Recycled Christmas: The 4 Gift Rule

It is the thought that counts. 

This sentiment has caused much debate throughout the generations, but I believe it is a true sentiment. It is the thought that counts. The size of a gift doesn't indicate the quality or the thought put into it. A small gift, when unwrapped, can mean the world to a person and serve as a reminder to the person just how loved they are. While a large gift can serve as a reminder of just how little the person actually knows them. Again, it is the thought not the size, quantity, or expense of a gift that matters. This is where The 4 Gift Rule comes into place.

The 4 Gift Rule is a limit that is put on gift giving that limits a materialistic culture while improving the overall quality of the gifts. The 4 gift categories are something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. The want category is defined by anything the person really wants and is something that would be listed on their Wishlist. The need category is anything they need, but might not purchase for themselves. The wear category is anything that the person can wear, including accessories. The read category is any form of writing that is meant to improve a person's mind. References to The 4 Gift Rule can be found all over the internet. Another version, used by churches, limits the gifts to 3 to symbolize the 3 gifts Jesus received: Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.  The gold gift is the gift the person really wants, the frankincense is the gift that they can wear, and the myrrh gift is the gift that improves their mind. These gifts are wrapped in the colors gold, purple, and green. Regardless of which version you choose, limiting the amount of gifts you give allows you the opportunity to purchase well-thought out gifts. 

This doesn't mean that everyone on your gift list has to receive 4 gifts, but that we limit the gifts we give to those who do receive multiple gifts, such as our family. Since this year is a recycled Christmas I am embracing this 4 gift rule for my own family. Picking out the 4 gifts is challenging, but rewarding. I am having to think about the members of my family in different ways and imagining what they would like in each category. Limiting my gifts to 4 has allowed me to free myself from the pressure to buy more and more. I know that I am done when I have checked off each category and I don't have to be tempted to buy something else that I think they might like. The 4 Gift Rule is not without its challenges.

The most challenging part is filling each category and if your family is like mine then you will have an assortment of categories checked off for each person, but be stuck on various other ones. I am trying to purchase most of my gifts from eBay or Etsy and make the rest myself. I have bought some things new, but I am trying to limit the amount of products that will be replaced by companies after purchase. The bulk of my family is A's fans so finding at least one of their gifts has been easy with eBay. Some of the A's gifts I have bought include mustache socks, nail decals, and a Mark McGwire bobblehead. These items were giveaways at games, which mean they won't be reproduced, and are items that I know my family members wanted, but were unable to receive at the baseball games. Other things I have purchased include a devotional book for when you have trouble sleeping and some pencils for a lap desk that I am going to make. The gifts I plan on making include honey-dipped spoons, tea, and a scoodie. I am currently working on a few gift tutorials that I will be posting in the next few weeks.  All of the projects I am choosing are quick and include the use of materials I already have.

Hopefully my ideas for my own family will give you some ideas for your own family. What are your favorite gifts to give? 

Recycled Christmas: Gift Boxes

It is officially October, which means Christmas is now just two months away! There is still a lot to be done, but making your own gift boxes is a great way to finish some of your wrapping needs. Gift boxes are a wonderful solution for those who have difficulty wrapping presents perfectly and to stop peeking. However, gift boxes can be pricey and depending on quality, as well as use, are prone to tearing. Plus it isn't always easy to find gift boxes that match your theme. Yet, I bet that you probably have a lot of cardboard boxes lying around your house or leftover after grocery shopping. These cardboard boxes are usually sturdier than traditional gift boxes, which is why I prefer them to gift boxes. The cardboard boxes don't look like much at first, but with a little wrapping paper and tape they can turn into cute gift boxes for Christmas. I just started making these gift boxes so I have only made two, but these boxes are already proving functional.

I have used both a tea box and a candy box. The tea box is currently storing Christmas cards, labels, and stickers until I am ready to start my Christmas cards. This allows me to store the box, but still maximize the storage available in my Christmas box. The candy box will be used to store homemade goodies and will allow me to ship them more easily. When I first wrapped these boxes they still had their contents, but I stored the contents elsewhere because I liked the boxes and thought they would make wonderful Christmas gift boxes. You can use any boxes you want as long as they have either a lid or are able to close. Another option is to seal up the ends of a box and cut your own lid out of a side on the box. Keep in mind that these boxes need to be functional as gift boxes. 

