Recycling Old Christmas Cards

What should I do with old Christmas cards? That question has kept me awake at night. I can not just toss them into the trash and I do not always make it to the stores that recycle them on time. Yet, I could not live with the guilt I felt throwing them away considering the time and amount of money that is involved in sending them.

Then one day, many years ago, I received a gift from a sweet little lady at our church. It had the cutest gift tag attached and I asked her where she found the tag. Come to find out, they were made from old Christmas cards. She is in heaven now, but would be pleased to know her idea is being passed along.

But first things first. With the cards I receive I place them into a basket and set the basket near our kitchen table. When we bless our food, we also pull out a card and pray a blessing upon the sender of the card. We might go through the stack two or three times before I decide to do the next step.

Sometime in January or February when the kids are bored with their Christmas gifts and begin to whine, "I'm bored," I place the Christmas cards before them with scissors and say, "Have a ball!" If you have decorative edge scissors or pinking shears, it makes it even more fun. I then instruct them to cut out pictures from the front of the cards. When they are through cutting, you will have a stack that looks similar to this.

After they are cut, the rest becomes trash and I can sleep at night knowing I threw out trash.

You can use them at this point for tags but if they are embossed it makes the back rough. I use scraps of card stock paper (construction paper is fine too) to fix the problem. Just lay the cut out on top of the paper and then cut around the edges leaving a border. You can stick the card onto the paper by using double sided tape or a glue stick.

Next, spend 30 mintues searching for your hole punchers that end up being in the bottom of your child's underwear drawer. Stand and wonder why for a couple of minutes until it troubles your mind, then get back on task.

Punch a hole in the top, corner, or side of the tag. Take some string, ribbon, twine, or even colored trash bag twists and use them as your attachment thingy. Simply write on the back the "To" and "From" and you have a cute gift tag.

Also, if you are lacking decorations for your tree and want to save money, these also make cute ornaments. The little lady who taught me this also made extras, placed about 25 in a ziplock bag and sold them in crafts shows, yard sales, etc. for .50 cents per bag, or just gave a bag as a gift when company stopped by for a visit.

Hint: This idea can also apply to old birthday, valentine, get well, etc. cards. You would then have gift tags for different occasion gifts.

This is a very kid friendly project and can not be made wrong. It teaches children several lessons, including but not limited to, thinking of others, recycling, creativity, over-coming boredom, and working with their hands in delight.

It works for me! Find more Works for Me Wednesday ideas at Rock In My Dryer.

Thanks for reading, Rosie

PS: If you are looking for the apron giveaway winner you can go here.