A Winter Scene: Sutton Hoo, nr Woodbridge in SuffolkHo, ho, ho! Well Christmas is now done and dusted, Twelfth Night has come and gone and Britain is now covered in a blanket of snow. It's a good job we've had to take down the decorations. At least it's been one way of keeping warm during this wintry spell.
But forget about the weather. Today I am asking how did you get on with your rubbish...or perhaps I should say....your festive resources over what is the most wasteful time of the year?
Did you recycle them, or bung them in the bin? Of course, I know you wouldn't have done the latter. Maybe you've kept a few things for re-use? After all, there are lots of free things that enter your home during Christmas, including ribbons, cards, paper and boxes and so much can be done with them before you even think about recycling.
This carnival celebrates a range of fabulous posts from some lovely bloggers, showing what they've been all getting up to, with ideas ten-a-penny. And the photo you see below is my own contribution. It's a fishtank that I made with my creative 5-year-old on Boxing Day, from an empty Christmas Cracker box, featuring bits of fir tree, sweetie wrappers, old fabrics and some crepe paper he'd got as a present.
But that's enough from me. Here's over to some of the gorgeous bloggers who have been busy with their imagination over the festive period:
The fabulous Mrs Green over at MyZeroWaste has a whole host of tips on how to recycle your festive bits & bobs. Visit How to recycle your Christmas for lots of inspiration.
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And if you have other thoughts in mind, here are some more excellent ideas from MyZeroWaste, about reusing for greeting cards, even for things as simple as notecards.
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Nixdmix never fails to make me giggle, especially this time with her post Wrapping paper: reindeers can't cross their legs. It really is a lovely story.
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I love this idea from Cathy at NurtureStore who reveals how she's used Christmas cards to make a Jigsaw and Memory Game. What a great idea to keep kids entertained when out and about in restaurants or around at friends. Free and simple!
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And last but not least, here's another creative idea for reusing cards from Jude at Artful Adventures. I'm sure you'll be impressed with how she makes some gorgeous cards from old greetings cards. Check out her ideas in her post Creative ways to recycle Christmas cards.***
I'll most definitely be keeping my favourite cards for re-use next year. As well as making new cards and games, it will save me from the drastic action I took this Christmas, which was to cut up some 2009 cards for reusing as some emergency tags. Cheeky I know, but eh ho!
So thanks to everyone who contributed to this Carnival. I apologise for it being late. With schools closed due to the snow, the children kept me too busy to blog. However, I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year, and if anyone is interested in some other practical tips, check out this post which I published last week: Packing your Christmas Away with the R-Word.
For the reasons stated above I have postponed my decluttering posts until next week, but do come back on Monday when I will be kicking off Week 1 of the 2010 Rubbish Diet Challenge.
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10 comments:
The fishtank looks great and the tips on recycling xmas cards are fantastic. I have kept mine for future craft projects and now I have plenty of ideas to put them to good use. Thanks
That fishtank looks brilliant and very creative. I know what you mean about the freebies that come into the house, we have collected loads of gift bags and I will make gift tags with some of the cards we got.
CJ xx
Thanks for posting all those links - lots of inspiration for me there!
I think the fishtank is excellent and very creative too!
Happy 2010!
p.s. I nominated you for a happy award...because your blog makes me :)
I'm just blown away by how many of us have come up with the Christmas cards reuse idea LOL! Great little carnival, thanks Mrs A - some smashing ideas and I LOVE your fish tank; very creative x
What a cute fish tank n_n
I'm glad that I stumbled upon this blog so early into 2010 - it now adds another idea to my resolutions list and I'll be checking back more often!
Love the fish tank - bet it was fun to make too. I've been using tags from old Christmas cards for years - they are a much better size for writing a message and so much prettier than some that can cost a fortune. Thanks for the tip about the other sites too Karen - have already been a-visiting. A x
Re-using Christmas cards is very popular! Off to check out some of the other ideas now. Love the fishtank!
I would be hypocrite if I say that I recycled and reused everything that was left during the holidays. I have a lot of christmas wrapper that can no longer be reused. But I can really say that I really did my best to save and recycle/reuse as many as I can. During christmas, I also wrapped my gifts with old magazines and wrappers that can be reused all year round.
What you're doing is really amazing. I plan on recycling some of my clothes. I stumbled on some fascinating recon projects online during the holidays and I've been hooked since. Recycling clothing is fun, it's amazing the "creations" you can come up with.
Hi Maria - thank you for your kind comments. It's most definitely got me motivated. Hope things are going well over at Fab Mums. :-)
Thanks Crystal Jigsaw - we did have a lot of fun making it. It really is incredible how much free stuff you gather over Christmas isn't it....LOL, some of the packaging is more useful than the presents :-)
Hi Sooz - lovely to see you too and thanks for the award. I'll blog about that soon, but it did bring a cheery smile to my face. Hope you're well :-)
Hi Mrs G - It was interesting to see the focus on card wasn't it. I suppose the are one of the easiest and most versatile things to work with and many of the designs are gorgeous too. Thanks for joining in the carnival, much appreciated :-)
Hi Kriston - thanks for dropping and for your lovely comment. Great to meet you. I hope I can help with some of your new year's resolution and I make sure I pop over to see you too :-)
Hi Anne - indeed it was fun to make...well until little T go bored and it was up to me to finish it....okay...I confess I enjoyed that too. It was very relaxing. :-)
Hi Jude - LOL, yes card are most defnitely all the rage. Love your designs though so thank you for joining in. :-)
Hi John - well it sounds like you're doing really well in your neck of the woods. And I love the idea about wrapping up gifts in magazine pages. My friend gave me something for a birthday once, which was wrapped up in a newspaper article that was relevant to my interests...a picture of Colin Firth :-) Just shows how much imagination is out there :-)
Hi VioletRayne - welcome to the blog. It's lovely to see you and thank you too for your kind comments. I love the creativity that comes from recycling clothes, especially as I have a fondness for unique things. I just wish I had the talent to go with it and can only admire those who do :-)
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