Recycle, eh

Here I thought I was a super duper recycling queen when it came to recycling plastic grocery bags. Let's see, I make bangles from plastic bags, wreaths, plarn (plastic yarn) line my bins with them, use them to protect my cashmere sweaters in the freezer (summers only), and clean them up to reuse over and over again. I've also highlighted Heal the Bay's short film The Majestic Plastic Bag that traces the life of the ubiquitous plastic bag.

The clever folks at Web Design Schools Guide site have me beat with their 50 ways to recycle bags.

Here's what happens if you leave cardboard food boxes in close proximity to Halloween magazines. They merge to become cheap and dreadfully clever loot bags. Give them away to all the creepy, crawly critters that visit you on the NIGHT! No magazines, what about wrapping paper, or even newspapers you can embellish with cutouts of bats, witches, and horrifying goblins and ghosties?

Black pipe cleaners would look better but I only had these gray ones leftover from last year's Halloween.

Kids love working with play dough and you can take advantage of this by having them create lovely smelling gift tags with this dough.

Once you've prepared the play dough (I added a tablespoon of cocoa and a teaspoon of cinnamon for brown colour and a nice scent to the recipe), just roll it out and hand the kids some cookie cutters Bake the cut-outs. For the 'icing', add white powder paint (or use rice flour) to craft glue, mix well, and pour this into baggies. Close the opening and cut off one corner of the baggie so the kids can squeeze out the decorative icing. Don't forget to put a hole at the top of the 'tags' before baking so you can insert a ribbon.

For the life of me I can never understand why you would go out and buy gift tags or bags when you probably have everything you need to make these in your own home.

This activity also keeps the kids busy while you're preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can even rope any adult visitors you've got  into helping out. Some of the best times I have ever had with family and friends is when we challenge each other to find a new way to recycle magazines and other scrap paper. I confess to being a magazine junkie and although I often give away my mags once I've done with them, there are some that I find hard to get rid.

That's how making cards and envelopes from magazines started for me. I went on to start using pages to wrap small gifts and from there my gift tags and bags came about. It's loads of fun, it's green, and it's frugal. So why not do it? Let me know how it worked for you.

And when you're done making your tags and bags, shred what's left of the magazine to use in your bags instead of tissue paper. You can also use the shredded paper to protect gifts inside boxes you are sending out by post. That way you won't need to use those pesky Styrofoam chips. And tell your recipients to compost the bag and shredded paper!

Oh, we're on a roll!!