Choose wrapping paper in a color or theme that you want and use clear or decorative tape to wrap the cardboard boxes, turning them into gift boxes. I used the edge of a ruler to score the wrapping paper on the edges of the boxes. Depending on the box you might need to cut triangles out of the corners to make the edges lie flat. I didn't use wrapping paper on the inside of the box, but this is definitely an option and something to consider if you don't plan on using tissue paper. I have a lot of cardboard boxes left so I will be making more gift boxes in the next few weeks as I purchase more gifts. 

 I love how these boxes look and that they are recycled! Each box is perfectly matched to my theme and allows me to recycle the cardboard boxes that are already coming into my home. The only caution I have is to make sure you match your boxes to your gifting needs so that you don't waste materials on a box that you are not going to actually use. If you have boxes to recycle, but that don't meet your Christmas needs, make sure to check out Pinterest for great ideas to reuse boxes in your home. I have seen many wonderful posts where people turned diaper boxes into storage boxes that looked store bought so the options are endless. 

Gift boxes are not the only option for gift wrapping and are not necessarily useful  for certain items. For those odd shaped items gift bags are a wonderful solution. Next week I will show you how to make a gift bag from wrapping paper and other gift wrapping ideas using recycled materials. Do you have a favorite gift wrapping method? Or ideas to use recycled materials in gift wrap? I can't wait to hear your ideas for having a recycled Christmas!

Recycled Christmas: Christmas Card Planner

Today is the last day of September, which means there are only 2 months between now and Christmas. I don't know about you, but I still have a lot of things to do before I can consider myself ready for Christmas. To keep myself organized and hopefully finish everything in time, I have made a planner using a Christmas card. This project is the first tutorial in the Recycled Christmas series and I am excited to share it with you.

Christmas Card Planner

For this project you will need: 

*A computer

*Microsoft Office or another word processor

*Computer paper (I used resume paper for a vintage appearance)

*A printer

*A Christmas card with envelope

*Ribbon

*Glue

*Tape

*Scissors

Planner Pages

The first thing I did was create a template of the inside pages on my computer. When I first created my template I wasn't sure of what pages I would want to include or how the pages would be ordered when I printed them out. This meant that not everything I have in the finished project were included in the original template and assembly proved a bit challenging. If I were going to make this planner again I would order the pages on my computer first and then print them out differently so that assembly was easier. If you have access to a card template on your computer I recommend using that template to create your pages because my pages didn't print the size I needed them to be, which meant a lot of unnecessary cutting afterwards. The pages in my planner are tabbed for easy access. The tabs are Calendar, Gifts, Cards, and Notes. 

Envelope Pocket 

On the inside front cover of the card I glued the card's envelope to the inside and trimmed off the excess. After I trimmed off the excess I had to go back and glue the edges of the envelope together so that it once again functioned as an envelope. Adding the envelope to the inside front cover provided me with a pocket, which I will use to store receipts or coupons that I need to reference later. I then assembled my pages in the order I wanted and used a hole punch to make two holes on the edge of the pages. I then used these holes to mark where I wanted the pages to lay on the inside of the card, which I marked using a pencil and then used the hole punch to make the holes. 

First Page of Planner

I would have liked to have used a ribbon that matched my card, but since this is a Recycled Christmas I used ribbon I already had to thread the pages to the card. I then taped the edges of the ribbon to the back of the card. You could also use more ribbon and secure the pages to the card using a bow. I decided to use tape and to not make a bow because I wanted my planner to lie flat when closed. The finishing touches to my planner were made using the pieces trimmed off of the envelope. I used the envelope flap to decorate the first page and the remaining pieces to create tabs for the different page types. I then began to fill out my planner using gel pens in colors that matched my planner.

