From useless to useful

A while back my husband gave me a beautiful wallet which I still use to this very day. I still remember how happy I was to get it, and how I'd admired the sturdy box it had come in!

So I'd filled up the wallet straight away and set aside the box for future use. Over time I cannot recall the number of times my husband's complained about my hoarding tendency with these such boxes... until he saw what I made of it this week that is!

I bought a gift for a friend which did not come in fancy wrapping or boxes, so it was up to me to jazz it up! Out came the sturdy wallet box together with a gorgeous wrapping paper which I'd managed to keep intact because it was so so pretty... and I got down to business - that of covering the lid with this fancy wrapping paper.

The box itself was far too big for the item I'd bought so I sewed together a tiny bag, filled it up with cotton wool et voila, I had myself a nice cushion bed for the cute present!

Of old t-shirts and prettily wrapped gifts 1

I once had bought a skinny fit t-shirt from the pound shop, which, as these things go, I am now far too self-conscious to wear. Luckily for me I found a great idea via Craftaholics Anonymous on turning old t-shirts into pom-poms so I decided to hold on to the t-shirt for later use. And I have just found a great opportunity to use it - my friend's birthday's coming up and I wanted to make her gift a little extra special, so, following the picture tutorial to a tick I managed to finish it off this way:

Now that I've tried it once I doubt I'll ever throw away another t-shirt!