Thursday, December 26, 2013

Repurposing Christmas Cards

I hope you all had a very blessed Christmas! It's always a little sad when it's over but now that it has come and gone, what do you do with those Christmas cards that you have received? I don't save all of them but there are certain ones, depending on the designs, that I save to repurpose. I actually started doing this years ago...long before blogging existed and before the word repurpose was in our vocabulary. 


If you notice, many of them are designed with a border of some sort, printed or embossed around the edge...sometimes in different shapes...rectangles, ovals, circles, etc. I cut these out to make pretty mattings for Christmas photos and most of them can fit into standard size frames. The one above was a card I received last year and found it in my wrapping supplies a few weeks ago. I love the embossing on this one and it could actually cut twice and make two since there is a border within a border. This one only needed a slight trim to fit the frame.


I have done this through the years. Below, is the first one I remember making. I actually didn't have to do any cutting on this one because the card was already made for a picture to place in the oval. Remember the Hallmark photo cards that they used to have every year? Of course, that was back in the day before the digital cards we can make ourselves. These are my two boys...just a few years ago. Notice the acid washed jeans? Gotta love those 80's! :)


I will say that I have learned a few things over the years. This frame is actually too small to show this one off like it should. That sweet little cardinal should not have had his head nor his tail feathers cropped! I got a little carried away and cut too much off so it would fit in this frame I guess...oopsies :( You get the idea though, right? Here are a few other examples.


Son, Adam and his wife Carrie with our Hunter, sporting the lovely Santa hat.


Younger version of Adam and his cousin, Stephanie sitting on Santa's lap.


Son, Aaron and his two boys, Dacey and Dylan when they were just little guys.



This one and the one below were trimmed, miter cut in the corners and taped together.


Here is a closer look at the mitered corners...the frames were square and the cards were rectangular. 
I really liked the borders so I needed to improvise a bit.


And of course, I have to include this sweet photo of Dad kissing Mom's cheek...
under the mistletoe. They are kissing in heaven now :)

Now, back to the beginning of this post.


I had found this frame at Goodwill a few months ago and it was nearly a perfect fit...
...only a little trim was all it took. 
Now it's ready for the perfect Christmas photo from this year.  


Then, as I was looking through some of this year's cards, I found this one that simply say JESUS.
.

Hmm...I see possibilities here...
...not only will this gold embossed green border make a lovely matting...if I decide to cut it...


...look how beautiful the whole card is and it fits perfectly inside the frame!
I think I'll add this one to my collection for next year!


What do you do with your old Christmas cards? 



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12 comments:

  1. Great ideas. I save all the cards and at the start of the new year I put them all in a basket and each day I take two or three cards and pray for the people who sent it to me.I rotate through the cards all year and then throw them out and start with the next years cards.Since starting this,I have been amazed at who I get cards from. To me this is a sign that these people may need some extra prayers.

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    1. Ruth, what a wonderful and inspiring idea...I love that! Thank you for sharing this idea!

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  2. That is a fun idea! I usually save mine for school projects. The photo cards stay on my fridge all year..

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  3. Nice, creative use of Christmas cards... although I do get a lot of people picture Christmas cards now. :) Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year. Linda

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  4. So creative. Sadly, I only received a handful of cards this year.

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    1. Barbie, I don't receive as many as I used to...I probably got about a dozen or so but I stopped sending them out several years ago, myself. I think many have done the same with the price of postage. I do love them but with all of the ways of connecting these days, it seems most of us send our greetings electronically....kinda sad, huh?

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  5. Great idea! I'm always looking for ways to repurpose Christmas Cards - just found out that our local Senior Citizens Center collects the front of cards and uses them in their craft classes. Great post! -- Jan

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  6. Hello Debby, My sister every year will up-cycle her last year Christmas cards! This was a very cute idea! I am going to pin it to one of my boards on Pinterest. I want to wish you a very Happy New Year! May this next year be filled with a new adventure and many new ideas and pictures for you! :)
    xo Roxy

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  7. What a great idea! Thanks for sharing it!

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  8. Wonderful idea for reusing Christmas cards. I save back some of the prettiest ones for scrapbooking. I cut out the designs and use them to decorate my December pages. Speaking of ... I need to get busy with the scrapbooking, as I'm a year behind ... still.

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  9. Very nice idea! I even have that last Christmas card...thanks for the great tip!

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  10. lovely ideas to reuse Christmas Cards...........bookmarking the site

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Thank you for stopping by today! Your sweet comments are such an encouragement to me.