The compact size of this Christmas planner means that I can easily tuck it into my purse and take it with me. I have tucked mine into my existing planner so that I will reference it regularly and stay organized this Christmas. Since this year is a Recycled Christmas, I am trying to purchase my gifts from eBay or to make my own using existing supplies I already have. The calendar pages in this planner are useful for tracking ending dates on eBay, as well as providing me with a written timeline for completing projects. While the gifts section allows me to keep track of the gifts I have already purchased and to record ideas for gifts I want to purchase in the future. This will also be useful in tracking gifts when the packages come in and I may have forgotten which item went to each person. Let me know if you are interested in the templates I used in my own planner as well as your own ideas for staying organized at Christmas. 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: A Recycled Christmas

Fall is officially here and I realized I haven't done a Christmas post this year. Ordinarily I have already posted an idea or project to implement for Christmas and have already started my own Christmas planning, but this year I am behind. I know that it is only September, but Christmas is approaching fast. I was at the store yesterday and the clerk reminded me that there are only 88 shopping days until Christmas. In the last few weeks I have received a dozen or more Christmas cards from various charities so yes, Christmas is right around the corner. As I started to put these Christmas cards away in my card box, I realized how many I had received over the last few years. The sheer number of cards that I hadn't used gave me the idea to have a recycled Christmas this year. 

In past years I have always picked a theme early and then used that theme to create photo cards to mail out to family and friends come Christmas time. This year I have been slacking in my Christmas planning and didn't pick a theme or create photo cards. Part of me is grateful for that because it gave me the opportunity to realize the abundance of Christmas items that I have left from previous years. I have so many items left over that I no longer have room to store the planning/themed supplies in one bin. In an effort to reduce clutter and stay organized, I am trying to adhere to a one bin rule for seasonal items, which includes Christmas, Halloween, and summer activities. I had been able to contain Christmas to one bin with the exception of my Christmas ornaments, which are stored in a separate container to keep them safe. 

I don't need to inform anyone of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" movement or our culture's tendency to have excess and honestly that's not the point. The point is how I am planning my Christmas and these are my ideas for a recycled Christmas. My goal in sharing these ideas is that other people would find them useful and be inspired, especially when ideas for a recycled Christmas are limited. If you've never looked then trust me they are very limited! Recycled Christmas isn't exactly a theme. This means that if you begin to tackle your Christmas planning with only recycling in mind that you can quickly become overwhelmed and your Christmas will appear messy. Maintaining a theme while also keeping recycling in mind is tricky, but allows you the opportunity to be creative and exercise your brain.

In choosing my theme, I inventoried my existing Christmas materials and thought about a theme I hadn't used in previous years. The Christmas cards in my box that I treasured the most were the cards that were rustic or images of childhood happiness. Initially I had trouble discovering a theme that would be able to incorporate both types of cards, but a review of the wrapping paper I had, although never used, helped me to envision my theme. Keep in mind that my overarching goal is for my Christmas to be recycled, to use the supplies I already have, and to reduce future clutter, which means that my theme is not going to be executed cleanly. My theme this year is a Moose Riding A Train, which incorporates both the rustic (moose) and the childlike (train) aspects of the Christmas cards. I already have the wrapping paper, which is quite literally a moose riding a train, and I will use the colors in the wrapping paper for everything else I create this Christmas. I will post a picture of this wrapping paper in a future post, where I will also show you how to recycle cardboard boxes using wrapping paper. 

Upcoming posts:

September 30th, 2015 Recycled Christmas: Christmas Planner

October 2nd, 2015 Recycled Christmas: Christmas Gift Boxes

Welcome Fall with a Crochet Door Bumper

Disclaimer: This is only a pattern review. The original pattern is not mine and can be found here. Changes I made to the pattern are given in this post as well and these changes are mine.

Fall is here and the weather is beginning to change, although in my hometown the changes are harder to feel. As the weather begins to cool, the wind blows, and the doors in the house begin to bang when they are closed. Well maybe not if you live in a newer house, but if your house is older then you will understand and appreciate this post. My house was built in the 70's, but the doors still have a tendency to bang due to poor construction or a crooked foundation. There is one door in particular that can be heard with a loud bang every time it is shut. Despite how annoying this is, I actually didn't go in search of this pattern, but stumbled across this pattern while searching Pinterest for quick yarn stash busters. A pattern for a door bumper came up in the search and I had an idea: I could use up some of my yarn and solve a problem. I quickly grabbed my supplies and made the door bumper in 10 minutes.

As I mentioned I found this pattern on Pinterest as part of a collection of patterns posted, but the original pattern was written by Crochet Dynamite and can be found on her blog Crochet Dynamite!. In her post she speaks of living on an old farmhouse and the creaking of doors, which is the inspiration behind her pattern. She also included a revised pattern to make a different style door bumper, but I chose to use the simple pattern because I wanted a quick project.

