Friday, November 16, 2007

Recycle your old Christmas & Greeting Cards!

With Christmas less than 6 weeks away, there's no doubt you will soon be receiving holiday cards and advertising in your mailbox. This got me thinking I should post some ways to recycle your holiday cards.



The first thing that came to mind for me was these cool ornaments. My mom made some of these when I was little, and you may have seen them around the web as well. Since I had already re-purposed my cards from last year, I made this ornament today out of some of the holiday catalogs I've received in the mail recently. Greeting card fronts work best since they are thicker stock, but catalog covers work as well. Check out the Junk Mail Gems DIY page for complete instructions to make your own ornament!

Looking for something less time-consuming? You can also use your cards as gift tags. Simply cut around the image you like with scissors, and use a hole punch in one corner. I like to use craft scissors with a decorative edge...pinking shears also work for a zig-zag. Use the hole to tie ribbon through, and on the back you can write who the gift is for and from!



Another thing I like to do with attractive gift cards is to cut out the images and use them as embellishments in my Christmas photo scrapbook. They cost 100% less than buying expensive scrapbook stickers, and I add to the memory preservation by noting in small writing next to it who sent that particular card. You can even dress the images up further by adding a little glitter, or adding dimension by gluing cardboard squares underneath it to lift it off the page.

1 comment:

Rollie said...

Every year when we toss out our wreath, I remove the decorations from it and then save them in my Christmas wrapping supplies. It's fun to make packages look pretty. Last year's wreath had little red jingle bells wired on with each pine cone. This year they are gold and also there are some plastic "bulbs". I'm sure I will find uses for these items next year on people's gifts.

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