Other Uses for Old Christmas and Greeting Cards

Like many families, we get several hundred greeting cards every year. These aren't just Christmas cards, but birthday cards, Valentine cards, Mother's and Father's day cards, and an assortment of other cards which express the sentiment of the season.

What can you do with old greeting cards?

Use them as scrapbooking embellishments

The hobby of scrapbooking has opened up all sorts of possibilities for reusing those old greeting cards. Specialty cutting tools, die cut machines, and punches can be used to create a new card out of an old one. We also use scraps of old gift wrap and portions of old Christmas greeting card illustrations to create wonderful holiday scrapbook albums.

Turn them into bookmarks

Greeting cards are often made of a heavy card stock, which makes them ideal for turning into bookmarks. Use a paper trimmer or paper guillotine to trim a card into book mark size. To make the bookmark more interesting, punch a hole in the top of the card and tie a ribbon through the opening.

Turn them into gift tags

Last year's greeting cards can be easily turned into next year's gift tags! Use a paper shaper scrapbooking scissors to cut those beautifully illustrated greeting cards into gift tags. Punch a hole in one corner so the tag can be attached to the package with a small piece of gold string.

Donate them

Art teachers and kindergarten & preschool teachers enjoy having used greeting cards for their students to craft with. Students will often use them to make gift tags for parents or reconstruct them into new cards for the different holidays. Use a sharp pair of scissors to cut the cards on the fold, and only donate the part of the card with the illustration.

Make flash cards

When my children were small, I used to turn those old Christmas cards into flash cards.

To make your own Christmas flash cards, gather up a number of cards with different types of illustrations. Separate the fronts from the backs, then cut all the cards to a similar size. Once the cards are cut into equal shapes, write the name of the object (Santa, tree, deer, sleigh, presents) on the back.

For really young children, place the cards in a small pocket photo album to use as a picture book. Rather than writing words on the back, simply insert two cards back-to-back in one sleeve.

Store them in an album

For those who are sentimental and really want to keep all those cards, arrange them in an album where they can be enjoyed for many years to come.

Pocket albums work particularly well for greeting cards, and allow the cards to be taken out and read. I've also glued them into old fashioned paper albums. Gluing just the backs allows me to open up the card and read the inscription, without having to fuss with removing the card from a sleeve.

Store them in books

My ex-mother in law taught me this trick which is a very sweet way of preserving those cards. She would store her greeting cards in the various books she had on her many bookshelves. Every time she reached for a book, out would drop a greeting card to rekindle old memories. She had 50 years worth of greeting cards in those books, and every one of them was a treasure.

There's no arguing that greeting cards can build up after a while. But, rather than throwing them out, try recycling them instead by using one of these many tips.