DIY Christmas Card Recycled Craft Ideas
Image Credit: ©eParenting
I love Christmas, but I do shudder when I think about the amount of waste that can be produced - the decor, the wrapping paper, the cards.
Maybe you have a pile of old Christmas Cards that you don't know what to do with? Well, you could recycle them.
Here is the UK you can put greetings cards in your domestic recycling bin, as long as they do not have any additions such as glitter, ribbons, bows, googly eyes oer anything else.
But if you have a lot of cards that are beautiful - too good to just throw away, give them a another chance to give pleasure this Christmas?
How about recycling them with some of these really creative craft ideas? You can use your old Christmas Cards as the basis for lots of DIY and craft ideas.
You can repurpose them in so many ways, so here are lots of beautiful and creative ways to recycle those cards into items that you cam enjoy for another festive season - or maybe could become a Christmas tradition in your home.
Plus we have some other cool educational things that you can do with old Christmas Cards too!
Ideas To Repurpose Old Christmas Cards
Let's start with some really simple ideas to try.
This idea for using your old Christmas cards to make a bunting is so simple and would be excellent cutting practice for younger children.
Another cool and very simple idea is to use your old cards to make gift tags for this year's Christmas gifts. This one pictured above uses a special cutter, but you can simply cut up your cards to a managable size and put a hole in them with a hole punch.
Or if you don't want to punch a hole you can stick them on with glue or sticky tape.
Commercially produced tags are most usually approximately 2" x 1.5" or 5cm x 3.5cm.
Another easy idea - cut out some simple geometric shapes choosing an interesting part of card's design. Add a piece of cord or thread to hang it on your tree. You could decorate it withe stick-on jewels or the one shown here has used repurposed costume jewellery as decoration.
Here is some inspiration if you want to add more to your simple decoration. You can sew onto the card, add fabric and trimmings and layer on Christmas themed images.
The next idea is to use them to create a wreath.
The simplest way to do this is to cut out circles - you could just use scissors if you have a steady hand, or a circular craft cutter if you have one - and stick them on a wreath base.
This lovely idea uses holly shapes cut out of your old cards to make a beautiful festive wreath.
Or you could use star shapes like in this example. Again you could cut out by hand but a star cutter wuld save quite a lot of time if you have one. The kids would love it too!
This would be a little more involved, but it is so effective.
Christmas cards are usually made of a type of card which makes it perfect for folding type-crafts. This beautiful star decoration will make decorations that will last for years if carefully stored, and you could make them from other greetings cards for other times of year too!
This is called a 'German Bells' Christmas Card Ornament. It involves a little bit more origami than the last one, but is so effective.
This will require a bit of concentration and patience, but once made these folded circle ornaments decorations can be carefully stored and used for many years.
A quicker craft is this spectacular garland made from circles cut from Christmas cards. Very effective!
Use your favourite cards to make personalised gift bags for Christmas. Just stick them on plain brown paper gift bags which can be bought affordably from online or in a craft shop.
You can use your cards to make new Christmas card and collage the festive designs onto these new cards.
This Turorial suggests using images from magazines - which is a great idea too - but you could use your pretty cards to try these creative ideas.
Make an attractive garland by cutting simple circular shapes form your cards and attatching them to some festive string or as shown here, some gold coloured ric rac trim.
I hope you find these ideas inspire you use your old Christmas cards in creative ways.
If you love to try craft projects using recycled materials you will love these Recycled Postage Stamp Craft Projects, where you can use stamps to decorate greetings cards, create pictures and decoupage tables, drawers, plant pots and more.