Christmas Recycling

Well, the holidays are past us and we breathe a little sigh.  Most of us, myself included, have been super busy getting ready and celebrating the holidays.  Now that the kids are back in school and things are getting back to "normal," what to do with all those cards you received from friends and relatives this year?

There are a few things:

You can recycle them, but putting them into your recycle bin seems a shame for such beautiful cards. 

Use them as gift tags for next year.  Take some pinking shears, or just use regular scissors, and cut out gift tags for next year's gifts.

Make them into post cards for next year.  This takes a little more organizing but it's fun.  Cut off the cover of the card.  Just make sure there's no writing on the back.  Center the picture on the front and cut out a rectangle.  Make sure the size is compliant for the postal service.  Here are the standard sizes:

Minimum postcard dimensions 3 ½” x 5”
Maximum postcard dimensions 4 ¼” x 6”

Just pen a quick greeting on the back, put on your address and a stamp and you're ready for next year!

And for the ambitious: make a holly wreath.  Taken from the Good Housekeeping website. 

Recycle holiday greeting cards into holly leaves for this one-of-a-kind decoration. Using a holly leaf stencil, trace onto old cards and cut out holly shapes. With a glue gun, glue a toothpick onto the backside of each of the leaves to form a 1-inch pick at the "bottom" of each leaf. Take a 10-inch Styrofoam wreath and insert these leaf picks around the shape until it is completely covered, fanning and overlapping them as shown. Cut out more holly leaves as needed to cover the wreath with regifted greetings.

Some ideas to keep Christmas in your home and in your heart.

Happy Holidays!