Recycling

We have probably 30 or more birthday and christmas themed gift bags stored away under the bed.  The gifts resided inside the bags for less than 24 hours each, and so the bags are in pristine condition, mostly.  We always think we'll put gifts in them and reuse them, but it never seems to happen. We wrap gifts, because it's more fun to tear paper off than to peer into a bag.  So what do you do with all of those gift bags that are too cute to throw away?

This New Year's, we found just such a use for our sparklier bags.  From a bright fuscia metallic bag, we cut 10 inch tall numbers for 2010.  By gluing the front to the back of the bag, we created double sided paper ideal for decorations.  We had enough leftover from this bag (it was a very large gift bag!) to cut out stars and moons and other fun shapes that we strung together to make hanging decorations.  One birthday bag had circles with balloons and stars inside of them.  We cut and glued those to add to the hanging decorations.  And a striped and glittered bag added variety to the mix.  And the leftovers?  Confetti!  Tons of confetti which Angie delighted in throwing for the hour after the New Year officially arrived.  Amazingly, because of the heft of the bags, cleanup was pretty painless (and done by Angie!). 

We figure on making birthday decorations and cards with the other gift bags.  We celebrate a lot of birthdays around our house, not just Angie's and Maddie's, so decorations always come in handy.  And if we ever run out of gift bags, the dollar store sells 'em cheap!