, eco-friendly way to reuse your kids' artwork and personalize your Christmas gifts.

Check out some of the other 12 Days of Green Christmas Crafts:

December 14:  Felt Owl Ornaments

December 15: Burlap Ruffled Tree Skirt

December 16: Easy Advent Calendars

Easy Advent Calendars (12 Days of Green Christmas Crafts)

Liz and I were inspired by this advent calendar from Crafty Nest, so we decided to do some crafting ourselves. We wanted to make a 12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar. I had to stop by Green Baby on Thursday to drop off my diapers, so I brought some crafting supplies with me: Fleece, cardboard, yarn, old Christmas cards and gift bags, and contact paper. Somehow, we were able to do some crafting while our kids played happily. It was a Christmas miracle.

We got started by cutting some cardboard (from the recycling bin.)

Why does Gaby always use beer boxes for her projects?

We cut out some fleece big enough to wrap around the cardboard and traced the cardboard shape on the fleece so we would know where to place our images.

The baby on the back is optional.

We quickly realized we were running out of time and we would have to finish at home. We thought it would be interesting if we both took the same idea and made it our own. So we went home and finished our advent calendars. Here's what we did:

Advent Calendar 1:   Cut out squares from old Christmas cards, magazines, and gift bags. Enclose them in contact paper and trim. Punch holes in each for lacing yarn through.	Advent Calendar 2:   Lay out squares on felt to make sure they will fit.
Advent Calendar 1:  Lace yarn through the holes you punched in the images.	Advent Calendar 2:  Lay out images and adhere to cardboard with a sheet of contact paper.
Advent Calendar 1:  Color in lines on index cards (I laid one of Baby T's markers on the fat side and just drew a rough line) and cut out in candy-cane shapes (I freehanded one, cut it out, and traced around it for the rest.)	Advent Calendar 2:  Cut out windows where images are laid out.
Advent Calendar 1:  Cut out squares from a brown paper bag to cover your images.	Advent Calendar 2:  Use hot glue to adhere the fleece to the backer. Make sure to add glue around the edges of the windows. Wrap fleece around the cardboard and use hot glue to adhere to the back.
Advent Calendar 1:  Glue the candy canes onto the brown paper with a glue stick, leaving the tops free to hook onto the images. Write numbers on brown paper with marker. As your child lifts off each candy cane, you can tuck it behind the image.	Advent Calendar 2:  Add embellishments and numbers with felt to your windows.Give to your child and watch his amazement. Thomas said, "Wow!" When he saw this.

The hard part now is getting the kids not to peek under each candy cane or flap. This is the great part about these two advent calendars, though: They are great for different ages. The beauty of Liz's advent calendar is that Thomas can enjoy it now; I keep hovering over Baby T and reminding him not to take off #4 until tomorrow. But as Baby T gets older, I can use real candy canes with numbers glued to them, or I can tuck a little prize behind each window.

You can still make this! There are nine days left until Christmas. (Eek!)

Check out some of the other 12 Days of Green Christmas Crafts:

December 14:  Felt Owl Ornaments

December 15: Burlap Tree Skirt