Option Two: Button Closure

When I am trying a new pattern, I don't read over the entire pattern prior to starting so I don't know if there is a problem in the pattern until I have already started, which can potentially be problematic. However, this pattern was well written and easy to follow. I didn't find the need to make any adjustments until the very end and then I only made a single adjustment to the closure. The original pattern calls for a tie closure on one end, but even the creator said the piece has enough stretch that you don't need the tie closures. If you don't use the tie closures then you have two options. Option one is to sew the ends of the pieces together to create a loop for the door. Option two is to create a loop on one end and sew a button on the other, which is what I chose to do.

These finishing options are my own original ideas and are not a part of the original pattern. An alternative option, that I thought of as I was writing this, is to connect the loop as you construct the entire piece. The pattern for this is listed below:

Alternate Pattern 

Chain 36

Round 1: Single crochet in 2nd chain from hook, single crochet in each chain across, chain 1, turn.

Rounds 2-4: Single chain in each single chain across, chain 1, turn.

Round 5: 2 single crochet, chain 10, skip 10, 13 single crochet, chain 10, skip 10, 1 single crochet, chain 1, turn.

Round 6: Single chain across, 2 single crochet, chain 1, turn.

Rounds 7-9: Single chain in each single crochet across, chain 1, turn.

Round 10: Single crochet across, 3 single crochet, turn, continue to single crochet around entire piece with 3 single crochet in each corner, slip stitch to join, fasten off.

Weave in loose ends.

In the alternative pattern I used the stripe pattern Crochet Dynamite used. I made mine using the Oakland A's colors. As you can see there are so many possibilities in making these in your own favorite colors or to fit a theme. I think these would be great for a nursery and would make great baby gifts. If I made them for a nursery I would use the button closure option and then use a cute button that matched the nursery theme. What colors would you use?

Hello Kitty

Happy birthday to my sister! My little sister turns 23 today and next week we are going to be celebrating her birthday at a baseball game. If you are a frequent visitor to BooBear Designs then you know that my family and I are huge Oakland A's fans. For those of you who don't know, the Oakland A's are a MLB baseball team located in California, across the bay from the San Francisco Giants. Anyways, my sister is also a huge A's fan and she also loves Hello Kitty. For her birthday, besides the ticket to the baseball game, I decided to make her a Hello Kitty A's t-shirt to wear to the baseball game. The t-shirt also matches a coin purse I bought her a few months ago. 

A few weeks ago I posted my tutorial on designing and creating t-shirts using freezer paper. In the post, I mentioned that it was helpful to use markers to outline the template or to color in pieces that you wanted to keep, etc. This was a necessary part for creating the stencil for the Hello Kitty t-shirt. When I designed the template and traced the stencil on freezer paper I hadn't considered how I was going to cut out the pieces and make a usable template. Outlining and coloring in the pieces of the template provided me with a visual to use when creating my stencil. I ended up cutting out each piece and then reassembling the pieces on the t-shirt to recreate the design. I fit the pieces together and then removed one piece at a time to paint. I decided on the pieces to remove based on color, going from dark to light. In general, you want to paint from dark to light as dark colors are easier to fix if you make a mistake. It is a lot easier to cover up a white spot on black then a black spot on white. 

For the most part, this t-shirt design worked up quickly and I was really lucky that the paint dried fast. As soon as I finished with one piece the paint was dry and I was able to start another piece. The face and hat of Hello Kitty took the longest because they required multiple layers of paint. The outline of black is visible on the black t-shirt, but not overwhelming. The outline was crucial for identifying the features of Hello Kitty. I was not able to make a stencil for the bow and had to freehand the outline, but I think the bow turned out well. 

Is there a sport's team or character that you can't get enough of? Combining these can lead to a truly one-of-a-kind piece of memorabilia for you or a loved one. 

