Upcycled Holiday Fun Ideas

Don't throw out those wrapping paper, paper towel or cardboard mailing tubes just yet!  You can easily upcycle them for fun holiday decorating and gift items in no time at all. Here's just a few project ideas of how I used them to brighten up the holidays. 

Make some holiday visitors and hide them anywhere!  Use large mailing tubes if you want your character short and stout or gift wrap tubes for long and lanky house guests.  Whether it's boots, socks or fuzzy slippers, I'm sure you'll find the perfect footwear in your closet or sock drawer to make your visitor whimsically  festive.  Tubes can be painted white or cover them with white paper.  Spray the paper with adhesive, lay it flat o a table and then roll the tube and press the paper in place.  To make candy stripes, I wrap it with red masking tape spiraling downward and pressing it in place. This idea is also great for making glittery tinsel fairy legs or black and orange striped witch legs for Halloween decorating.

Wrap tubes with glittery gift wrap to make napkin rings, holders and treats for holiday table novelties.  For the sample photo, I cut 2 colors of gift wrap to cover each half of the cardboard tube.  I first sprayed adhesive onto the tube and then applied the paper.  Tubes can then be measured off to various lengths and cut with a craft knife or scissors.  To make the mailbox, a heavy cardboard mailer tube works best.  Cut a mailer tube painted white in half and then wrap it with red masking tape to create the candy stripes to make a tabletop decoration like the one pictured.  The paper mache mailbox found at most local craft stores was painted green and a gift packaging foliage embellishment was then attached.  Use hot melt glue to securely attach the painted mailbox to the candy striped post.

Cardboard mailer tubes and Pringles cans make terrific candle stands and posts for quick and easy decorating.  Most mailers come with plastic end caps that work perfectly as candle, snow globe and figurine stands.  Mason jar lids also work to neatly cover the raw edges of cut cardboard.  

Mailing tubes can be cut short to be used as candy cane holders.  I used only the screw caps without the sealing lid for the pictured holders so I could hang candy canes around the rim and add silk flower stems inside the tube. 

It's super fun and surprisingly easy to make candy striped doorway and window headers from cardboard gift wrap tubes.  The pictured doorway header was made with 2 tubes that were painted white and spiral wrapped with red masking tape.  I used packing tape to hole the tubes together, hung it in place above the doorway and then attached a red velvet bow. It looks so very festive that I've decided my next project will be to "candy stripe" my floor stand post sitting over there in the corner of the room.  My guess is that I can just cut a line down the length of a finished striped tube and then slip it over the lamp stand.  I'm sure it will work because around here...Annie Thing IS Possible!   Enjoy...