Recycle Old Christmas Cards: Craft Ideas and More

Author:
Rose Clearfield
Updated date:
Sep 10, 2016

Rose is a full-time freelance writer who frequently writes about education, special education, DIY projects, food, Milwaukee, and more.

recycle-old-christmas-cards-craft-ideas — Copyright 2013, Rose Clearfield

Do you have a hard time throwing out old Christmas cards? Instead of letting them sit around your home in boxes, recycle them into craft projects. There are several fun ways to preserve them as well as a number of methods for re-purposing them into brand new items. With projects ranging from wreaths to gift boxes to kid games, there is something here for everyone. Many of these projects are suitable for both kids and adults. Happy crafting!

What can you make with old Christmas cards?


Ideas for Recycled Christmas Cards
Card Books
Ornaments
Garlands and Pendants
Gift Tags
Wreaths
Canning Jar Toppers
Kid Games
Gift Boxes

Just a few ideas to get you started!

Three ideas for recycling Christmas cards
Don't throw away those old holiday greeting cards. Instead, save them for future craft projects. There are endless ways to make crafts with Christmas cards. Here are a few great ideas to get you started.
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I saved Christmas cards for five years before I finally stumbled on a project that I loved. I fall into the category of people who don't want to throw away their cards and loved the idea of turning them into little coffee table books. You can pick up binder rings at any office supply store. In the first post that I link below, I detail a number of tips for including different items in your books, such as Christmas letters and photos.

There are a number of tutorials out there specifically for Christmas card ornaments, but you can customize many different types of tutorials for paper ornaments. As long as the design will work with a thicker paper, it should be just fine for a Christmas card. Many people opt to make 3D ornaments that each feature multiple cards, but of course you don't have to feel limited to this.

Just a few excellent Christmas card ornament tutorials.

Most of the tutorials that you find for Christmas card garlands are garlands designed to display your Christmas cards. While there are some fabulous display garlands, there are some great recycled Christmas card garlands out there as well.

Recycled Christmas Card Garland from learning4kids.net. Create a classic pendant garland with a different Christmas card for each pendant.
Recycled Christmas Card Garland from Cathy Swaney. Cathy made Christmas card ornaments of sorts and then strung them.

In my quest to eliminate expenses for wrapping Christmas presents, I have started to keep my eye open for creative recycled gift tags. Christmas card gift tags are a great option. All you need is a paper punch or pair of scissors, a hole punch, and some ribbon or string. Of course you can have fun decorating your cards, too.

Holiday Crafts from Recycled Paper and Greeting Cards: Gift Tags, Square Quilted Card, Crazy Quilt Bookmarks

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Jump on the wreath trend and fashion your old Christmas cards into a new holiday decoration. You'll enjoy getting to re-visit your favorite cards each year when you get it out again. Similar to the garlands, there are a number of tutorials out there for wreaths designed to display Christmas cards. However, there are also a few tutorials for recycled cards.

Are you looking for more paper wreath inspiration? Check this out!

How to Make Paper Wreaths: Handmade Craft Home Décor Ideas
This article is about how to make paper wreaths. It includes a wide variety of tutorials for handmade craft home décor. The possibilities for paper include scrapbook paper, old books, tissue paper, and much more.

Are you planning to give Christmas gifts in canning jars? For example, many people opt to gift cookie and other cooking mixes and baking mixes in canning jars. Why not decorate the jar tops with recycled Christmas cards?

~ S.C.R.A.P. ~ Scraps Creatively Reused and Recycled Art Projects: Old Christmas Cards Make New Gift

Kid Games

This idea never would have occurred to me, but it is brilliant. The tutorial below details how to create jigsaw puzzles and memory games out of old Christmas cards. Like many of the tutorials in this article, you can customize this concept with any kind of greeting card. Kids may not want to play with Christmas puzzles all year round, but you can create additional games out of birthday cards and much more.

Recycle your Christmas cards - make a jigsaw and a memory game - NurtureStore

Christmas cards can be transformed into sweet little gift boxes for numerous different kinds of small gifts. They are so pretty that the recipients won't want to throw them away. You never know when you'll see one pop up under the tree again next year.

