What Can You Make with Old Christmas Cards

After the holiday season is over, a lot of people find themselves wondering, what can you make with old Christmas cards? They need not worry. Once they take the cards out of the wall rack or the dish they use to hold them, there are a lot of different crafts they can create.

One thing they can make with those old Christmas cards is a dish to use to hold them next year. Use the following instructions:

1. Cut the fronts of two cards into a hexagon with 3” sides.
2. Cut 12 additional card fronts into 3” by 6” rectangles.
3. Trim the top of each rectangle (one of the 3” sides) into a scalloped shape.
4. Place the bottom pieces back to back and do the same for each of the six side pieces.
5. Glue the halves together using school glue or craft glue. Let dry.
6. Starting 1/2” in from the edge of each piece, poke holes around the circumference every 1/2” inch using a crochet needle.
7. Make a blanket stitch around the edge of each piece.
8. Sew the pieces together until a dish shape is formed, making sure put the bottom piece on the bottom.

Because they already have a Christmas theme, old cards make excellent gift tags with only slight modifications.

1. Cut the back off of the greeting card and discard it.
2. Look at the front and determine which part of the image would make an attractive tag.
3. Cut out this part of the image and use a single hole punch to make one hole in the top or side.
4. Feed a 6” length of ribbon through the hole and knot the two ends together.

Note that it is possible to make several tags out of a larger Christmas card.

Christmas cards can be used a second time to send holiday greetings if made into postcards. People using this idea should be sure they don’t send a card back to the person they got it from the previous year, however.

1. Cut the front of any Christmas card into 4” by 6” size.
2. Turn the piece sideways and write a message on the back of it.
3. Add a standard postcard stamp and mail.

Note that some Christmas cards do not make for good postcards. This includes ones printed on very heavy stock or ones that are heavily embellished with glitter or other items that can come loose in the mail.

People who want to preserve their cards can do so by hanging them on their tree every year.

1. Cut the front of six Christmas cards into square shapes of exactly the same size.
2. Use a hot glue gun to attach them all together at the edges, forming a cube.
3. Turn the cube so that one of the corners is facing upwards.
4. Glue a loop of ribbon to the tip of this cube so the ornament can be hung on the tree.

Anyone still wondering what can you make with old Christmas cards can try these additional ideas:

• Scrapbooking decorations
• Decoupage
• Placemats
• Coasters
• Bookmarks
• Earrings
• Place cards

It is also possible to turn old Christmas cards into new recycled paper. This paper can then be used to make new Christmas cards.

When some people say old Christmas cards, they really mean antique Christmas cards, not the ones they got in the mail the previous season. It’s perfectly okay to send an antique card to someone without altering it in any way except adding your own greeting. To avoid marring these historic cards, some people even choose to write the greeting on an insert instead of on the card itself.

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