Today I would like to welcome guest poster, Megan from Saver Queen, a blog about living your best life, the frugal way. She is also a fellow Canadian (yay!) and from reading her awesome blog I found out that Gail Vaz-Oxlade, the popular host of one of my favorite Canadian shows, Till Debt Do Us Part, has her own blog offering plenty of money saving ideas and strategies. I had no idea so thanks Megan and thanks also for sharing your re-purpose tutorial with us today :)
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I hate seeing anything useful go to waste. So recently, when I finished off a couple of boxes of tea, I decided to reuse the boxes to create attractive (and useful) home storage. Here’s how to turn tea boxes into aesthetically-pleasing storage or gift boxes.
What you will need:
One or more cardboard tea boxes
Scissors
Glue stick
Stack of old magazines
Mack-tack or varnish
Exact-o knife (optional but useful)
Step one: Choose a theme. I used a floral theme, but your options are limitless. If you are planning to use the box to store items in the kitchen or pantry, you could decorate with pictures of fruits and vegetables. If you are using the box for jewelry you could decorate using a fashion theme, and so forth.
Step two: Gather a stack of magazines and search for theme-appropriate pictures. Cut out your your favourite pictures and glue onto the tea box in a collage fashion, allowing the pictures to overlap on one another.
Step three: When you’re finished, cut out pieces of mack-tack to fit and carefully cover each side of the box. This is necessary because otherwise the pieces of the magazines may start to peel off the box over time. This will help to protect the box and gives it a nice, glossy look. If you have a light varnish, you could use this instead.
Step four: Use scissors or an Exact-o knife to trim the edges.
You’re done! If you wish to use your craft as a gift box, you can fill it with colourful tissue paper. Or, line it with parchment paper and fill with cookies or treats.
Side views:
Bottom view:
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Saver Queen loves the fulfilling, frugal life. She’s sharing her best recipes, tips to save at the grocery store, and other money saving secrets at Saver Queen.
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These are so pretty! We do this without any of the finesse!!! I just cut the tops off they are great for storing school flash cards and even pens and those little twistable crayons. Tea boxes are always a lot prettier than most boxes!
Cool idea! I use my old tea TINS for my laundry quarters :)
Yay for another Canadian blogger!
I love the show Til Debt Do Us Part. I would love to meet Gail someday, though I think she only does shows in your region, laura? if you ever meet her, send her to me! :)
Great re-purposing!
Ter I’m in BC and I believe the shows are done in Ontario so chances are unlikely I’ll ever meet her but it would be great wouldn’t it!
Neat idea! I do this to shoe boxes all the time with neat but cheap wrapping paper or wrapping paper remnants.
Lovely. I just put an empty tea box in the bin – I better go get it!!
What a great idea!!!
Ooh I learned alot, and before I even got to the tea box (great idea for kids and those left over free Lego magazine I have hanging around, btw.)
I did not know you were Canadian, and now have two new blogs to check out, Saver Queen and Gail’s! Very nice.
Those turn out very lovely. I can think of all sorts of things I would use them for.
Great idea! I’m always saving little containers to use for various things!
How clever!
yeah for the canucks… nice job. You guys are always showing us up!
LOVE this! I have been re-purposing every kind of container imaginable lately, but I have been using fabric. I really like the idea of using old magazines! Thank you!
What a great idea. I have been using a tea box for storing a variety of different teas so that I don’t have to bring out all the tea boxes when people are over. I think I will decorate my old tea box using your method. The “mack-tack” you speak of-is it what we call “contact paper” here in the states? Would “mod-podge” (decoupage glue) work also?
that’s beautiful! question though. does anyone have any uses for baby formula cans? i have so many and i HATE to just throw them away (which i have been doing). or is that contributing to my clutter? aargh! help!
Beautiful gift box idea! I too love Gail Vaz Oxlade and have been on her blog. I am in the process of preparing a budget for our family and am using her tips a lot.
This is a tea-lightful idea! I can’t get enough of pretty boxes and to think I could make them is glorious!!!
Robin
All Things Heart and Home
Thanks for your lovely comments, everyone!
For those of you wondering, Gail Vax-Oxlade does her show in Ontario, sticking mostly to the Toronto region. (Her latest episode was filmed in my town, Guelph!)
Julie – Yes, I believe mack-tac is like contact paper – it’s clear, sticky paper. I think that mod-podge would work too. Hope it works out nicely for you!
c – can you use them to hold pens/pencils/markers, collect change, loose buttons, or small, miscellaneous items like bread tags, elastics, etc? Or, if someone in your household is a painter, you can store your paint brushes, or mix water paints in them.
I like the idea of using them for gift boxes also. I wonder if scrapbook paper would work, too — though I know old magazines are cheaper!
These are gorgeous, I love them!
This is cool. I was skimming and I was thinking — I know Laura is an org freak, but I didn’t know she was a crafty freak too! So I was glad to see that it was a guest post. I don’t think I can handle knowing that you are ALL those things.
I coverd my small freezer with Mack Tack How can i remoove it. Some of it peels off but on the door the paper comes off leaving the adhesive.