Phoebe Raine
As the festive season approaches for many of us, tight purse strings and a love for the environment may have us reaching for the craft box for a handmade Christmas. On a student budget, stepping into Christmas can be hard, but fear not, Impact is here to give you some Christmas crafts made from our very own print magazine! Read it, love it, recycle it!
Decorations
With non-essential shops closed for most of November, trying to find decorations to spruce up the dreary student living room has been quite a task. I turned to wikihow for inspiration. What resulted was these adorable origami Christmas trees, which stand alone or can be threaded together to make a garland. For these, I took pages from our most recent print edition and cut squares from them, of varying size, to make a little display of trees. You can get really creative with these, and once you’ve mastered the origami there is no limit to how many trees you can make! The bright colours of Impact’s pages make them festive, cheerful, and sweeter than a mince pie. Plus, making them is completely free! Give it a few days in front of the TV and you can have a room-spanning garland, just run a needle and thread through the tops to join them together.
Cards
Recycled, recyclable cards which look cute and will hopefully bring some joy in these uncertain times
I always used to have a love-hate relationship with Christmas cards. Whilst I loved receiving them and seeing people smile when I gave them one, it also upset me when I would have to throw them away, or see them in the bin- I would just keep hundreds of them in my cupboards for sentimental value and to ensure they wouldn’t end up on some rubbish heap. My solution? Recycled, recyclable cards which look cute and will hopefully bring some joy in these uncertain times.
These cards are made using cardboard which I salvaged from parcels and packing boxes. Cutting out rectangles from these and then folding them in half made the perfect (indie-looking, so people think you’re edgier than you actually are) card base, with paper glued to the insides of those which had writing printed onto the cardboard. I then took my offcuts from the Christmas trees, and cut little shapes out of them to make my birds (or borbs, as I enjoy calling them). It was then a simple case of gluing on the cut-outs and adding the finishing touches with felt tip (but biro would work equally well!).
Gifts (not just for the holidays!)
Handmade gifts are becoming more and more popular, and independent sellers create some gorgeous things
Finding a gift for anyone can be hard, even if you know them inside out. Handmade gifts are becoming more and more popular, and independent sellers create some gorgeous things. If none of these appeal, you can always make it yourself. Even if you are the least artsy person out there, using Impact to create origami pieces can be relaxing and relatively easy once you get the hang of it, and these pieces can be used to create a host of fun gifts.
My personal favourite (and shameless plug as I run a tiny Instagram shop selling these) is to make origami cranes from the pages of Impact, and turn these into earrings.
Making the cranes is possibly the hardest part, but youtube is here to help. It can be fiddly, but the outcome is pretty spectacular. Once this has been mastered, you may need to buy some supplies. My earrings are made from wire, earring hooks and the paper cranes coated in clear nail varnish to make them extra water-resistant. With these tools, you can push the wire through the back of the crane and form any shape you want. Have some old broken chains lying around? Thread the wire through those and the crane to make dangly earrings. These are super fun to make and wear, and the equipment lasts a long time- so that’s birthdays, anniversaries, festivals, thank yous sorted for the next 3 years!
It’s a hard one to put into words, but once you have a bit of fun messing around with wire, you can make some unique gifts. The cranes themselves also make cute additions to any notes you might send over the holidays- embrace your inner Etsy seller and spread some recycled origami love!
This list is by no means exhaustive, but hopefully it shows that Impact can be used even after you’ve read and re read our amazing articles. You can recycle all of your off-cuts and encourage anyone to recycle their cards after the festive period. Whilst these crafts are aimed at those who celebrate Christmas, origami figures have no celebration limit, so get crafty and use Impact to decorate for any occasion!
Phoebe Raine
Featured image and article images courtesy of Phoebe Raine and @craine.earrings via instagram.com.
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