December 28, 2011

An Old Christmas Card

It's the same every year. Starting in early December my house is filled with Christmas cards from family and friends near and far. I love checking the mail, reading the greetings, seeing the family photos, and hearing about how everyone's year has been. It is awesome. That is until I have to decide what to do with them once the New Year has begun. Sure, some cards are special and will end up in my pretty tied-up pile that comes out with the decorations each year, but the bulk of them need to go somewhere else and I simply hate for that to be in the trash can.

If you're like me and wondering what to do to with all those cards, consider reusing and recycling. I've rounded up a few fun ideas that should work for almost every crafty skill level:

Take all those photo cards from friends and fam and create a photo collage to be enjoyed year-round. Try framing a collage like this one made by MotherHuddle.com or creating a scrapbook page like Ali Edwards often does. I'm planning on doing this for this year, as well as saving some of my favourites to add in as embellishments on other holiday scrapbook pages.

photo collage from MotherHuddle.com

collage scrapbook page from AliEdwards.com
If you have kiddies (big or small) in the house, try creating your own advent calendar that uses bits and pieces of old cards behind the doors, like this one on the ever-crafty MarthaStewart.com website:


Of course you can also use bits and pieces of those holiday cards to whip up gift tags to use next year, handmade ornaments such as this intricate 3D star, or this awesome little gift bag. I would love to get a little treat in one of these beauties, wouldn't you?

as seen on wikihow.com
The options for kid friendly crafts are endless too. You could sit them down with child-friendly scissors, glue or tape a guidelines for making coasters, bookmarks, tree ornaments, art pages, holiday magnets, puzzles, and more.

Or, if you consider yourself the non-crafty type, you can always donate those holiday cards to a program like the St. Jude's Ranch, which recycles old cards of all occasions into new cards through one of their programs. The old cards are made into new cards by removing the front and attaching a new back. The benefits are "two-fold in that customers can buy “green” holiday cards for use and the youth involved in the Ranch program receive payment for their work and learn the benefits and importance of “going green”. 

As you take down those card wreaths, garlands and mantle displays this year, take the time to give those old cards new life rather than just tossing them in the trash.

Do you have another fun way to use up old cards?

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