We’ve already covered a multitude of Valentine’s Day-themed items but Tamara came up with a new one for us:

I’d like to know if anyone has a suggestion for how to re-use Valentine’s candy hearts? The chalky kind with writing on them, I mean. They passed them around at work yesterday. I only like the orange ones, and so I’ve been left with a card-deck sized box of other colors. I thought they might look cute as pins, but i think they’d melt if I tried to shellac them. So what to do?

From their pages on Wikipedia, the UK Love Hearts and the US Sweethearts sweets look a bit different but since Tamara (who I’m presuming is based in the US from her use of the spelling “colors” ;) ) refers to them as being “chalky”, I guess the texture and ingredients are pretty similar.

So any suggestions? I like the cute jewellery/badges idea but agree that it might be problematic - any ideas on how to get around that?

(Photo by kymmie_xox)

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Just a quick post to point you in the direction of a few ideas for reusing and recycling all those Valentine’s Day gifts.

We’ve got:

• How to reuse or recycle dried fresh flowers - such as roses
• How to reuse or recycle the plastic wrapping from a bouquet
• How to reuse or recycle greetings cards
• How to reuse or recycle wrapping paper
• How to reuse or recycle chocolate boxes
• How to reuse or recycle wrappers from individual chocolates

So there are plenty of ways you can show your love for the environment after someone’s shown their love for you :)

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We’ve had an email from Ciara Fletcher:

My colleagues at work gave me a beautiful bunch of flowers for my birthday but it seems to be wrapped in about 10 yards of cellophane!! What can I do with it? It’s mostly clear with a cute white flower design on it but I can’t think what to do with it because it’s so noisy!

If you grow flowers yourself, you could reuse it if you ever want to give a bunch to anyone else - but aside from that, I’m out of ideas. Any suggestions?

(Oh, and by the way Ciara, here are some suggestions for re-using the flowers when you’re done with them.)

(Photo from Ciara)

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We’ve already covered a number of Valentine’s Day type things:

• Dried fresh flowers - such as roses
• Greetings cards
• Wrapping paper

And while we’ve thought about the wrapping on individual chocolates, we haven’t thought about the chocolate boxes themselves.

Some of them - particularly the high end, Valentine’s Day ish ones - are quite pretty and I’ve used them in the past for storing letters and the like. But what about other reuses?

Some boxes have formed plastic to hold the individual chocolates - like cake packaging - so it would be great if ideas could use that too.

(Photo by lynnc)

(Oh and hello people from i-am-bored.com! :) )

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It’s John’s birthday today and while between the two of us, we’re not big gift givers, he’s sure to receive presents from family and friends.

Back when John and I first met and still gave gifts, he once wrapped my birthday present in newspapers and elastic bands, with a spoon for a “bow”, but his friends and family are more traditional when it comes to gift wrapping.

So what can we do with the paper once its cast aside? Even with careful opening, it might not be in big enough pieces to use for any substantial present wrapping in the future so what are the alternatives?

And with Christmas around the corner too, any special ideas for festival wrapping?

(Photo by shanii)

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