Recylced handicrafts are more in fashion than ever. And, I don’t know if you’ve tried it yet, but the feeling of rescuing something that was otherwise going to go in the bin and turning it into something that earns you praise is priceless.
Today we are going to recycle something that we have a lot of round here: card boxes. After the fantastic collaboration between our sister company SelfPackaging and Birchbox during the month of December, we had a lot of card boxes left over from all the trials we were doing at the time. Something which worries us alot at Selfpackaging is what to do with all the material that doesn’t end up in the finished products. So we are always looking for a way to give it a second chance, and with recycled handicrafts we have succeeded in findng a way out of this problem, going beyond the standard recycled box. So we asked ourselves: what can we do with all these boxes?:
Our more skilled colleagues Laura and Mireia, were going round in circles, literally, until they found a suitable idea:
Why not make a shelf from the card boxes?!
All said and done, let’s get to work. It is easy, quick, cheap and above all, beautiful. And this is important because although it is something pleasant, and although you like making things with your own hands, sometimes recycled handicrafts can take us alot of time, depending on the project we embark on meaning we end up giving up. Or they are so complicated, the result is not exactly what we had in mind and we feel frustrated. But not today. Today that is not going to happen to you, because we are setting you up for very quick and easy recycled handicraft projects.
The first thing you do, once you have decided which shape you want your shelf to be, is to hook the card boxes together, be it using hot glue as our colleagues did, or a double sided adhesive. Personally we recommend you go with the first option as it is stronger, but if you don’t have any glue to hand and what you plan to put in the bookcase is fairly light, a double sided adhesive will work fine.
Once they are stuck together, to hang them on the wall we have opted for this new, super practical product you can find at any hardware store, which allows you to hang paintings and shelves without using nails, hammers or anything noisy, and means no dust or cuts on your delicate hands:
And now…that is all, it’s ready! Now you only have to decide where to put this beautiful card shelf, and choose which pictures you want to display to the world, together with your marvellous skills in recycled handicrafts. Here is the end result:
