Countdown to Christmas Giveaway Extravaganza!

Upcyclers wants everyone to have a fantastic holiday season~ and we wish we could give all of our followers and fans upcycled gifts this year! Unfortunately, we'll have to rely on Santa for that!
But, what we can do is offer several giveaways this week during our Countdown to Christmas Giveaway Extravaganza! Each sponsor will be featured throughout this coming week before Christmas with a fantastic gift for each lucky winner~ And today will be the first!

The rush is on to wrap all those wonderful gifts before Christmas! The Wooden Bee offered some fantastic green solutions that might help: Upcycled Gift Bows & Tags & Upcycled Gift Wrap Ideas!  Our first sponsor also has the perfect solution~ Jacqueline from Paper Jam on Etsy is giving away a set of 8 Teabag fold Gift Tags or Ornaments!

Jacqueline has loved crafting since she was a child and some of her fondest memories are of spending snow days with her mother and little brother crafting. An avid recycler, she started searching for a way to step UP her efforts, which lead to her becoming an UPcycler! She created these intricate origami creations from JUNK MAIL~ What a fantastic use for something so useless! Wouldn't we all like to get rid of our junk mail!

Now she has expanded her materials to include old magazines, books and gift wrap as well, creating paper hearts and roses and even Kusudama flowers!

If you'd like a chance to win her set of 8 Upcycled Teabag Folded Origami Gift Tags now is your opportunity to enter!

First, be sure you are a follower of this blog, Love 2 Upcycle~ not a follower? Just look to the left and click. Voila! You are a follower. But you haven't entered yet.

Now, you can choose 4 of the following ways to enter, up to 4 times!

1. Check out Paper Jam on Etsy favorite her shop and add them to your circle.

2. Tell us here in a comment about your Favorite item in her shop!

3. Become a fan of Paper Jam on Facebook!

4. Tweet or share this Giveaway!
5. Pin one your favorite items from Paper Jam to Pinterest!

Remember, only 4 entries count, and each one must be left in a separate comment! If you don't have an email listed on your bio, leave it here in one of your comments. Deadline to enter is Midnight, December 20th!

Winner will be randomly drawn using Random.org's generator.
Good Luck and Merry Christmas!

Would you like to Sponsor a Giveaway on Love 2 Upcycle? You don't have to be a member of Upcyclers to be a sponsor, all Etsy sellers of upcycled or eco-friendly products are welcome! But of course, we'd love for you to join the team!

Upcycled Gift Bows & Tags

At the beginning of the month I wrote about Upcycled Gift Wrap Ideas.  This week, I'm going to share some of the trimmings & bows that can accompany your upcycled gift wrap.
During the holidays our sustainable shop offers free gift wrapping, and of course it has to be eco-friendly.  So this year, on my quest to find eco-friendly gift wrap options for a cheap as possible, I complied some great gift ideas to share!

A Classy Tutorial for Burlap Ribbons found on For the Love.

Have extra magazines laying around? Make some magazine bows with this tutorial.

Ruffled Newspaper Ribbon by The Shabby Creek Shop on Etsy

When deciding our shop's gift wrapping, I decided to use this upcycled flat bow for shipping purposes. You can see how I made them here.

You can always skip the bows and decorate the paper yourself, like this hand drawn gift wrap found on Craftzine.com.

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Can't forget the gift tags! They are definitely needed to help us remember whose gift is whose, but they can also be beautiful additions to your gift wrap.

Here are some great ideas from our every own Upcyclers shops on Etsy!

Upcycled Christmas Gift Card Holder Set by ecochiqueboutique

Hanukkah Gift Tags by ariandmayadesigns

Christmas Snowman Red Bandana Fabric Gift Tags by ITSYOURCOUNTRY

Recycled Giftcards created into Upcycled Gift Tags by Almond Works.

 

Making gift tags out of old Christmas cards seem to be the most popular method of creating upcycled holiday gift tags. I used the idea (and my craft punch) to make my own this year.

You can find different shaped recycled Christmas card gift tags all over Etsy, Pinterest and Google. Here are two tutorials on making them:

Punch Out Gift Tags from Greeting Cards, by Crafting a Greener World

Recycled Gift Tags - this post uses post consumer waste like cereal boxes

Here's a few more eco-friendly gift tags finds on Etsy...

Handmade Recycled Paper Gift Tags by Perks by Melissa.

Distressed Chalkboard Gift Tag

 by Avery Range Designs

Let us know what you are upcycling into gift wrapping this year! And remember to save this year's holiday greeting cards for next season's crafts!

Happy Holidays!

Thanks, Bee

inspired to recycle wood

www.thewoodenbee.com

Upcycled Gift Wrap Ideas

The upcoming holiday frenzy will be here soon. What are you or your shop doing to get ready? Here at the Wooden Bee, we offer free gift wrap for the holiday season, and I'm in the process of getting my wrapping materials ready.  Of course our sustainable shop only offers upcycled, recycled free gift wrapping!  Last year we had brown recycled craft paper hand stamped with red and green bumble bees and upcycled ribbon bows. :)
While doing some research for this year's eco-friendly gift wrap, I found some great ideas, and wanted to share them with my Upcycling friends!  Most of my ideas can also be found on my Pinterest account, where I found some of them. I also tried to link the images to their clever tutorials when they were available.

Recycled craft paper, brown recycled shipping paper, brown paper grocery bags, and newspaper seem to be popular staples in eco-friendly gift wrap ideas.  Here are several ways to decorate the eco-friendly papers:

 

I found the above idea on Pinterest and then realized it was from one of our Upcyclers shops! We're everywhere. Yay!

Here are some other clever ways of wrapping your gifts, from wrapping a gift with a gift, to using maps, music sheets and discarded vintage materials.

 

And one more... whatever ecofriendly gift wrapping you use, save your strap pieces and run them through a shredder. They will make lovely stuffing for your gifts, can be used in the place of tissue paper, or used as shipping materials for your packages and orders.

Happy Upcycling...Christmas is only 50 days from now! ;)

~Bee

www.thewoodebee.com

inspired to recycle wood