3 Creative Ways to Upcycle Tissue Box Cardboard

Several months ago, I started saving cardboard tissue boxes because I knew I could upcycle the cardboard itself into something fun!

My top two criteria for buying tissues are softness and how pretty the box looks.

If I’m being super forthright, as long as the tissues aren’t sandpaper, I’m going to prioritize the box design over some marketing gimmick about moisturizer and aloe. I cannot be alone in this.

Does the print on the tissue box match my decor? Will I get annoyed looking at this box for the next two to three months? Will I want to turn the tissue box cardboard into something crafty after someone in my family uses the last tissue and leaves the empty box sitting in the bathroom? These are my priorities.

Here are three ways I recently upcycled tissue box cardboard, and had a grand time doing it!

Make a pennant banner.

I love a fun party banner, so I layered small triangles cut out of my tissue boxes on top of larger cardstock triangles to make a festive pennant banner or party bunting.

Materials Needed:

tissue box cardboard
cardstock (approximately four 8.5×11-inch sheets)
scissors
ruler
pencil
hole punch
glue stick
yarn or ribbon

Directions:

Cut out 12 triangles from your cardstock and set aside. I was able to get three triangles from one 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock.

Cut out 12 smaller triangles from your tissue box cardboard. You can use the tip or the bottom third of the larger cardstock triangles as a tracing guide.

Glue the smaller triangles onto the larger cardstock triangles with a glue stick to make a pennant flag. Let dry.

Use a hole punch to make two holes for ribbon on each of the pennants.

Thread your yarn or ribbon through the holes and hang your pennant banner.

Look how mine so closely matches the colors in the artwork hanging above the desk. That was a happy accident!

Make pretty bookmarks.

While I use my Kindle 95% of the time, I do enjoy using a pretty bookmark while reading library books, and if I don’t have one handy, I have been known to use a torn-off portion of a paper towel, junk mail, or a receipt instead of a proper bookmark.

Tissue box cardboard is just the right thickness to make a great bookmark.

Materials needed:

tissue box cardboard
scissors
hole punch (optional)
glue stick (optional)
decorative border scissors (optional)
ribbon (optional)

Directions:

The long, thin strips of cardboard next to the plastic sleeve where the tissues pull out of the box are a great size for bookmarks.

Cut out a rectangular strip from the tissue box cardboard. You can be done now if you want! Talk about an easy craft.

If you want your bookmark to be double-sided, cut out two rectangles of equal dimensions and glue the strips together.

If you want to embellish your bookmark, you can punch a hole in the top and thread a ribbon through the hole. You can also use decorative border scissors to fancy up the edge of the bookmark. This works best on a single-sided bookmark.

There are no limits to the ways you could embellish your bookmark. Have fun with it!

Add a fun detail to a homemade card.

If you enjoy making homemade cards or scrapbooking, then the pretty prints on tissue box cardboard are really going to flip your scrapbook pages!

The detail I added to my card was a pennant banner, but you could make balloons, confetti, word art, flowers, etc.

Materials Needed:

Tissue box cardboard
scissors
glue stick
markers
blank card

Directions:

To make a pennant banner detail on a homemade card, cut out four or five small triangles.

Position them on your card so that you know where you want to glue them down.

Before gluing them down, use a marker to draw the string that your pennant banner with “hang” from on the card.

Glue the pennant flags (triangles) to your card along the line you just drew.

Write a message (if you want) on the front of the card, such as congratulations or happy birthday.

There are plenty of ways you can reuse the tissue box itself. The most common one I’ve read about is that people use it as a small trash can for used tissues. If you need a tiny vehicle trash can, this would get the job done. It could also be used as a treasure box for kids.

Or, be like me, and think of the tissue box as free crafting material for gift tags, bookmarks, banners, scrapbooking, cardmaking, labels, picture frame mat, confetti, and more.

Bottom line, I hope you look at tissue boxes in a new light after reading this post.

Do you already reuse or upcycle tissue boxes? I’d love to know how you use these boxes! I have a new tissue box I just set aside for future crafting, and need ideas. Comments are the best treat. You can comment here on this blog post, email me here, or reach out via direct message on Instagram or Facebook.

Happy Crafting!

P.S. Here’s a bit of A Pretty Happy Home lore for you. I don’t own a regular single hole punch. I have a heart-shaped hole punch. So, every time I am hole punching something, it is done with love, so to speak. I doubt anyone has ever noticed, but it makes me smile every time I used it.

Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today. I hope you leave feeling inspired. If you’d like another crafty idea, try one of these favorites!

How to Make Wood-Burned Wood Dice

How to Make a Paper Flower Garland

Tourist Maps Make Great Wrapping Paper

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