Festive New Uses for Old Christmas Cards

If you're anything like me, you love sending and receiving Christmas cards...because it's simply the best time of year to catch up with everyone and send your well wishes. Those of us who participate in this great holiday card exchange have helped to make it the largest card-sending occasion of the year, with 1.9 billion cards flooding the post offices between November and December (according to the U.S. Census Bureau, courtesy of Hallmark Research).

I try to get my cards out the day after Thanksgiving, because I'd rather be addressing envelopes than hanging out at the local Walmart on Black Friday. A couple of weeks later, around the first week of December, I begin to reap the benefits of this huge mailing project when I start to receive cards back from friends and family all over the world. So, what do I do with my share of those 1.9 billion cards once I've read them? The answer is, quite simply, I put them to good use to make my next Christmas even more special.

You don't have to be terribly crafty to make things out of old cards. In fact, you can do a lot with just a few supplies. There are a lot of ideas online, but here are some of the simplest. Start with scissors, and consider these wonderful ideas:

ORNAMENTS FOR YOUR TREE

There are so many different types of ornaments you can make out of old Christmas card fronts. Here are some of my favorites:

Fancy Christmas Ball Ornaments

If you have a lot of excess Christmas cards, this project will help you use up a lot of them. It only requires a lot of cutting and gluing, but the ornaments are beautiful and you can adjust them to be as small or as large as you want.

All you will need is: scissors, glue (heavy duty or hot glue gun work best), a letter opener or pen, old Christmas cards, something round to trace a pattern, a triangular cutting patter that fits into the circle. You can make your own pattern out of cardboard, but be sure that the triangle has equal lengths on all sides, and that each of the three corners touch the edge of your circles.