Recycle Your Christmas Greeting Cards
If you're like me, I save all my Christmas cards from year
to year. I just can't seem to throw them out, especially the unique ones that
are gorgeous. I have always thought that I would think of ideas or find ideas to
make them useful so their beauty can continue. Over the years I have come to
find quite a few ways to use or reuse the previous years Christmas greeting cards.
Gift Tags
The very first thing I came up with some years ago was that I could reuse Christmas cards as tags for the next year. The only three things you need for this project are paper shaper craft scissors, a hole puncher, and fine gold or silver elastic string. Find cards that you can cut out pictures that are the larger size Christmas tags. Use your special scissors that make the edge of the paper in fancy shapes and cut around the picture in whatever shape you like. You can do oval, round, triangle or just square. Cut a hole with the hole puncher at the top and put a piece of elastic sting through it. You can use the reverse side to write the name of the person and your name as the giver. If you want to get fancier, you can get a "TO: From:" stamp to stamp the back of the tag. This will save you money on those tags every year if you save your Christmas greeting cards, and you can recycle them.
Sometimes I mount the cutout on a colored stock card and
write the persons name on the edges of the stock card and who it's from.
Decoupage wooden boxes
For this project you can use the Christmas cards to create a unique wooden box which you can also fill with candy or anything you decide to fill it with. For this project you will need paint, decoupage finish product, wooden box or assortment of boxes. Begin by cutting out all the small objects that you like from your collection of cards. I always try to make a theme, like snowmen or trees. Paint the box completely and let it dry. Using the decoupage finish, you will then glue the cutouts on your box. You only have to do the top but if you want to do the rest you can. Once this is dry you will put another coat on top of the entire top of the wooden box. This will seal it.
There is a whole world of variations to using decoupage. You
can do Christmas wooden frames, lampshades, wooden jewelry boxes, and anything
wooden you can think of.
Scrap Booking Idea
I have used Christmas greeting cards in the past for my
scrap booking motifs. When I would make Christmas pages using the years
Christmas pictures, I would cut out small pictures from Christmas cards to
accent the pages or words from the cards. It really jazzes the pages up and is
a lot cheaper than buying the accents in the store.
Christmas Ornaments
There are two ways to make Christmas ornaments using recycled Christmas Greeting cards. One way is by just punching a hole in at the top of the object you cut out of the card and tie an elastic string to the ornament to tie on the tree. The other way you will need a few things and it's much nicer but not as simple. You will need clear plastic Christmas balls (these are two halves and come apart), craft Christmas snow, elastic string in silver or gold and white sparkle glue. Make sure the glue dries clear. You want to make a scene in your Christmas ball with this craft. Glue the scene on the inside of one side of the Christmas ball with the glitter glue. Make sure you glue it securely so that it won't fall down. Give it a 3-D effect and glue the smaller parts of the scene on the other half of the ball so when complete, it will look like a 3-D scene. Let it air dry and then put the craft snow in one half of the ball and snap together. Tie an elastic string to the ball and you have a 3-D Christmas ball that looks great on a tree.
These are just a few ideas you can use to recycle Christmas greeting cards. There are lots more ways you can use these wonderful cards. If you haven't saved Christmas cards in the past, here are some good reasons to start.
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Comments
Great article! and a thumbs up. :) If you can though, dividing up some of the paragraphs with a break would go a long way in helping making the text a little more 'readable'....I mean, I read through it, but perhaps before the "italicized" words, you could inject a break?....
Thanks for the tip, you're so right. I appreciate the feedback.
I never thought of making old Christmas cards into gift tags. What a great idea. Nice work on this one.
Even more tips here, ladybugblue.......I read somewhere that it helps to highlight key words in each paragraph, because we naturally skim through articles....if people see keywords, they may be inclined to read an entire paragraph.....doing that from one paragraph to the next, can keep people interested.....
oh...by highlight, i mean "BOLD"...just like you did with "Christmas Greeting Cards" in the opening paragraph....
Plus, there can also be search engine optimization benefit by BOLDING any keywords throughout....I know this gets complicated....but, you can also realize greater SEO potential by including your bolded keywords just preceeding an in-text html link....
Because search engine bots are particularly drawn to URLs like a magnet, if you preceed that html with your Bolded keyword, it can gain even more favor in search engines....I know we are getting into the science of things here....but just some general tips :)
I love your recycling ideas!
This is a neat article. These types of craft ideas can really improve the overall experience for kids. I plan on trying some of them out this year.
Thanks for the nice submission.
JC
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