Re-purposing Christmas Cards

My favorite "gift" card!

It's January, so it must be time for the annual "Chopping of the Cards!"

I love Christmas cards! To me, they are like little presents waiting for me in the mailbox every day in December. (I also love to get mail, but that's another post!)

After I open the cards, I display them proudly around my door frame.  When Christmas is over, I'm sad to take them down, and they are so beautiful, I hate to throw them away. People put a lot of thought, effort, and money into their season's greetings, it's a shame to add them to the landfill.  However, the organized person inside me cannot just pile them up and keep them from year to year, either. I don't even keep credit card statements!

For several years now I have been turning these lovely Christmas cards into gift tags to use for the next Christmas. It is so simple to do, and it saves me a ton of money on commercial tags. 

After I take down the cards, I check the inside cover for any writing, and discard those.  They are not useful tags if they have writing on the back.  Then I use a paper cutter to separate the front of  the cards from the back of the cards.

 Perfect for large gifts next year

The next step is to analyze the cards.  Most cards can be cut up into several small gift tags, or they can be cropped down to showcase a pretty shape, etc. Some cards cannot be trimmed at all. These cards make great gift tags for large presents, just simply write the "To" and "From" with a Sharpie marker. 

The next thing I do is use my paper cutter to trim the cards to small square or rectangular form.  Depending on the image on the card, I might use my circle cutter, or cut a silhouette of a true shape.  I punch a hole in the top of the tag, and tie string or thin ribbon through the hole to complete the tag.  I cannot wait until next year to put all of these beautiful tags on my gifts!