Christmas card crafts

Sharing is caring!

Don’t get rid of your many Christmas cards! There are so many different ways to recycle Christmas cards. Many, of which you can do with your kids. Spending time with your kids and recycling. You can’t beat that. Here are some ideas to repurpose or recycle them.  I thought about waiting to publish this post but I figured everyone needs to know about these ideas in advance so they would be ready when the cards started coming in.

This post contains affiliate links

Christmas Card coasters

This first one comes from Ann’s Entitled life.com. She has found a great way to repurpose and recycle Christmas cards in to Christmas coasters. The idea is genius. My hat is off to her for this one.  She leads you in so many different ways with this craft.  I recommend that you go read it and try it.  I promise that you won’t be disappointed.  To recycle Christmas cards can add to your decor and be a fun project for the family at the same time.

 

Christmas card recycled puzzles

I absolutely love this next craft.  It comes to us from the classroom creative.com. They really show a truly creative way to recycle Christmas cards.  You are shown how to turn those festive scenes from your cards in to some small jigsaw puzzles. Gather some cards together. The more cards you have the better as they aren’t difficult to put together. Shuffle them up and lay them out on a flat service such as a dining table or the floor – then put them back together again! Store the cards in individual envelopes or containers for next time. Check out their post you won’t regret it.This can be a fun quiet family evening at the beginning of the season to help get everybody into the Christmas spirit!  To add my two cents to this project you can use your Cricut to cut your shapes more precisely.

Christmas Card Holder

This great craft comes from  craft bits.com  She has found a great way to recycle old used Pringle cans.  She turns them in to an elegant display piece for your current year Christmas cards.  It isn’t difficult and the end result is an eye catching Holiday decor piece.  Then after you’re finished with the display for the current year.  You can recycle Christmas cards another way.

 

 

Christmas tree decorations:

Making ornaments out of old Christmas cards is a great way to recycle Christmas cards.  Over at funzee crafts.com they have a great tutorial on making a five point star ornament for your tree.  With the many bright and colorful cards out there.  With you and your imagination the ornaments you could create are mind blowing.

Donations:

I was definitely excited to read this next post.  It comes to us from thoughtful neighbor.com.  This post is #3 on this list  This has to do with donating your old greeting cards to St Jude’s Children’s Hospital.  A simple act of service can go along way towards helping those in need.  Check out the link as they don’t accept every brand of greeting card because of copyright issues.

Christmas mobile or “string”:

Cut shapes out of the cards in matching pairs. Hearts work nicely, as do simple Christmas tree shapes and even plain squares and circles. Stick the cards back to back and laminate them, then punch a hole in them and use to make a colorful and child-friendly mobile or “string” to decorate next year. You could add to this every year. As a variation, you could back each shape with a plain-colored piece of card or construction paper and write on it the date and name of the person who sent the card.

Recycle cards in to paper Christmas tree:

I like the look of these hand made paper Christmas trees.  The blogger uses vintage books but recycled Christmas cards will work just as well in my opinion.  This post comes from craftify my love.  You have to love the name of her blog.  A+ for that title.   She shows you how to assemble these little works of art.  You can even decorate the base to make it your own.That is the joy of crafting.  When anytime you craft you get to make it your own design.

Gift tags:

A traditional activity, but one which never fails to amuse the kids, is making gift tags for next year’s presents. Use scissors, a hole punch, and leftover ribbon.  This one is simple enough.  Take your favorite card and cut it in to different shapes.  It can be from Square, circle, oval, or rectangle.  There your gift tags, make them how you want them.  Then punch your hole and tie some ribbon.

You can find a great deal on ribbon.

Gift bags:

Make gift bags for next year by saving  paper bags to recycle also. Cut a nice shape out of each card and stick it to the front of the bag (covering any shop labels if necessary). Sometimes one Christmas card will yield many different bag decorations! You can also make a collage of many cards for that extra big gift bag.  Finish off your gift bags with a little ribbon bow just above the card and wrap your present in tissue paper before putting it into the bag. This looks lovely with brown paper bags and bright colored ribbons.

 Recycle Christmas cards in to miniature sized:

Some Christmas card designs can be cut and folded into miniature Christmas cards for the kids to give next year, or for decorating the dolls house.

Christmas screensaver:

Scan your favorite cards into the computer – and some of your favorite messages from inside the cards as well – and make them into a Christmas wallpaper or screensaver with a photo program. Children love this and it is a great memento if you do it each year.

These scissors really come in handy with these crafts.

Christmas Decorations:

There are many ways to recycle your cards.  Make next years Christmas decorations from this years cards.  At http://cherrysjubileehome.blogspot.com she has several striking pictures of ways to recycle Christmas cards in to decorations.  You won’t be sorry you checked them out.

Christmas Cutie Crate:

This idea to recycle Christmas cards comes to us from Pink Fortitude.com.  It’s a great idea.  In her words recycle last year’s Christmas cards into this year’s decorations.  This is definitely one to try out.  It also could serve as a warm up to the Christmas celebration.