Don’t toss all last year’s holiday
greetings! Turn them into a gold mine of creative ideas.
Lovely Christmas and holiday cards delight, as they appear
in pretty red and green envelopes in mailboxes each year. It’s fun to open the
festive cards, look at the family photos, read the newsy holiday letters, and
rejoice over cheery greetings. Most recipients display Christmas and holiday
cards each year by placing them in baskets
or bowls, hanging them up in card
garlands, arranging them on fireplace
mantels, or lining staircase
railings with them.
 |
| Adapted by this user from public domain artwork. |
After New Year’s has passed, however, what can
be done with the past year’s Christmas and holiday greeting cards?
Certainly, it feels a bit wasteful to toss such lovely
images out. By recycling these resources, however, one can save on future holiday
decorating and gift
wrapping expenses, while helping to preserve valuable natural resources.
Christmas and holiday cards can be quite lovely and useful
for several recycled purposes, if one simply use a little imagination and sense
of practicality. Here are nine creative applications for used Christmas and
holiday cards. None of these require any craft flair or artistic abilities at
all.
NOTE: Written by this author, this copyrighted material originally appeared on another publisher’s site. That site no longer exists. This author holds all rights to this content. No republication is allowed without permission.
1. Festive gift
sacks
An ordinary economical brown
paper lunch sack can be instantly transformed into an adorable gift bag.
Simply cut the front off of an old Christmas card. Trim the edges neatly (or
use pinking shears or deckle-edged craft scissors). Place a Christmas or
holiday gift inside the paper sack. Fold the top down neatly, and staple the
Christmas card to the front, holding the top closed.
This holiday greeting card recycling idea works very well
for creating goody bags for seasonal parties.
Don’t toss those handled paper shopping bags from grocery
stores or retail shops. Cover their emblems with the fronts of pretty greeting
cards instead. Craft glue or staples will do the trick. Reusable
cloth shopping bags can work just as well, particularly if their
pre-printed emblems are small enough to mask with holiday cards.
3. Glitzy gift boxes
Skip the wrapping paper by dressing up unadorned
boxes (or even brown corrugated cardboard cartons) with the addition of a
few old Christmas cards. Simply cut the front images from a few favorite old
Christmas or holiday cards. Paste them on the box. This is an excellent way to
camouflage package labeling, product pictures, and brand names, particularly on
larger, unwieldy items. Add a pretty holiday ribbon, if desired.
4. Great gift tags
Save money on holiday gift wrapping supplies by making
package gift
tags from old Christmas or holiday cards. Cut pretty pictures and graphics
from several old Christmas greetings.
For added interest, try tracing holiday shapes (with Christmas cookie cutters, and cutting those out as well. Old Christmas or holiday cards work well, as do colored construction papers. Hand-write “to” and “from” information on each gift tag. Use a hole punch to perforate each tag, and tie it to a Christmas or holiday gift with string or ribbon.
For added interest, try tracing holiday shapes (with Christmas cookie cutters, and cutting those out as well. Old Christmas or holiday cards work well, as do colored construction papers. Hand-write “to” and “from” information on each gift tag. Use a hole punch to perforate each tag, and tie it to a Christmas or holiday gift with string or ribbon.
5. Fun photo frames
Christmas or holiday cards often sport pretty graphic
borders. By cutting these out carefully with a ruler and a razor or a craft
knife, one can make lovely photographic frames. Simply affix a special
photograph to a cut-out frame by taping the picture from the back. Why not
dress up those annual school pictures for gift-giving?
6. Pretty place cards
Make Christmas dinner table more festive by creating holiday
place cards from old Christmas cards. Choose several cards, and cut out
small squares. Fold each square in half to make a place card, and write a
dinner attendee’s name on the front. Try to position the cutting to leave a
pretty holiday accent on the front of each place card, while allowing
sufficient blank space to write a name on it.
7. Spiffy snow globes
Small Christmas and holiday card artwork can produce lovely
snow globe images. Around Christmas time, many craft shops and discount stores
offer do-it-yourself
snow globe kits. These little plastic domes snap together quite easily. Cut
an old Christmas or holiday card to fit the snow globe, using the pattern
provided in the kit. Slip the image inside the snow globe, and snap the base on
securely. Christmas or holiday snow globes make super teacher gifts.
8. Terrific Christmas
tree ornaments
Some Christmas and holiday cards feature darling seasonal
images, such as angels, nativity scenes, Santas, snowmen, or wreaths. Cut out
these pictures, using manicure
scissors, to make pretty Christmas tree ornaments. Punch a small hole in
the top of each cut-out (with a simple hole puncher), and string it to the tree
with yarn or ribbon.
9. Whimsical wreath
Old Christmas cards (particularly vintage holiday cards) can
produce a stunning holiday wreath to display at home or present as a gift. Create
a wreath form by cutting a large circle from a sheet of cardboard or poster
board. Cut a smaller circle from the center. Trim the fronts from several old
Christmas or holiday cards. Arrange the card fronts on the wreath form. Mix
shapes and colors, as desired. Paste cards in place.
Why not recycle greeting cards all year?
Lovely greeting cards may arrive all year long. Birthdays,
Easter, Valentine’s Day and other occasions often lead to collections of
elegant and adorable greetings. Try these recycled card solutions any time of
year to realize seasonal cost savings and save paper for holiday decorating and
greetings.
Feel free to follow on Google Plus and Twitter. Like this
blog? Check out Practically at Home on Facebook. You are invited to visit my
author page on Amazon.com.
