Gift and Packaging Ideas From Scrap

Scrap fabric, random plastic bits—does everyone hoard this stuff? Suddenly everything’s “potentially useful,” and now my desk’s a volcano of half-built gift boxes, diaper boxes, and magazine clippings that are basically dust. Sometimes these scraps beg to become gifts or get wrapped around something else. I mean, why not?

Crafting Gift Boxes

Any thin cardboard box—cereal, whatever—can become a gift box if you slap on some fabric scraps. I staple the edges, glue over rips, and try to ignore my cat’s judgment.

If you measure, cool, but I usually just wing it and call the weird corners “character.” Last time I used strips from old T-shirts to cover up mistakes. Tossed on some buttons from a mystery jar, and it looked almost planned.

Stuff I used last time (found under the couch, honestly):

Glue on the floor is inevitable. Maybe that’s just part of it.

Personalized Diaper Boxes

Nobody talks about empty diaper boxes, but I can’t throw them out. They’re sturdy, ugly, but honestly, they hold up better than my last sandwich. I chop them up for storage, wrap in fabric with duct tape, and now they feel less trashy, maybe even “personal.”

Last week, my kid scribbled all over one while I looked for scissors. Permanent marker—oops, but now it’s “art.” I taped a pocket on the side for notes.

Ideas get weirder—sometimes I cut a window from a milk jug. Anyone else make mail slots on diaper boxes? Or did I dream that? Anyway:

• Use hot glue, or staples. Or both.
• Old T-shirts wrap smoothest.
• Let it dry, unless you want sticky prints on everything.

Snow Globes for Special Moments

Honestly, you don’t need a kit for those snow globes. Just grab a jar (half-clean is fine), dig up some random plastic thing—sheep from a nativity set works, Barbie’s missing leg, nope, not so much. I used plain tap water because, come on, who’s buying distilled for this?

Glitter? Yeah, just accept it’s never coming out of the grout. I tried hot-gluing felt scraps to the base, mostly because the glue gun freaked me out with all the smoke, but now it doesn’t scratch the table. Probably.

Scrap checklist for this, uh, experience:

• Plastic toys or whatever cake topper you find in the junk drawer
• Fabric bits (snowbank, or tissue if you’re desperate)
• Jars, mismatched lids, whatever fits
• Glycerin if you’re fancy, or just dump in more glitter

The last one I made leaked everywhere. Everyone acted like it was intentional—“extra magical!”—so I just nodded. If you stick a snow globe on a diaper box and call it “mixed-medium packaging,” people either clap or look worried. Both are fine.

Innovative Crafts for Kids

If you ever hoarded empty boxes under the sink or left an egg carton on the counter for months, you know kids will craft anything into something. Half the time it’s impressive, half the time it’s just… odd. My dog wore a paper mache hat for a week, not that he agreed.

Easy Toilet Paper Roll Projects

Toilet paper rolls just pile up. I never throw them out, not sure why. Two together? Binoculars, apparently. You need yarn, tape, a marker (if it hasn’t dried up), and then someone yells because the “lens” falls out and rolls under the fridge.

My niece made a parade of animals once. Elephant (gray paint on everything), snake (just green scribbles and eyeballs, which I keep finding in my sleeves), and a “dog” that looked like a mutant mouse. I glued on felt ears, didn’t fix it. Vehicles? Paper straws stuck through the roll, bottle caps on the ends—bam, racecar. It crashed a lot. I even made a chart comparing glue stick vs. liquid glue vs. tape. Tape wins, no contest, because patience isn’t real.

Paint stains on the table? Still there. Whatever.

Egg Carton Creations

Egg cartons, I swear, multiply in the dark. I cut up a twelve-egg tray, chased the cat off the pieces, and ended up with weird flowers and bugs. Scissors, paint, pipe cleaners—those work for bug legs, unless you want your bug to just flop over.

Tried making a caterpillar once. Strung rubber bands between the cups, but stretched too far and it exploded, one chunk landed in the dog’s water. Fish? Classic. Blue cup, stick-on eyes, fins from a cereal box. My fingers got sticky, everything took forever to dry, and I always forget to cover the table. Now I’ve got permanent glitter spots in the wood. Oops.

Quick List:

• Flowers (paint, pipe cleaners, egg cups)
• Bugs (corks, yarn, googly eyes everywhere)
• Fish (scissors, paint, patience I don’t have)

Yesterday, the neighbor kid taped the whole carton to his skateboard and called it a “bump-guard.” Craft? I mean, sure.

Fun With Paper Mache

Paper mache is just, wow, a mess. I mix flour and water without thinking. Last time I ripped up newspaper, dumped too much paste in, and then the cat stepped in it while I checked my phone. Not my best.

We covered a balloon in strips. Takes forever to dry, so I hit it with a hair dryer—smelled like burnt flour and newsprint. One “mask” didn’t fit anyone, eyeholes all wrong. Another was supposed to be a dinosaur egg, but someone drew a face on it and now it’s just that.

Every chair stuck to the floor for a week. My hands smelled like glue. Sometimes the thing looks like a sculpture, sometimes not. I found dried mache in my shoes two weeks later. Don’t do this barefoot, probably.