Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on December 20, 2009

One of the most popular sections of Frugal Café’s main website this past week is the post on making inexpensive origami and kirigami Christmas ornaments. One of so many frugal ways to be creative and save money during the Christmas season, as well as involving children in fun, thrift-minded craft projects.

Below are some frugal origami Christmas decoration videos, showing how to save money and reuse unwanted phone books using the ancient art of paper folding. How cool is that?

Origami and kirigami are low-cost creative arts & craft activities for homeschoolers, Girl or Boy Scouts, Sunday School classes, day care kids, or other youth groups, in addition to senior retirement groups and your own children or grandchildren. Using old phonebooks for origami is one idea I’ve not ever come across before.

Simply brilliant.

From the UK website Say No to Phonebooks:

192.com and the ‘Say No To Phonebooks’ campaign have teamed up with origami expert, Mark Bolitho, to provide three easy to follow guides that make use of those unwanted phonebooks by creating origami Christmas Tree, Star and Angel decorations.

Clever, creative, frugal… plus an eco-friendly way to use an old phonebook that would otherwise be tossed into a landfill. Reuse and recycle at no cost to you. For instructions to print out, click here.

Say No To Phonebooks — Origami Christmas Angel

Say No To Phonebooks — Origami Christmas Star

Say No To Phonebooks — Origami Christmas Tree

For more “cheap, but chic” Christmas decorating and gift-giving ideas, here are some Frugal Café main website links:

• Frugal Japanese-Inspired, Eco-Friendly Christmas Gift Wrap & More “Cheap but Chic” Christmas Ideas (video)




• Budget Crafts: Origami & Kirigami Christmas Ornaments




• The Rap on Wrap: Get Creative, Get Thrifty with DIY Wrapping Paper from Recycled Materials




• Make Inexpensive Floating Apple Votives, à la Martha Stewart




• Crafts of Christmas Past… Ripped from the Glossy Pages of Old Magazines — Directory:

• • 12 Drummers Drumming: Gift Box Drums… Appeared in Martha Stewart Living, December 1999 / January 2000
  • Decorating: Displaying Christmas Cards… Appeared in Martha Stewart Living, December 1998 / January 1999
  • Easy, Elegant, & Cheap: Yum – Holiday Centerpiece of the Month… Appeared in Every Day with Rachael Ray, December 2006 / January 2007
  • Holiday Organizer and Inspiration Book… Appeared in Martha Stewart Living, December 1998 / January 1999
  • Christmas Baking-Pan Wall Sconces… Appeared in Martha Stewart Living, December 1999 / January 2000
  • Frugal, but Elegant Winter Still Life: Arrangement of the Month – Pine Arrangement… Appeared in Martha Stewart Living, December 1999 / January 2000

• Recycle & Reuse Holiday Cards




• Christmas gift ideas for children to make and give to Grandma, with the added bonus of using up some of the Legos strewn through the house: Chic ‘n Cheap: Unique Kitchen Crafts Made with Legos




• DIY Fashion: ThreadBanger | Video Demo: How to Crochet a Hat




• DIY Fashion & Recycling: ThreadBanger | Video Demo: How to Crochet Flower Appliqués with Old Yarn & Making Recycled Sleeping Bags




• DIY Recycling & Fashion: ThreadBanger | Video Demo: Recycling/Repurposing Plastic Bags & Making Shopping Tote Bags from Old Clothes




• DIY Fashion: HowCast & eVillage | Video Demos: Several Tie-Dye Techniques, How to Tie-Dye a T-Shirt




• Older kids can make these for friends or relatives for Christmas: DIY Recycled Fashion: ThreadBanger | Video Demo: Back-2-Skool Special: Frugal DIY Ideas for Making Your Own School Backpacks, Book Bags, Laptop Covers, Pencil Cases, Book Covers, & Messenger Bags




• Second Time Around: Smart Ways to Reuse & Recycle Things around the House (video)
  




• Cheap & Thoughtful Christmas Ideas, from HappyBird’s Crafting Haven

A few more creative, frugal Christmas ideas are at HappyBird’s Crafting Haven:

Frugal and Thoughtful Christmas Gift Ideas for Seniors

Frozen Cookie Dough Gift for Christmas

Categories: Business & Economy, Environment and Earth, Frugal Shopping Info, Holidays and Family, Thrifty Advice, Videos, Audio Files
Tags: budget crafts, cheap, Christmas, Christmas angel, Christmas ornaments, Christmas star, Christmas tree, cut costs, frugal, kirigami, origami, phone book, phone books, phonebook, phonebooks, recycle, reuse, save money, saving money, thrift, thrifty, video, Xmas, YouTube