8 Creative Recycled Paper Crafts: Get Crafty with Your Recycling

Clever ideas for paper crafts.

Be both crafty and practical with these recycled paper crafts.

Recycling is great and all, but creative reusing or re-purposing via paper crafts is even better.

Most cities and states now offer some sort of recycling programs, whether single-stream or bin sorted, but there’s still plenty of waste that happens, particularly with paper. The paper recycling process also has it’s downfalls too, like the chemicals needed to remove inks from paper and water and energy used during processing and transportation are all not that great for the planet. Reducing paper use or repurposing paper may be preferred over recycling and one way to do that is with clever paper crafts.

Of course, reducing paper use is easy on your end, but what about all that junk mail you can’t get away from and all those paper reports and agendas that are produced at your job? That’s where we come in. We’ve put together a roundup of some great paper crafts for reusing and making stuff with paper destined for the recycling bin.

From the practical to the just plain fun, here are 13 paper crafts for recycling paper:

  1. Recycled Gift Wrap – Never buy gift wrap again! Instead, create your own paper gift boxes using one of these clever ideas from this tutorial, make your own gift bags or make your own recycled paper gift bows.

  2. Recycling Basket – Make a basket to store your paper headed for recycling using this tutorial for a stylish basket made from newspapers.

  3. Recycled Paper Geodesic Dome – Use rolled up newspapers to make paper “rods” for making a fun play rainy day play structure for kids. Instructions here.

  4. Recycled Paper Dish – Repurpose old magazines into a pretty paper dish with a lid with this tutorial. Use it as a candy dish, change collector or to store jewelry in. In addition, here’s a tutorial for using the same concept to make lamps.

  5. Recycled Paper Blossoms – Don’t buy cut flowers, instead make your own  with these ideas for making paper flowers.

  6. Geometric Recycled Paper NecklaceThis tutorial utilizes paper and paper clips to make a fabulously stylish bib necklace.

  7. Recycled Paper Garland – Instead of tissue paper, use paper destined for the recycling bin and this tutorial to make a festive garland.

  8. Recycled Mother’s Day Art – Use recycled paper to make this pretty butterfly artwork for your mom this Mother’s Day.

 Resources

http://www.livestrong.com/article/159591-the-negative-effects-of-recycling-paper/

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2013/08/01/changing-views-on-paper-recycling/

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Top Image: denise carbonell

Jen Wallace

Jen Wallace shares her indie life by writing about making, creating, cooking, learning, playing, decorating, and pretty much anything else that strikes her fancy from indie biz tips to the modern history of the American hemline.