Ideas for Recycling Your Christmas Cards

Hi Crafters

As I promised in my previous post, here are some more ideas to recycle your Christmas Cards.

1.  With thinner cards you can make a tassel (see post 6 October 2020 for how to make a paper tassel)

2. Decorate Gift Boxes of Food Carrier bags . The carrier bag can be made from recycled envelopes as in my previous post and you can top any box with a pretty picture from the front of a card. Adding layers to decorate a box also adds interest and dimension

3. If you have embellishments on your card (I had a card sent to me with 3D robins across the front) or a small pretty section cut it our and add it to a magnet (YOu can buy these from Poundland, The Works etc) 

4. Make your cards and tags for next year.

5. Make a tubular box that can be hung on the tree or mantle that will hold a small gift or handful of sweets and chocolates. Take the front picture of your card and roll over a tin or rolling pin gently to slightly curve the card. Glue the 2 sides together. With the glued seam at the back pinch the base together and glue down. Leave this to dry firmly before pinching the top of the card in the opposite direction to the base to form a cone and punch a hole in the middle of the top. Thread a piece of ribbon through the hole, pop your gift or sweets inside and tie a bow to close the top 

6. To make elegant wine bottle labels cut a strip of card approx 3.5” wide and 6-8” tall 

 Score the card 3” from the top and make a hole in the middle. If you do not have die or punch you can do this by drawing around herb jar or something of similar size place the sharp end of your scissors in the middle of the circle punching through the card and then cut out to the circle you have drawn and around the pencil line. This will fit nicely over the top of a wine bottle and you can add your greeting to the back. It can make the giving of a bottle a little more personal. 

For all of the above suggestions you need to look at your pile of sorted Christmas cards and see which suits the shape and style of item you are going to make. Do you need to use the back as well as the front of the card such as item 6, as it will need to be a card now written on the both of the inside pages. Or is the back going to be stuck down as in idea 2. 

You can enhance your recycled items with ribbon, gems etc but I like to limit these as it is usually the original card that I want to highlight. 

Happy Crafting

Dee