Recycling Christmas & Greeting Cards
How to Reuse & Repurpose Old Holiday Cards & Notes
Dec 20, 2007
Don't just throw out all the cards you've received. Repurpose them with these clever, useful and entertaining ideas.
Once Christmas is over, is your house cluttered with a multitude of holiday greeting cards? Obviously it’s perfectly acceptable to recycle the old cards with your weekly curbside program. But perhaps you don’t wish to discard the cards so quickly, and you’d like an alternative that would be both creative and useful. Well, look no further, as this article will outline several clever ways of repurposing Christmas cards, while incorporating an entertaining frame of mind!
Decorations
- Used holiday greeting cards are a practical, inexpensive and highly attractive way to decorate your home for an early Christmas party next year! Before the 2008 cards arrive next year, you can set out a bunch of the prettiest ones you’ve received this year. Line the mantle with an assortment of cards, attach them to a red grosgrain ribbon that is suspended over a doorway, or cover a prominent doorway with foiled gift wrap and then scatter the cards on the door.
Gift Tags
- This old favorite involves using the best looking cards as gift tags throughout the year. If you have a friend who is a bird-lover, use that holiday greeting card with the red cardinal silhouetted on the bare tree branch as part of your gift wrapping scheme for her birthday present in May. Think outside of the box here --- Christmas cards do not need to be used only in December!
Dinner Party Place Cards
- The next time you set an elegant dinner table, use your pinking shears to cut small rectangles of bold-colored cards. Using a gold or silver paint pen, write your dinner guests’ names on the card snippets and prop them against the glassware.
Photo Ornaments
- With the advent of so many Christmas cards that feature glossy photographs as the main decorative feature on the front cover, you are probably left with a ton of great pictures that you can’t justify recycling with your weekly newspapers. So, be creative and use these pictures to make unique and personalized Christmas ornaments for next year. Using a craft knife or specially-shaped hole punches, trim the photos to the size and shape you prefer. Back the photos with felt, fun foam, scrapbooking paper or your choice of fabric covered cardboard. Attach lace around the circumference of the photo and add an extra loop to the top to create a hanger. When you are sending out your own holiday greetings next year, tuck in the ornament meant for the addressee, and you’ll create an extra special impact!a
The copyright of the article Recycling Christmas & Greeting Cards in Entertaining is owned by Janice Benoit. Permission to republish Recycling Christmas & Greeting Cards in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
