My Dad gets the biggest kick out of telling me I'm a cross between Al Gore and Monk. Gore because, and only because, I recycle. Fanatically. And compost. And am looking into solar panels for Freeman House. (And Monk because I greatly appreciate symmetry, books organized by size and color, and things just so. But that's beside the point.)So April is Earth Month, huh? Love that. So for today's project, a little April reusing for you. We'll handle reduce, recycle, and renovate another day....
I don't know about you, but I love magazines. I get too many, actually. I recycle them, of course, but magazines are getting better each month and... come on!... some of those pictures are gorgeous. So today I did this: I used pretty magazine pictures to make note card envelopes.
It's simple. Tear out pictures and cut the image you like into a 6 x 6 inch square. Turn it over, right face down, and spin the picture diagonally with a corner pointing toward you. Fold that corner up, like so:
Now crease and fold in the right corner and then the left. Secure with a glue stick, being careful not to glue the envelope shut.
And there you have it. Pretty little envelopes to tuck scrappy bits of paper in. Embellish them, if you wish, with buttons, ribbon, glitter, stickers... whatever. Even unadorned, I use these little envelopes to stash gift cards, little "just because" notes, and little tags that accompany my flower cans. And boy, flower can season is rushing on toward us!
So, sure, it's a simple project. You can make a dozen in twenty minutes, easy. But I love little projects like this. I like reusing ordinary things to make my day - and maybe someone else's - just a little bit brighter and lovelier.
Hope you enjoy! -B
10 comments:
Brin, this is such a great idea! Wow. Thanks, I know I'll use it lots.
Thanks! My magazine collection is threating to take over. Now I've got a way to make it useful!
thanks soooo much! I am going to do that for sure,can not wait to start.
New here....such an utterly precious idea. Thanks for sharing it.
Donna G.
What an absolutely wonderful idea!!! Thank you so much, why hadnt I thought of this? I have so many beautiful magazines that I just CANT throw out! Why not make something useful from them! How aboslutely clever you are! And I am just in love with your blog! I cant stop reading, lol!
Hugs,
Amy
I love this idea, and I too get alot of magazines, it's a addiction on mine, but now I have another way to reuse them, thanks Brin!
I love this project! Another thing I do with my old magazines and catalogues is to run them through the shredder and use them for packing purposes. When I first started my shop, I hated the idea of BUYING packing materials. This idea saves money and looks so bright and colorful! My favorites to use for packing are Pottery Barn & Anthropologie catalogues.
Smiles,
Amanda:)
My daughter-in-law sent me a care package with wonderful drawings and school papers from their sons. Her envelope was a page from the calendar we gave them a couple of years ago. Very colorful. She put a white mailing label for our address. Lovely to receive!
I used to do that when I was in high school. My girlfriends and I would leave little notes for each other inside of beautiful envelopes. I worked at a little hardware store back then and they gave me all the outdated wall paper books. We made some fabulous stuff out of those! I should get back into doing that....
Another way to use old magazine photographs or art is to cut them in a circle the size of your Mason jar lid, then place between the lid and the threaded ring and screw on to "show" what's inside (apples, pumpkin butter, etc.). Just one more way to make things pretty, which is the point!
Susan
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