Recycle Christmas Cards: Mini Boxes

More recycled craft ideas from the author.

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This article is about junk mail crafts. There are a wide variety of unique projects to make with recycled paper including stationery products, wall art, jewelry, and home décor. There are lots of photos and resources.
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Comments

Mario Johns from United States on March 10, 2013:

cool

Rose Clearfield (author) from Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 07, 2013:

No worries!

Kathryn from Windsor, Connecticut on March 07, 2013:

Oops, I just noticed I wrote "car" instead of "card". At least you knew what I meant!

Rose Clearfield (author) from Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 07, 2013:

That's great, Kathryn! Best of luck with your card projects. :)

Kathryn from Windsor, Connecticut on March 07, 2013:

Great ideas. I have a few years worth of Christmas cards, and I have plans to make a car scrapbook with them. But I really like the card books. I'll definitely refer back to this article when I have spare cards to use. Thanks for sharing your ideas with us. I like to recycle and reuse when I can.

Rose Clearfield (author) from Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 06, 2013:

Thanks so much, Torri! Have fun with these new ideas.

torrilynn on March 06, 2013:

Randomcreative,

Really great idea to recycle christmas

Cards, i would have never thought of that

Thanks for the new idea will be using in

The future. Thanks and voted up .

Cynthia Calhoun from Western NC on March 06, 2013:

Love this! Wonderful ideas and I'm sitting here wondering what I did with all my Christmas cards. Hehe. I think I want to try out the wreath idea. :D

Victoria Lynn from Arkansas, USA on March 06, 2013:

This is great. I agree that the card books are so cool! Sometimes my family tears off the front of a card to use it to decorate a package. We started doing that when we were traveling with packages and didn't want smashed bows. I stopped buying bows after that.

Cool hub. Voted up and more!

Rose Clearfield (author) from Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 04, 2013:

Thanks, Jamie! I am so happy with my Christmas card books and have gotten a number of compliments on them. You're right about the possibilities for cards as altered art books/book components of sorts. There are so many options.

Jamie Brock from Texas on February 04, 2013:

Rose- I love the card books with the binder rings! HOW CUTE! I think it's such a great idea... If someone has saved a lot of cards and didn't mind parting with them, the cards themselves would be a great base for pages of a journal and kind of turn it into a photo or art journal, maybe tie some ribbons around the binder rings to jazz it up. Hope that made sense! Anyway, love this hub.. there is so many different things that can be done with Christmas cards received over the years and you have shared LOTS of great ideas here :)

Rose Clearfield (author) from Milwaukee, Wisconsin on January 31, 2013:

Purl, I'm glad that you got some new ideas here!

Carol, old cards are perfect for decoupage. It's always exciting when you can reuse materials.

Yvonne, thanks! You'll have to bookmark this and make a wreath next year.

Yvonne Spence from UK on January 31, 2013:

There's some great ideas here. We've done the gift tag one many times and made other cards from bits of cards, but I'd never have thought of making a wreath. Sadly, this year our cards have gone off to be recycled, so I'll have to wait another year to try these out!

carol stanley from Arizona on January 31, 2013:

I used some old cards in a decoupage project. I love using old things and getting a second go around. Great ideas here. Voting Up and pinning...

Donna Herron from USA on January 31, 2013:

This is a great hub. I've used cards as garland, but you've shared some other great ideas. Love it!!

Rose Clearfield (author) from Milwaukee, Wisconsin on January 30, 2013:

Thanks, Rosie! I'm the same way. Cutting cards up into bookmarks is a great idea.

Audrey Surma from Virginia on January 30, 2013:

These are great ideas. I can never throw away Christmas cards or any other kind of card for that matter. They end up in boxes in the attic. I have cut them into wide strips and given them to students to use as bookmarks. Voted up and useful.

Rose Clearfield (author) from Milwaukee, Wisconsin on January 30, 2013:

Thanks, Natasha! That's great. Post card books are a neat idea, too.

Natasha from Hawaii on January 30, 2013:

I really like the mini gift box idea! That's cool. I've turned old cards into tags in the past, and I know someone who makes postcard books, but I'd never thought to make boxes.