The Art of Reusing

With all my talk about going paperless, and recycling to save the environment, I haven’t really told you lovely people of the earth what to do with all that paper you don’t need anymore. Yes, yes of course you recycle, and of course you can re write on it, use the free space for something, but what about using it for something that would replace the use of something else?

Now obviously many of us can’t go around making amazing paper sculptures like the artist Yun-Woo Choi but there are simple creative ways to use old papers lying around for something other than recycling. Its not paperless but rather the complete and utter opposite.

• Coasters- who needs store bought coasters when you could have creative colourful ones like these? Simply rolling 1-centimetre-thick flat sheets of papers, magazines, newspapers into each other, you can create a simple coaster.
  The tutorial link is here (http://www.instructables.com/id/Magazine-Coasters/?ALLSTEPS)

• Envelopes- Lets face it. White envelopes are boring. Upgrading to news paper envelopes is the only solution to spicing up your post-life. Check out this tutorial (http://blog.kanelstrand.com/2012/10/diy-recycled-newspaper-envelopes.html) to see how you can get creative with old magazines and envelopes.

• Gift Bags- who doesn’t want a gift that no one else has? Everyone buys gift bags and the generic wrapping papers with the normal bows. What if you had something completely different? Wrapping your presents in magazines, making paper bows and custom-made gift bags is a sweet. Nice way to say I was really thinking of you when I made this. And we know that it’s really the thought that counts when it comes to giving presents. Watch the tutorial for the bow (http://helenmade.blogspot.com/2011/08/paper-bow-tutorial.html), and the bag here (http://acraftyarab.blogspot.com/2012/07/arabic-newspaper-gift-bag.html).

• Waste Basket- isn’t it fitting that you use the paper to line the outside of a waste basket rather than papers to fill the inside of the waste basket? The tutorial for this creative wastebasket can be found here (http://replayground.blogspot.com/2010/12/remake-it-paper-waste-basket.html).

• Soil pots- I think that this, is my personal favourite. What better statement of going green and paperless than using that said paper to plant something that benefits the environment greatly. Many could argue that its just one plant, but supposing one million people planted this same thing, that’s one million plants helping clean the environment. The tutorial can be found here (http://lindycottagehill.blogspot.com/2011/03/recycled-newspaper-pots_19.html).

So there you have it! Five uses for the old magazine lying on your coffee table. Time to get up and make that old paper useful. Not only are these creative, fun and money saving, its also helping save the environment.

Remember. Go green. Go paperless. Go SignTech!

SignTech is an innovative paperless platform that creates forms and documents for full completion, signing and integration. For more information visit www.signtechforms.com or email info@signtechforms.com.