Recycled Christmas Cards

I recycle Christmas cards that I have received into awesome ornaments, bag decorations, or gift tags. They are super easy to make and are a great way to remember the special someone that gave the card to you.

The photo to the right are four I just made. The first was made by just finding an oval to use as a template. After cutting my oval out, I outlined the edge with a glue pen and sprinkled on the glitter. Shake off the glitter. If you want to make this into an ornament, punch a hole in the top and run a ribbon or rafia thru the hole. Tie in a knot and hang on the tree.  You can also hang it from the handle of a gift bag. Leave out the hole and glue it to the side of a plain gift bag.

The second and third one (I'm running top to bottom, left to right) were made the same way but in different shapes. The third one was made using a cookie cutter as my template. I've used several shaped cookie cutters in different sizes before--they work great!

The fourth one is a little simpler in design. No glitter. I had a smaller picture on this card, so I decided it would make a great gift tag. I simply mounted the picture to a piece of coordinating card stock. Then I used a decorative corner punch to add a little more detail. The edges around the picture are a great place to write your "To" and "From" . Or, with a dark pen or marker you can write directly across the picture.

 The beauty of this craft idea is that you can go as simple or as crazy as you want. You can use glitter, ribbon, beads, all sorts of embellishments. The list and options are endless!  I also feel better knowing I recycled my cards into something beautiful and long lasting!