Once the Christmas and holiday season has passed, we often find ourselves with too much leftover food, an abundance of wrapping paper and plenty of Christmas cards from our friends and family.
However, if you’re one of the sentimental types, throwing away those heartfelt notes can be hard to bare. But is it any better stashing them away in a long-forgotten drawer?
Don’t despair! We’ve found 7 simple ways to repurpose or recycle your Christmas cards to both declutter and decorate your home.
Feature Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
7 Things to Do with Used Christmas Cards
1. Turn your old cards into decorations for next year.
You can guarantee most Christmas cards will have a cute cuddly animal, snowflake or snowman on the front. Whatever it may be, by spending a few minutes carefully cutting around these, you can create some simple, budget friendly Christmas decorations to hang on the tree.
What you’ll need:
- Christmas cards.
- Scissors.
- A hole punch.
- String or ribbon.
How to create your own Christmas decorations from cards:
- Carefully cut around the character or object on the card.
- Use a hole punch to add a hole to the top of the image.
- Insert decorative ribbon or string to the hole and tie it in a loop.
- Hang your new decoration.
2. Scan your cards onto your computer.
A perfect way you can recycle your Christmas cards but still keep the memories is to scan them onto your computer. If you’re handy with editing software, you may wish to make a yearly collage of them, or simply just file them.
You should always put any valuable files onto a hard drive or store on a cloud service, so it’s a good idea to do this for your scanned cards. Storing on a cloud server will also mean you can access your memories wherever you are, even without your computer.
3. Create a Christmas card bunting.
Christmas card bunting is a super easy way to add new cards as you get them. Then, you can look back at all the cards you’ve received over the years and bask in the love.
Another alternative is to buy a large frame or cork board and display them in a nice layout.
What you’ll need:
- Christmas cards.
- Rope or string.
- Scissors.
- Mini pegs.
Optional: Tinsel, small baubles, mistletoe and other decorations.
How to create your own hanging Christmas card display:
- Measure and cut the string to the length of the wall you’d like to hang, with a little droop room, so it doesn’t hang tight.
- Use the mini pegs to alternate between hanging the cards and other bits of decorations.
- Hang on your wall using Blu Tack, nails or command strips.
4. Get Christmas Scrapbooking
For those special messages and gorgeous cards, creating a scrapbook allows you to display them without taking up too much space. You can also add embellishments such as stickers, ribbons and photos of the card-giver to create a book full of special memories. Best of all, this is a great way to keep the kids busy and allow them to stretch their creative muscle.
5. Craft used Christmas cards into new bookmarks.
Another way to reuse used Christmas cards is to turn them into bookmarks. This can be as simple as cutting a section of the card, or using a hold punch so you can attach embellishments, such as ribbons or tassels.
6. Repurpose your cards into gift tags for the following year.
Instead of buying rolls of stickers or tags to add to gift bags or presents each year, why not use your old Christmas cards?
All you need to do is cut out the shapes from the front of card (maybe not the ones Aunt Marge writes on all sides) and write your little message on the back. You can then attach this to a gift bag with some ribbon or tape.
7. Repurpose old cards into postcards.
Wondering what to do with the front of the cards if you only want to keep the message? Well, you could use them as postcards to send to those out-of-state or country friends and family members.
What you’ll need:
- Christmas card.
- Scissors.
- Glue.
- Card stock paper.
How to turn a Christmas card into a postcard:
- Cut the front of the card off using scissors
- Cover the opposite side of the front of the card with glue.
- Apply the cardstock paper to the glue and smooth out.
- Add your message, stamp onto the card stock and mail out.
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