Quality Made Should for the Holiday's...an article I wrote in 2009

This was a performance only, non-exclusive article that I wrote in 2009.


http://voices.yahoo.com/quality-made-holidays-4847266.html?cat=7



Quality Made Should for the Holiday's

Eco-Friendly Gifts



So you are thinking about buying or making some sort of eco-friendly holiday gift for someone this year. And due to the uncertainty of the economy, you would like to be careful of what you may be spending.



Or really you may not even have a budget to go shopping so you may be looking around your home for things you could recycle into gifts.



You may be someone who likes to bake so you may decide to do some baking, and bake some gifts, like cookies, or pies or cakes, but then again you may not feel up to so much baking, not to mention there is a cost involved that may or may not be affordable. Something's you may think up to make may cost a lot more than you intended if you have to buy all the ingredients at once.  




So besides baking a consumable gift what could you give to someone that could be considered eco-friendly, friendly for both the environment and your pocketbook?

Well first you need to think about the person you are buying the gift for. Is this for someone who collects something, maybe a child who collects buttons for example, or small jewelry? *there may still be some who collect simple things right. Well we will assume there are ok.



Well one thing you might be able to make to give that would be environmental friendly and using recycled materials would be a small collector's box.



This may even become a keepsake item if you spend the time to make it sturdy and it is well cared for.
To make this item what you will need to do is save a small container, like one of the boxes bagged tea comes in, I am sure you know the ones I am talking about, the ones with flip top lids. These are just the right size to make small trinket boxes.



All you need to do is first reinforce the bottom, and the lid, take an empty cereal box, and cut a couple of strips of cardboard to fit inside the box at the bottom glue this to the bottom, and let dry, do the same for the lid, then on the outside of the box you can also strengthen the box by gluing more strips of cardboard on to the sides and bottom and allowing to dry completely.



After your reinforced box is completely dry, what you can do is to decorate the box, if you have some paint; you can paint the inside of the box, or maybe even line with some scrap cloth.



After your box is totally dry, you can start decorating the outside of the boxes, with small items you may have, like buttons, or scraps of colored paper, maybe even just a few stickers you have left over from another project.



When you have finished it, just let it dry well, and then put some wrapped hard candy into the box and wrap it up. The box becomes a small trinket keeper when the candy is gone. This makes a cute and unique gift. I have made items like this these turn out really well. And cost next to nothing to make using items from around your home.



You could also look around your home and maybe find many different things you could make with what you have on hand, if you're a crafty type person this will work well for you, but on the other hand if you are not the crafty type you will most likely not find the suggestion to create something new and useful from what you have to be a very good suggestion.



So for those of you who are not crafty, or who do not like to bake, or who just cannot afford to bake for everyone you want to give a gift to, or may not have time to make something for everyone on your list you need different ideas.



So for you I would suggest looking for items on sale that would be useful for the person that you intend an eco-friendly gift, you need to first look at what are something's that your intended recipient likes. Then look at your budget again.



Look to buy items that are useful and are well made. That fit the personality of the person who you are buying for.



To me it does not make good sense to buy something that is cheaply made and just going to fall apart. So look for quality made items.



Save money back through the year to buy items that will last instead of waiting last minute to buy whatever you can find. Or take time to learn some craft skills and make quality gifts that will last.
Last to truly be eco-friendly, don't buy junk that is just cheaply made and mass produced, look for items made by someone who takes time to make their items well.



sources:  


http://www.do-it-yourself-gifts.com/gift-boxes.html  


http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/573977/how_to_recycle_paper_milk_cartons.html?cat=6