It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a project from my Crafting From Your Stockpile Series. Quite frankly, with all I have gone through in the world of my personal health this past summer & fall, I haven’t been up for much crafting.  I’ll probably update on that more later.  Now I just want to keep this post focused on how to have fun making your own homemade paper!

All of the projects from the Crafting from Your Stockpile come from something that I’ve gotten dirt cheap or free from using coupons. Usually it is an item that I have aquired many of, more that my family can use. I therefore try and come up with other creative ways to use it (other than donating, which yes, I donate much of what I get for free that I will not use.)

One item that us couponers can always seem to get for free is toothpaste! Since I showed you how to make beads out of toothpaste putty, I figured I’d show you how to make paper out of the cardboard packaging material.

Supplies needed:

-Cardboard package from toothpaste (any packaging cardboard will work – I’m just using it from toothpaste because I got the toothpaste for free with coupons.)

-water

-blender

-towel

-felt

-rolling pin

-scissors

-picture frame (optional)

I tore up the cardboard into little squares and let it soak overnight in enough water to cover what I ripped up.  I don’t have an exact recipe for how much cardboard to use to get a specific size of a piece of paper.  I just experimented and you can do the same.

The next day, I dumped the wet cardboard with lots of water in the blender.  I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to blend – but it chopped up very easily.  I remember doing this in highschool art class, and the kids would beat up the blenders pretty badly.  But my blender made a nice pulp without much effort.

I poured the pulp onto a piece of felt that was on top of a towel.  The pulp easily peels off of the felt, so that is why it is used.  The towel is underneath it to soak up the water.  I put a second piece of felt on top of the purple piece.  Then I used a rolling pin to flatten out the pulp and get out as much water as you can.  I peeled it off of the felt and kind of slapped it up on my sliding glass door to dry.  The wet paper just sticks to the glass, and will give you a nice flat side from the glass when it dries.

It won’t make a perfectly flat or even piece of paper.  But I like that – it gives it character.  You can experiment with adding tissue paper, glitter, other fibrous material, etc. to embellish the look of it.  I just left mine plain.  I wanted to see just what the Crest logo would give me.

I left the paper on the glass door overnight and here is what it looked like when all done and dry.

I cut the paper to fit into this 4″x6″ frame.  I pressed some flowers earlier this season which I got from my yard.  I thought I could use the flowers, and turn this paper into a reminder of what this time of year is truly about.  Even an avid deal shopper like me realizes that late November shouldn’t be just about good deals for holiday shopping.  I want to take the time and truly reflect on all that I am thankful for.

It has been a very tough past 6 months for me.  Some of my regular readers may be aware.  But if you are new to this site, I’m amazed that I’ve kept posting and kept my blog alive.  I’m blessed with love from a beautiful family and irreplaceable and loyal friends.  I look around me, and even though I have been in an emotional pit, I will not, nor can I forget all that God has given me.  I’m hopeful that this bad season for me is just about over.  I am thankful indeed!

I linked up this post on The Sunday Showcase Party, Made By You Monday, Tip Me Tuesday, Tutorials & Tips Link Up, Get Your Craft On, and The Frugal Girls.

I know its been a little while, but I finally have another Crafting From Your Stockpile project ready to post! Some of you may recall the project I did making vases out of deodorant containers. Since I only used the bottom of the deodorant of the containers for that project, I had to come up with a creative use for the deodorant container caps.  They are the perfect shape for “petals” and I made a flower wall hanging out of them.

Materials I used:

-One round mirror (I had a bunch of these I used for my wedding center pieces back in the day)

-6 plastic caps from deodorant containers

-Some sort of stationary/scrapbook paper, wrapping paper, etc. that will be the color of the flower petals

-Soda bottle cap

-Hot Clue Gun

-Command Poster adhesive strips

I traced the deodorant caps on the stationary on the pattern I wanted. I simply just cut out the paper, and hot glued it onto the deodorant caps.  I did the same thing with the soda bottle cap – and used that as the center of the flower.

When all of the parts of the flower were made, I hot glued it all onto the mirror and made a flower out of it.  Warning: hot glue can be messy!  But here’s a great tip: I got some on the mirror where I didn’t want it.  I tried scraping it off with my figner nail and it just left a nasty smudge.  I then got some rubbing alcohol and a paper towel, and that took the smudge right off!!!

I hung it on the wall with a Command Poster Adhesive strip because there is no easy way to get a flat mirror to stick to the wall otherwise.  That and I don’t have to worry about another hole in my wall.

This now hangs in my dining room. I like my 3-D, cheap wall decor, that used deodorant that I got for free from couponing. When your deodorant gets used up, this is a great way to recycle the containers into something fun to put on your walls! I think I’d like it better if I had like 3 of these staggered on the wall with some different color. I need to start saving up my caps again so I can make some more.

Who else has a fun craft project involving an item you’ve gotten for free using coupons? I’d love to add some of your ideas here!  Send them my way for possible posting!

Check out other Crafting From Your Stockpile Ideas I’ve shared.  I still have more ideas up my sleeve…there will be more posts coming soon!

Here’s my latest Crafting From Your Stockpile project:  Making magnets out of plastic caps from soda bottles.

Lucky for me, my parents are addicted to diet coke, so they give me all of their plastic caps so that I can type in the reward codes over at mycokerewards.com. After I type in the code, I’m left with a bunch of useless plastic caps that to my knowledge cannot be recycled.  So I decided to come up with a useful idea, and add it to my Crafting From Your Stockpile series.  I know that I’m not getting a lot of Coke products via coupons, but us couponers also like reward codes.  So I thought the matierals involved still applied to being crafty what what we have extra laying around the house because of my frugality.  :)

Materials for this one are simple:

-plastic cap from a soda bottle

-magnet

-I chose to decorate the magnet with a pressed flower.  I had a zillion violets in my yard early spring, so I picked a bunch and pressed them.

-wrapping paper, or some sort of paper/material that will be the background of the magnet design.

First I stuffed each plastic cap with some newspaper. That was to fill it in, so that when I glue the magnet on it, it had mass to be stuck to.

Then I chose some wrapping paper and cut out a square, sized to wrap the cap.

The next step is to use a glue stick to adhere the flower to the plastic cap. The size of the violet fit perfectly!

I sealed it all off with some ModPodge. If you’ve never used this stuff before its great! I just used a foam brush and put it on. It looks cloudy and glue like on top of the flower. But it dries perfectly clear, and it will protect the flower from any damage and ensure it won’t fall off.

This magnet goes well with my recent addition to my refrigerator.  This is my favorite photo that Christa from Adore Photography recently took for me.  (local readers:  don’t forget that the $100 session fee is waived for Happy Deal – Happy Day! readers until June 30th!)

Who else has a fun craft project involving an item you’ve gotten dirt cheap or for free using coupons? Or if you make your own plastic cap magnets,  I’d love to see them!  Send them my way for possible posting!