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!

Crafty

The holidays are coming. We are aware of that mostly when the craft stores start to put out their supplies for the holidays. Granted there are Christmas items in craft stores for most of the year, August seems to be the time when the major push starts. I know what some of you are thinking. "We just got the kids out of school and we're going on vacation. I don't want to be thinking about getting ready for Christmas already!"

But for some of us this is the perfect time to get started on your holiday crafts. The days are longer and you seem to get more done because of it. Also, on days that are rainy, what could be better than staying inside, putting on some holiday music and working on your crafts? Whether it be cross stitch, quilting, beadwork, scrapbooking, or whatever, take some time to get caught up on those crafts that just didn't get finished in time last year.


This is also the perfect time to organize your craft area. Throw out old dated ribbon or fabric. Or re-organise your craft work area to make room for this year's ideas. You don't have to get all high tech on your organising either. Use simple clear boxes to see what's inside, or just label some shoeboxes. I have a five drawer rolling organiser that holds all of my gift bags, tape, scissors, and smaller items. Whatever you choose, make it easy for you to find things and make it your own.
*Photo courtesy of Rubbermaid

As for the craft ideas, the web is full of sites that can help you make the holidays more colourful and festive. The are sites such as Michaels which have a vast array of choices for any crafting enthusiast. For Canadians, there is Mary Maxim. This company has been around for years and offers a great selection of quilting, stitching, beadwork, and other ideas for the holidays. Whatever you choose let's start a little early this year and make your holidays merry and bright.