Craft: Recycled Cardboard Decorations

Recycle your kitchen cardboard into fashion decorator alpha accents or decorative lidded origami boxes using pretty paper napkins to cover them! This is a simple and low cost to NO cost way to use kitchen cardboard as craft material.

Stencil the letter(s) you want (I used the letters in my name) on the backs of food products cardboard and cut out as many as you want to form a stack of them. Secure them with tape and cover them in pretty paper napkins using glue to adhere them. Cut portions of the same napkin out to use the designs as embellishments. As you can see my napkin had butterflies and flowers. I cut them out and added them. Using a piece of scrap cardboard glue the cutout onto one side and trim out the shape.I bent the wings of my butterfly up to give it a pose!

Use the lidded origami box fold how-to. The box I used was a pie box and the inside was white. I chose the white inside to be the outside of my origami box and cut out portions of pretty paper napkin to decorate it. I used the same method to create the butterfly on both ideas. There is a little paper napkin left.

But I used only one, it was lined. If yours is lined, you might want to peel off that second layer before you try to glue the paper to the alpha accent or the box. It will work much better with only one layer. Add any number of other embellishment: buttons or glitter or beads and what-not.

If nothing else, yours could be the cutest trash in the neighborhood! Maybe someone will want to take it home with them and put it to good use! ;)

Source: My own recycling efforts turned into craft projects!

By melody_yesterday from Otterville, MO