Thursday, December 11, 2014

Recycling

I enjoy sending Christmas cards and am vey fussy about what I buy.  I especially like three dimensional ones, though they often require extra postage, so I don't do that as often.  I also love to get cards and it seems like such a shame to throw them away, so I have bundles of cards from previous years.

This year when I was getting out my supplies of new cards and a few left from last year, I came across a card that I had sent to a friend and that had been returned to me.  She was in a nursing home and sadly had been moved to the dementia wing so I never did resend it.  I thought it was such a cute card and tried to come up with a way that I could use it again.

I also like to wrap my gifts in attractive ways and thought that if I cut this card down, it would make a great package tag, something of which I always seem to run short. So I cut off the inside part of the card with the sentiment and writing, folded the front in half, using a boner for the crease, trimmed it way down, and voila, a nice little tag.


It was originally a horizontal card with a very long scarf to the left and more snow to the right.  Now the scarf wraps around to the back,  Those are real little buttons.  Isn't he cute?

So that got me to thinking about what I could do with some other cards and I went through all of my cards from last year.  They don't all adapt to this technique. Some are folded vertically as above where they open like a book or horizontally making a tag that opens from the bottom. If it has been written on on the inside of the front, you can't use it.  Some were small cards that could not be folded  but they could be used as a tag that you write on the front.


I will go through all those cards I have stored in the basement at a later date, but now I have to go and address this year's cards.

9 comments:

Regina B Dunn said...

I've cut up old cards too to make miniatures out of them. I put them into Christmas tins and put them on tables as decorations. When I'm sipping coffee or tea, I open them up and sift through them and sometimes get to read snippets of signatures and messages from past years.

Cindy Green said...

I also try to recycle my cards into tags if I can. It's fun going through them again and figuring out the best way to use each one. I've barely thought about my cards this year - I have a feeling they might be late!

Sue said...

My MIL was the consummate communicator and wrote letters constantly. At Christmas , she sent the cards back to the people who had sent them the previous year and thru out the year, sent assorted cards back to their recipients. She saved a bucket of money, thought people had picked out cards they liked and might want to receive them back and kept in touch with hundreds of people. I wonder if we're losing the art of letter writing. That being said, my cards will be late if they arrive at all !!

LA Paylor said...

I keep special cards from year to year. I love a 3-d card and am sending out a few this year. I love a real card in the mail.
LeeAnna

quiltedfabricart said...

Yes, my cards always get used as tags also. Just can't bear to throw them out. I also attach a pen cone or seed pod to the packages to give a nice outdoorsy touch.

Love that quilt tree!

Gwyned Trefethen said...

Very much enjoyed your recycling of cards. It saddens me that some many people have cut back on exchanging Christmas cards and letters. Clearly the fiber art crowd appreciate them. You will inspire others to find ways to recycle their cards. I used some in my mixed media work this year.

Vivien Zepf said...

Great idea, Norma! I hadn't thought of this.

Teresa Duryea Wong said...

You are so creative! I also save my cards and re-use them the next year in much the same way... or to decorate.

Quilt Inspiration said...

Norma, thanks for this fabulous idea ! We especially love the snowman with his adorable buttons. How darling !
Best wishes, from Marina and Daryl