Christmas Cards: How to Recycle, Reinvent and Reuse Them

Soon everyone will have stacks and stacks and stacks of Christmas cards scotch taped to the mantle. Piled on tables, magnetically held to the fridge, hanging from clothes pins on ribbon or just standing in their natural state on whatever table you display them on. Christmas will come, Christmas will go and they wll go as well, into the trash. Well, there's no need to contribute to the mounds of garbage accumulating all over the world.. Even if the cards are paper from recycled trees they can still have a life in the months after Christmas and even into next Christmas.

One of my friends and i have been sending the same card back and forth every year. It's a hoot and a challenge. The challenge is just to keep track of the card and not be the first to misplace it forever. This may land us in the Guinness Book of Records, who knows. It certainly saves paper.

For a long while I would pick out the cards that I could rework into next years Christmas tags. I would cut them down to size,use a hole punch and voila! a tag! Sometimes I would glue the cut area to an interesting back ground. If it was a photo card and I was giving that person a present it became a tag that would easily identify the recipient. Hey! This is for you! See? It even has your picture on it! I'm artsy and have a bit of time on my hands so I like to do these goofy little things and sometimes people even think they're cute. They certainly come in handy and of course, save money and paper.

Some cards lend themselves to making little puzzles for the kids Glue them to heavy cardboard and cut it into simple shapes for young chldren to put together.

Anyone who send me cards with family portraits or pictures of their children get these back in another form. I buy plastic two part ornaments at Jo Ann's for about a dollar or less if I have the 40% off coupon. I cut the picture to size using the half round as a pattern. I glue this to a firmer piece of paper, usually something with a Christmas pattern or at least a Christmas color. I have iridescent glitter that looks like snow and I add that. I have little charms that I purchase. at Jo Ann's little mittens, some that say Snow or Merry Christmas and I put these inside the ball. I usually write the year on the ball in paint pen gold, white or silver. I glue gun the two sides together carfully then I glue gun boa feather because it's white and fluffy or Christmas themed ribbon around the seam of the two halves. I've been doing this with my neighbors and the picture Christmas cards they give me for years now. I imagine they must have a tree full by now. I do the same with my grandchildren's pictures in cards because otherwise I'd be inundated with them .

Another good way to use old Christmas cards is to use them as mattes around other pictures. If the pattern is right this works like a charm.

My girlfriend is a fanatic about recycling and she cuts off the verse and signature side and uses the blank part that is left as little note cards if she has to leave a message for someone in her house or if she needs to make a shopping list. The card is her scratch paper. It's heavier than notepads and doesn't get lost as easily as a piece of scratch paper.

Just thought I'd mention we also reuse ribbons, tissue paper and wrapping paper and we've come up with many different things to use and recyle to package our gifts in.

My favorites are the Christmas picture balls with the Christmas tags running a close second but they all work.

So, although it's just a drop in the bucket when it comes to recycling I have to keep in mind that every little bit counts and you can create some nifty things with all these cards rather than toss them on the ever growing garbage heap.

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