Reusing Christmas Paper

So, many years ago, like when I only had one, single, child, I apparently had enough time to have made stencils and cut out, by hand, all sorts of letters to label Christmas presents.  I'm sure they were amazing and beautiful, and these are the leftovers:

I still have the stencils, complete with 'x's on the side to face toward the paper and smiley faces on the side that face the tracer.  They are seriously so pretty, and I have no idea how I found the time when I was working full time, but maybe only having one child had something to do with it. lol.

Anyhow, back to the future.

So, I found these lovely letters, and thought, "oh, wouldn't it be cute to pick that back up?"  But then, I thought, "well, you are working toward having exclusively reusable bags eventually, so should you really put the time into it?" and then, I thought well "you are almost out of hanging tags, maybe you could make some of those?" but then crazy me joined the conversation and said "what if you made stiffer versions and then you could reuse those too!!!!" and everyone cheered and so began my project.

Just one more quick detour, because you have to know how much used wrapping paper we have on hand:

My dear children have become pros at not ripping their wrapping paper on Christmas morning, so each year we are able to wrap more and more gifts with "used" wrapping paper (this year we didn't even use all the used paper we had, and the only roll paper we used was for the advent calendar project.)  To be perfectly honest, the used paper is sooooooo much easier to use because you can just pick a piece that's close to the size you need and not fight the curling. 

However, there is always some trimming that needs to happen, and so we end up with pieces too small even to wrap a gift card.  Those pieces I attempted to use up with this project. = )

I started by digging out any box board that I had in the recycling.  I cut off any small edges.

Next, I matched up paper, and glued it on with plain old school glue.  The paper covers the printed side of the packaging, so the back side is plain.

I trimmed the edges and then laid them all out to dry, while I worked on some chores.

After a few hours, the first pieces were dry, and I secured them to my cutter mat.

I wish that I could report that the project came out exactly as planned and that it was easy as can be from that point on, but I simply cannot with all honesty.

Even after a blade change and font change, every single piece was a fight.  I used an exacto to cut through many of the names, and in some cases had to scrap the entire piece.  Those that did come out close were so satisfying though!  

I'm so excited that I will be able to use these on both wrapped and reusable bag wrapped gifts next year (and hopefully in years future!!!) 

Sometimes there was enough room to cut out an extra tag or two by hand.

The fight in the project made me appreciate the ease with which I was able to cut vinyl for William and Emily the next day. = )

I don't know how well these will keep for reuse each year, but hopefully I will remember them fondly and use my leftover paper wisely each year in the future!!

later days