Use the stuff!

The Mrs. here!  As you finish up celebrating Christmas at the end of this week, you may be wondering what to do with all of the STUFF now littering your home.  I know that in America we are both blessed and cursed with too much stuff.  After Christmas is the perfect time to go through all of your clothes, childrens' toys, etc.... and donate (or sell) what you no longer use (or fit into after all of those Christmas cookies!).  But what about all of the other STUFF....boxes, bows, wrapping, etc.?  Here is a clever idea I found a few months ago on Pinterest,and now is the perfect time to do it: covereing boxes (or box lids) with fabric or paper to jazz up your wall!  I don't know about you, but I have a variety of sizes of boxes from gifts sitting in my home....so let's put them to good use!  Here's the before:

my basement wall...boring right?!?



...and after!



I varied a little bit from the original idea found on Pinterest and used both fabric (top L, bottom R) and scrapbooking paper.

A few tips from my attempt:

~Do this with a friend...preferably a very patient one! :)  Miss G, helped me out and we had fun just gabbing away while "wrapping" the boxes.  It made the job faster, and more fun!

~Personal preference, but I liked manipulating the paper more than the fabric.  Plus, it's WAAAY cheaper!

 ~Keep some extra sturdy boxes around that you can use to help with mounting the art when you're done!  A few of the boxes we had were a little flimsy, so we mod podged another piece of a sturdier box on the part that was hanging on the nail.

So simple, and a fun way to recycle those boxes and get a new look in your home after the holidays.