Best Ways to Recycle Christmas Greeting Cards
Transform Holiday Cards Into Seasonal Ornaments and More
Nov 6, 2009
In these times of quickie electronic greetings and impersonal email missives, the tradition of creating handmade decorations and gifts seems more meaningful than ever.
Why not re-discover the pleasure that comes from crafting handmade decorations by recycling last year’s greeting cards. Beautiful, handmade old Christmas card creations are quick to make and, best of all, they’re easy enough for the kids to tackle while you’re busy with other holiday tasks. And they'll add the perfect touch to all your holiday activities.
Deck the halls
- Attach cards with similar themes to a strip of felt of fabric to make a festive bell pull to dress up a doorbell or doorknocker.
- Make a festive card garland, cut simple images – such as stars, stockings, candy canes – from cards, shapes and glue to a long piece of ribbon or felt. Hang on a mantel or banister, or wrap around a simple evergreen wreath.
- Put a new spin on a classic decoration! Instead of using evergreens, create a unique holiday wreath using saved holiday cards. Tape the cards onto a wreath form made by stretching a wire coat hanger into a simple circle and decorate with your favourite ribbon or holiday ornaments.
Wrap it up
- Glamorize a plain paper gift bag by pasting on a pretty card front. Add a ribbon bow or tiny pine cones, beads or tiny toys to brighten up the bag. Fill with tissue before inserting the gift.
- For smaller gifts, create a gift box from your old holiday cards. These little boxes are a wonderful homemade craft for children or anyone who likes to recycle.
Gifty Ornaments
- Create handmade tree ornaments from your used cards. Cut out the picture (or message) on a card. Embellish with glitter, rickrack ribbon, or gold or silver candy foil. Use a hole punch to make a small hole at the top and thread with a wire ornament hook or ribbon to attach to your tree.
- Greeting cards are easily be transformed into colorful cornucopias to fill with candy canes or other tasty treats. To make, cut out a card into a fan shape. Roll to form a cone and glue the seam with an all-purpose white glue. Then paste on bits of lace, ribbon, or paper doilies to the cone. Staple a ribbon loop inside the cone and hang on the tree.
- Cut out pictures from the card to make Christmas chains to hang on tree or around the house.
- Use last year’s cards to create new ones that you can send out this year. To make, cut out the pictures on the front and paste it onto card paper such as cardboard inserts or food product boxes (glue the cut-out on to the printed side of the cardboard). Fold in half and decorate, if you wish, to make a new card.
- Use old cards to make table place cards. Cut squares or rectangles from cardboard (from food product boxes or inserts). Fold these in half to make a little stand up card. Glue little Christmas card cut-outs onto the folded cardboard stands. Then just add the guest name to the card and place on the dining table.
HOL 101
The copyright of the article Best Ways to Recycle Christmas Greeting Cards in Scrapbooking & Paper Crafts is owned by Stefanie Gabrych Fraser. Permission to republish Best Ways to Recycle Christmas Greeting Cards in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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