Being fifty-something, I’m obsessed with interested in bringing new life to old things. I get fidgety about turfing stuff off to landfill when it still has some practical use.

Recently, I’ve been eyeing off tissue boxes and been amazed at the design work that goes into making them look good.

Rather than waste those good looks, I started collecting our empty tissue boxes and thinking up a way to re-use them.

The result is these upcycled tissue box gift tags.

A super simple transformation that gave me an on-hand supply of gift tags and another reason not to purchase over-priced commercial gift cards/tags (which just creates more turfing to landfill).

I used a paper guillotine to slice the tissue boxes up into random rectangles, working around the branding text printing and any glue lines on the reverse. You could easily achieve the same thing with a ruler, a pencil and some scissors. I was able to create 5-6 reasonably sized tags from each tissue box. I’ve managed a mix of florals and muted patterns so have male and female gift recipients covered.

I punched a hole in each, threaded through some rustic jute twine. Voila!

These are perfect for twisting around the neck of a wine bottle, taping to flower bunches or knotting over a vintage jar brimming with home-made yo-yo biscuits.

Now I find myself choosing my tissue boxes more carefully, looking for upcyclable designs. I’ve been surprised to discover some very dapper designs amongst the private label supermarket brands!