Re-Gift Tags -- Giving Holiday Cards a New Purpose

Happy new year to you! I don't do resolutions, but have pledged to continue to post SB Gift Girl ideas and tips regularly throughout the new year, so please check in often (and tell your friends!).

A fresh new year means out with the old and in with the new. At the moment, our recycling bins runneth over...but before you pitch the lovely holiday cards your friends and associates spent 44 cents a pop to mail to you, think ahead to Hanukkah or Christmas 2010 -- those colorful cards can easily be repurposed for use as gift tags for next year's holiday gifts.

 

Making gift tags is easy -- use scissors (cut out a shape traced using a small glass as a template) or pony up for a special die cut punch at a crafts shop (about $15 at Michael's Arts & Crafts). Cut a small hole and add ribbon or twine as a tie. Ta dah!

Re-gift tags make a nice giftlet for friends in the first few weeks of December, or can be used yourself to label holiday gifts for friends and family. Christmas or Hanukkah might seem a like long way away now, but they are on the calendar for 2010 (I checked), so it can't hurt to do a little pre-planning. If you do it now, you'll be thanking yourself (and me) come next December.
 

If you're not motivated to create gift tags but want to repurpose your 2009 holiday cards, SB Gift Girl will gladly and gratefully recycle them on your behalf. Please send your old cards to SB Gift Girl (e-mail SBGiftGirl@gmail.com and I will send you my address).

Here's to a perfect 2010!

 

Kids are Gift-Givers Too

Children need to learn about the art of graciously giving and receiving gifts while they are still young enough to pay attention to their parents. This phase does not last long, so it's important for us to act quickly.

Young children and teenagers alike can take part in creating meaningful, affordable gifts to give to family and close friends this holiday season. Children generally do not have a lot of cash, so homemade gifts are most appropriate (and, of course, most appreciated). It's so fun to see kids get excited about giving a gift they have created...

Here are some easy (and fun) ideas for gifts kids can create and give:

• Christmas tree ornaments
  - Craft stores sell inexpensive clear glass ornaments, which can be painted with glass paint or filled with  beads, tinsel, feathers, glitter or other holiday goodies
  - Regular matte glass ornaments can be decorated with metallic Sharpie pens or glue and glitter
  - The old flour-and-salt dough recipe is an easy (and inexpensive) classic for creating cute ornaments
  
  
• Bookmarks
  - Cut a 2 x 8-inch slice of kid's art, a cute photo, computer art or a plain piece of paper inscribed (by your young one) with the recipient's name and stamped or doodled decorations... laminate at Kinko's (FedEx Office, whatever), punch a hole and add a tassel or ribbon. Ta-dah!
  
  
• Refrigerator magnets
  - Fimo clay (sold at craft stores and art stores) is like perma-Play-Doh... comes in brilliant colors, and can be baked to permanent hardness. Kids can create little sculptures, bake them, and glue them to magnets for lovely refrigerator decor to be coveted by grandmas everywhere.
  
  
• School art
  - Art projects from school that are destined for the back of your closet might just merit a place of honor in someone else's home.
  
  
• Gift certificates - the gift of time: Older kids (and adults, for that matter) can create certificates for time and services -- always appreciated!
  - Wash the dog, the car or the dishes
  - Babysitting or dog-walking
  - Yard work, house work, laundry or help with errands
  - Breakfast in bed
  - What else? Drop hints!