recycled – Esselle Crafts

I am super excited to share that I have opened a brand NEW Etsy shop called Esselle Crafts Makes!

Continuing my lifelong passion for papercraft and upcycling, I am making good use of any scrap paper materials that I find and turning them into beautiful, upcycled art ♻️

Some of my zero waste, eco-friendly greeting cards are already in the shop, including these that I made out of old wall calendars.

Three square greeting cards made from upcycled wall calendars. Two of them feature bees and butterflies and the other one features capybaras.

I also have several greeting cards featuring colourful mosaic designs. I originally made each of the mosaics out of upcycled cardboard packaging, then scanned them and had them printed onto high quality 300gsm card.

A square greeting card with a green mosaic heart design on the front made from small pieces of upcycled paper packaging.

All of my cards come complete with a recycled brown kraft envelope, but these cards also make great gifts for home decor. Framing the card and displaying it instantly turns it into a unique piece of art 💚

A square greeting card with a green mosaic heart design on the front made from small pieces of upcycled paper packaging. The card is displayed in a square frame on a shelf.

Speaking of art, I have also been busy making my own recycled Kraft card frames for my original mosaics! They are super lightweight, weighing just 50g, so they can easily be propped up on a shelf or fixed to the wall using a poster strip or an adhesive hook.

A red mosaic heart design made from small pieces of upcycled paper packaging, framed in a square brown kraft card frame.

My upcycled mosaic art looks amazing displayed like this 🥰 I can also customise them with any short word, name or initial that you would like to have across it (up to 5 characters). Here are some examples:

A pink mosaic heart design made from small pieces of upcycled paper packaging, framed in a square brown kraft card frame. The word MUM is displayed across the middle in white capital letters.

A rainbow mosaic heart design made from small pieces of upcycled paper packaging, framed in a square brown kraft card frame. The word PRIDE is displayed across the middle in white capital letters.

They make great personalised gifts for Valentine’s day, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, or to celebrate Pride month or Earth Day 🌍

A red mosaic heart design made from small pieces of upcycled paper packaging, framed in a square brown kraft card frame. The word RUBY is displayed across the middle in white capital letters.

My aim is to continue creating unique art from any packaging or paper materials that I find so that nothing goes to waste – even the tiniest scrap of card can’t escape me!

I’ll also be making good use of my own papercraft templates to make some beautiful, upcycled gift packaging! ♻️

Don’t forget to check out my NEW Etsy shop!

Three square greeting cards made from upcycled wall calendars handmade by Esselle Crafts. Also two mosaic heart designs made from small pieces of upcycled paper packaging, framed in a square brown kraft card frame.

Happy upcycling! ♻️
Suzanne

Several years ago, I sorted through my huge pile of used Christmas cards, wondering what I could possibly do with them. Most of them had glitter on them and were donated to me because they couldn’t be recycled. So I started to think about ways to upcycle them. This led to new creations, including these fabulous hanging star decorations!

DIY Upcycled Christmas Card Hanging Star Decorations

I created a template (see below), which is about 7.5cm / 2.95″ high, and cut out as many as I could from the cards. Then I sorted them into groups of 5 and arranged them in the order that I wanted them to be. As they are double-sided, you will need 10 of this shape to complete one star decoration:

To make one, you will need:

used Christmas cards, greeting cards or card packaging
star template (see above)
pencil or pen
scissors or craft knife
ruler
scoring tool
strong, all purpose glue or double-sided tape
ribbon, string or thread

Here’s my video tutorial showing how to make the stars:

They really are a fabulous way of using up old Christmas cards. In fact, any type of greeting cards or card packaging can be reused to make these stars. They’re not just for Christmas!