Post-Holiday Crafting: What to Do with Your Christmas Cards

Happy 2012, everybody!!

We hope your holidays were joyful and filled with family, friends, fun, and yummy food.  Now that the new year has started, you're probably in the process of putting away your Christmas decorations and trying to answer that age-old question:

What should I do with all of these Christmas cards?

Christmas cards are so much fun to send and receive, and if you're like me, you feel bad about just throwing them out when the holiday season ends.  I've found several different ideas online for reusing Christmas cards, but this one was my favorite.  Even better, it utilized my Silhouette SD Craft Cutter!  If you don't have a Silhouette, don't fret; you can do this with a pair of scissors, too. :)  With just a little bit of time, your Christmas cards can find new life as Christmas gift tags!

All you will need for this project are Christmas cards, scissors/craft cutter, and a gift tag template (or you can just eyeball it if you're really talented!).

I would not recommend using photo cards for this project -- it would be a little creepy to have somebody's face smiling up at you from a gift. (Unless it's John Lennon.  Then that would just be cool.)

Cut the fronts off of your cards -- you'll want to make sure the back side of the picture is blank.

Read the heartfelt sentiment on the inside of the card and then file it or trash it or whatever.

If you have a Silhouette, you can download gift tag templates to use, or you can design your own.

If you don't have a Silhouette, I'm sure you can find free templates online; you could also trace an existing gift tag, draw your own, or just freehand it.

Once you have your card fronts and your template, cut cut cut!  I was able to get 20 gift tags from four regular cards and two money-holder cards.

Save your tags for next Christmas, when you will amaze everyone with your creative, ecofriendly way for addressing your gifts.

What do you normally do with Christmas cards?