Days of Christmas: Day 22

Three days til Christmas!

Today I thought I would show you one way Troubletron and I have been telling ourselves we are helping the environment, if only just a little. For the last month, as presents were wrapped, we have been setting aside the scraps.
When we had a pretty large pile of scrap wrapping paper, I began tracing and cutting out circles of various sizes from the papers:
Then, with the help of Marzipan . . .
. . . I took an old paper grocery sack, and traced a large bowl.
Meanwhile, Troubletron sorted all our circles into their various sizes and types.
Then he goofed off. I need to give him more jobs to do.
I cut out 2 large bowl circles.
And then I cut out smaller circles from inside the bowl shapes (to make them hollow, like wreaths).
Troubletron and I then began arranging the circles onto our wreath frames.
After some experimentation, we got out our glue.
It was Troubletron's first experience with Mod Podge. Glorious.
We attached all our circles, overlapping, to cover the frames.
Then stuck them under some old law school books I will never look at again, but couldn't sell on Amazon since new editions came out right after I used them. Jerks.
We were pretty excited about how our wrapping-paper-scraps wreaths were going to turn out. But, I felt like we needed a third wreath to round things out. Then, I had an idea. A wonderful, awful idea.

We recently moved all our DVDs into DVD books and out of their space-taking cases. So, I gathered all the Christmas DVD cases I could find, pulled off their sleeves and removed their colorful, picture-covered inserts.
(FYI, that Frosty on top is the one that had a completely different DVD inside. Grrrrrr!)

I cut out one 3-inch circle from each DVD cover and arranged them in a circle for our middle wreath:
(I'm saving the rest for another project)

After two days of drying (maybe mod podge wasn't the best glue to use), we ended up with some pretty amazing wreaths:
The DVD cover wreath is really very interesting. I added some ribbon bows over the tacks that hold the wreath on the wall.
And, our wrapping paper wreaths, with added embellishments that came off gifts from my mom turned out beautifully!

I don't think the photos are doing them justice, but they really did turn out great!

So, yeah, that's one way we're trying to save the world. Slowly. Ten wrapping paper scraps at a time.

A lot has been going on here, though, besides wreath-making. I've done more present wrapping this year than I have ever had to in years past (blame the kids).
Creative wrapping has suffered as a result.

Troubletron and I have been doing a little last minute shopping. Even two days after the large storm, the roads are still sketchy. Check out the snow piles in our Target parking lot.
In case you have forgotten, I am 6 ft tall. Troubletron is 6'3". So, you can see the snow accumulation was significant.
I wish I had taken a photo, but in the Old Navy parking lot, the plows made one large mountain of snow in the center that was at least 15 feet high.

And, of course, we have been receiving your Christmas and Holiday cards.
In the spirit of saving the world through recycling, I will remind you of the craft idea for using Holiday cards again from THIS BLOG ENTRY.

But, I found another great way to ACTUALLY recycle all the cards you get. You can donate old holiday greeting cards to St. Jude's Ranch for children (a non-profit benefiting abused, neglected, and abandoned children). Children earn money by taking your old cards, removing the decorative fronts, and creating new cards with them. Go HERE for donation details (and info on purchasing recycled cards!).