Monday, January 13, 2014

How to Recycle Your Old Christmas Cards


It's the middle of January, which means I have finally cleared my house of (most of) the leftover Christmas clutter. The decorations have been packed away, the cookies have all been eaten, and the New Year's resolutions have been slacking ever so slightly!  One holiday remnant I hold onto perhaps a little too long are the Christmas cards we have received. I love looking through them and reading the stories and well-wishes from our friends and family. But what do you do with them when the season is over? Toss them in the recycling bin? This year I decided to try a new project, and upcycle some of my favorite cards into gift tags for next year. It is a simple project, and only took me about 15 minutes to complete. For those of you with LOTS of Christmas cards, it may take a little longer.

Here's how to get started:

Gather your crafting supplies. I used a few of my favorite decorative hole punches and corner punches. If you don't have any of these, plain old scissors or pinking shears will work just fine, too!

 
Select a few of your favorite holiday cards, and let's get to work!


I began with a poinsettia card that I knew would work perfectly with my large round hole punch. Trim the front of the card from the greeting. Then, make sure the image is lined up where you want it with the hole punch. Simply punch out, add another small hole with a basic hole punch, tie a string, and you're done! You just made your first Christmas card gift tag. Pretty simple, right?

Here are a few other examples of tags I made using cards. Get creative - sometimes you can even make multiple gift tags out of one card image. It will save you a little extra cash on your gift wrap for next year's holidays. Enjoy!






Do you have a great idea for recycling old Christmas cards? I'd love to hear it! Share in the comment section below :) Happy crafting!

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