After the holiday season is over and it’s time to take down the decorations and decide which greeting card to keep or recycle, try reusing the card stock instead of tossing it into your recycling bin.
The pictures may be cute, or the card stock could be durable enough to make puppets from; either way, it is a great way to keep the little ones included in holiday greetings and keeping them occupied during their vacation. It’s frugal and green: By reusing the images you’re reducing the amount of waste that would otherwise go to into recycling.
Recycle Greeting Cards into Stick Puppets
- For cards that have images of people or animals, cut out as much of the body you can without cropping heads off; choose images that feature full faces and a clear outline. Don’t worry if the image doesn’t have feet or paws: The popscicle stick will fill in as a base.
- If you want to use the card stock itself, but not the image on it, cut out an image you like from a magazine, calendar or catalogue and glue it to the card stock. Let it dry completely before adding the popsicle stick base.
- Glue the popsicle stick behind the image, about 1/3 of the way along the length of the image. If it’s an especially wide image, use three popsicle sticks, one at each end and one in the centre.
Reuse the Holiday Imagery in a Homemade Greeting Card
Cut out any picture you like, and stick it onto a blank greeting card, or a piece of folded poster board. Have the kids paint around it, or add sequins or sparkles, and fill the card with a personal message from the family.
Turn Old Cards Into Gift Tags
As with the popsicle stick puppets, you can make gift tags from old greeting cards.
- Cut out images you like from the card.
- Leave an inch of space from the top of the image, and make a hole with a hole punch to tie ribbon or string through it to attach it to the gift.
- If there is handwriting already on that side, you can glue plain paper on the other side and write the gift recipient’s name on it once it’s dry.
Turn Old Greeting Cards Into Ornaments
Domino Magazine published a great craft on making ornaments out cardboard: The dangling bird and reindeer can be turned into a mobile, or a decoration that can hang from a Christmas tree, or window.
While the article suggested buying craft paper or scrapbooking material, using an old greeting card would work much the same way. Any handwriting seen on one side of the card would add visual interest to the mobile as it hangs from pretty ribbon. The template for the animal shapes can be downloaded.
As a last suggestion, think of the cards as resource for craft projects, and try not send back the reincarnated version of the same card to person who originally sent it. While some may see it as an original piece of work made from in spirit of reducing and it’s likely to be interpreted as unnecessary frugality, or at least in bad taste: Especially if the card in question was already an original.
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