Beach Zen Garden

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram then you know that I just finished a brief vacation in Monterey. It is good to be home and to have access to my craft supplies again, but honestly I miss Monterey very much. The vacation was greatly needed and I have returned to real life feeling inspired. My mind has been racing with all of my ideas for projects inspired by Monterey or travel. I have also been obsessing over Pinterest so I will be sharing some boards with you, as well as some projects I have modified from existing pins. I have so much work to catch up on from being gone, but I couldn't wait to start my first project: a Beach Zen Garden. I miss Monterey: the sand, the shells, the water, and the wildlife. Before I left I knew that I wanted to make a beach scene, but I honestly wasn't sure if that would be a zen garden or a shadow box of my trip. Again, I obsessed over Pinterest, which gave me some ideas, although I didn't find exactly what I was looking for. With the ideas I did have, I made sure to take lots of photos and collect shells in Monterey. When I came home I had a much better idea of what I wanted to create and using existing supplies, with a few additional purchases, I created my own version of Monterey or a Beach Zen Garden. 

I apologize this isn't much of a tutorial, but I created this project quickly and honestly it was fairly easy to make. If you want to make your own beach zen garden, then the supplies you need are:

• A wooden tray or some other container to hold your garden; Hobby Lobby sells ready-to-finish wood trays for $4.99.
• A lid to a cardboard box, unless you don't mind your sand going everywhere. I used the lid to a See's Candy 1/4 lb box.
• Sand, which can be purchased at Hobby Lobby or collected from a beach trip.
• Rocks, shells, and any other natural embellishment. I already had the rocks, I collected the shells, and then bought a few more at Hobby Lobby. The shells I collected from my trip were mostly broken pieces so I supplemented them with nicer looking shells.
• Popsicle sticks, I used the standard craft kind and was able to buy a pack of 50 from Walmart for $0.88. I only needed 23 so it worked out perfectly.
• 2 plastic trays, I already had these plastic storage trays that I purchased from Target 2 years ago. I used plastic trays because they actually contain water, but if you used a resin to recreate the look of water then you could use any container you wanted. 
• Pictures of the ocean floor or the bottom of a tide pool. I used a picture I took from my trip. I printed out the picture on regular printer paper, cut out, and glued to the bottom of the containers.
• A glue stick and E6000 glue to glue the pictures and to assemble the pier.

Normally when I am working on a project, but am not 100% about how I want it to look I draw my idea on paper and then am able to tamper with the final layout. This time I chose not to draw the layout and instead dove right in, which didn't seem to hurt the final outcome. I started with the first water container and placed it into my tray where I wanted the "ocean" to be located. I then found the lid to a box that fit into my tray and the space I wanted the "beach" to occupy. The beach was going to be larger, but the only lid I could find was half of the size so I had to improvise. I filled the lid with Kinetic sand that I already had. I planned on collecting sand in Monterey, but I didn't think about it while I was there. Kinetic Sand is great for this project because it stays clumped together and is easy to shape into the beach you want. I then placed the shells into the sand. 

Originally, I was going to use the smaller container to hold a Bonsai tree, but then I read the instructions for a grow-your-own Bonsai tree kit, again something that I already had, and it said the tree needed to be directly in the sun. I didn't intend for my beach zen garden to be sitting in direct sunlight or on a window sill so I had to scrap that idea. Before I decided to scrap the idea, I began gluing rocks to the edge of the small container using E6000 glue. Since I was already committed to the small container being covered in rocks, I decided to make a tide pool for my beach zen garden. It didn't turn out exactly as I intended, but it works for now. The great thing about assembling this zen garden in pieces is that I can redecorate it as many times as I want. 

I waited until everything was in place before I decided to glue pictures to the bottom of the containers, which I don't recommend doing because I almost destroyed my pier. So before you add your pier make sure you have glued on the pictures you want to the bottom of your containers. Then you can add your pier. I made the pier using Popsicle sticks glued together with E6000 glue. This took some time and was a bit messy. I cut pieces of Popsicle sticks and glued to the bottom of the pier to make legs. You can't see the legs, but they made the pier more secure in the tray. I took 3 Popsicle sticks glued together and glued them to the top of the pier to fill in the gap between the tray and the sand. I found this little wood boat and Hobby Lobby and I thought it would be a perfect addition to my garden. Unfortunately, it was bigger than I wanted it to be in the garden, but I think I will leave it, at least for now. I also added a sea otter magnet that I purchased in Monterey and thought the star fish looked cute placed on top, almost as if he was holding it. 

What is your favorite beach activity? What are some of your other favorite vacation spots? I would love to hear about your travel adventures and to get ideas about where I should travel next!