There are several things that you can do with your old, used Christmas cards besides simply recycling them along with your usual paper and card. Here are several ideas that are fun to do, festive, and environmentally advantageous!

Making new cards and tags

• Cut out pretty sections of the old cards to make into gift tags for the following year. You might want to cut using pinking shears so that the tags have zig-zag edges. Use a hole punch to punch a hole in one end of each tag, and leftover ribbon to attach the tag to a gift. Remember to recycle the remaining parts of the cards that you have not used.
• Some cards can be cut in such a way that they can be refolded into miniature Christmas cards. These would be ideal for children to give or receive.
• Cut the backs off your old Christmas cards and turn the “fronts” into Christmas postcards. A bonus is that postcards are normally cheaper to send than cards in envelopes.
• Cut out parts of the card and use them to make homemade cards the following year. Many card-making kits contain card shapes that could easily be replicated using old Christmas cards.

Framing ideas

• Frame your favorite winter scenery cards. Framed pictures make lovely gifts, especially for people who have just moved house. Many Christmas cards actually show local landmarks or scenery. Framing such a card and giving it to someone who lives or has lived in that area is also a nice idea. It shows that you have put thought into the gift.
• Some serving trays are designed to double up as a frame for either one or several pictures. These are sometimes called “photo trays” or “picture trays”. Put in your favorite Christmas cards and you will have a lovely festive tray!
• You can also get photo frame coasters. These are normally square and made of glass with foam pads underneath to protect the table from scratches. Like with the trays, insert your favorite Christmas cards (you may have to cut them) to add festivity to your home decor.
• You could make a framed collage of your favorite cards and hang it up as a holiday decoration.

Decoration ideas

• Use cut out shapes of old cards to decorate wrapped presents. This works especially well with gifts wrapped with Kraft (brown) paper or single-colored paper.

Other ideas

• Make a scrapbook of all your favorite cards.

First you choose whether you want a male or female snowperson. You then make the snowman/snowwoman’s face, add arms, and dress him/her up. Note that there are tabs for both “TOPS” and “BOTTOMS” under the “CLOTHES” options, and there are two pages of “HATS”. You can even click the “RANDOM SNOWMAN” button to get a randomly dressed snowperson. You will get either a random selection of snowmen or snowwomen, depending on what you chose in the previous step. You can keep clicking “RANDOM SNOWMAN” until you get a “random” snowperson that you like. For extra, rather odd options, click the bells to the left. Once you are happy with your snowperson, click “NEXT STEP”. You’ll now see a screen with boxes for typing in your email address, the email address(es) of your recipient(s), and a Christmas message. You can preview the e-card before you send it. After you click “SAVE AND SEND”, the e-card will be sent to your friend(s), and you will be sent an e-card notification to your own email address.

PLEASE NOTE: I did not make this game and I therefore do not know if the email addresses you type in are stored anywhere or used in any way.

Although the contents of Christmas card kits vary, they all contain everything you need to make beautiful and unique Christmas cards. In general, Christmas card kits contain blank cards, envelopes, and a selection of embellishments. Embellishments may take the form of ribbons, glitter, stickers, die cuts (cut out shapes made of paper, material, foam, wood, or cardboard), beads, false jewels, etc. The kit may include adhesive foam pads that are used for sticking items together to create a 3D effect. The kit might also contain a festive stamp or stick-on metallic letters. General instructions are sometimes included too. Christmas card kits normally have a certain color scheme or theme. Therefore, if you want to make more varied cards, consider purchasing several kits. You can then mix and match the contents of the kits to produce your own style of Christmas cards.

You can also purchase cross-stitch Christmas card kits. These contain all you need to make Christmas cards each featuring a festive cross stitch panel. They’ll normally contain a selection of cotton, aida fabric (the material you stitch on), a needle, cards, envelopes, and a chart with full instructions. These kits often contain materials for making just one card.

If you want to write a verse or poem on the inside of the card, consider some of these Christmas quotes.

Before you send your card, you may want to write something like “Handmade by …” on the back of the card. You can even purchase stick-on metallic lettering with the words “Handmade by”.

Christmas card kits can be purchased from many places. Try your local craft or art stores. Or shop online at stores such as QVC (which also has a TV channel) or Amazon. Remember to give yourself plenty of time to make the cards before Christmas!

In fact, many people around the world consider the start of a new year (whenever that may be for them) as one of the most important celebrations of the year.

Sending New Year cards is not a new tradition. For instance, the ancient Chinese exchanged messages of good will to celebrate the New Year. These are in fact believed to be some the earliest greeting cards (of any kind) ever sent. In Germany, printed New Year’s greetings made from woodcuts can be traced back to approximately 1400.

Amazon has a lovely selection of New Year cards, as shown below.

Use the left-hand menu to pick from a range of tree styles with different types of tinsel and streamers. On the right you will find decorations that you can put on your tree. Click and drag the decorations using your mouse. Make sure to look at the second set of available decorations by clicking the number 2. You can use each decoration as many times as you like and you can move decorations after you have placed them. You can remove all the individual decorations that you have added by clicking “Reset”. Once you are happy with your tree, you can click “Print” to print it.

Note that you can use your mouse to move the little snowball-rolling man at the bottom. Left click him and drag, and you’ll see that he follows your mouse movement. If you want him in a certain place on your printout, click the “Print” button straight after you have moved him.

Why not use this to make free Christmas cards this year? All you need is a printer, ink, and paper.

Watch what happens when you place a snowman, Santa, star, or angel somewhere other than on the tree!

Try playing the game in full-screen mode! You will need to click the “back” button on your Web browser to return to this page.

Once you are happy with your decorated tree, click the “Make Cards” button. You can now customise your Christmas card further before for printing it. The card could also be used as gift tag if printed smaller. Because there are so many options to choose from, you can make many different designs.

TIP: On the customise page that you reach after clicking “Make Cards”, you can add a set of preselected decorations to the card background. However, there is a way of adding your own choice of decorations. You can do this on the previous page by placing the ornaments of your choice on the background scenery (e.g., on the snow or sky). Note that some decorations may end up off the edge of the card if you place them too far away from the main Christmas tree!

The music can be turned on and off by clicking on the bells in the top right-hand corner.

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