Recycle week: holiday cards, reincarnated

This week's eco-topic: Recycle

Back in the day, you could just send your old cards to St. Jude's Ranch, a nonprofit home for youths that would turn the oldies into new cards and sell them. But St. Jude's Ranch isn't doing that anymore -- which means you can put your own DIY skills to use!

Easiest reuse tactic: cut the backs off, use them as postcards -- assuming there's nothing written on the front of the card. (via unclutterer) A slightly more involved method is to glue clean, pretty, 100% post-consumer recycled paper over the writing on the back, then use them as postcards.

Otherwise, you can cut the card front and paste it into a blank card to create new cards. Or cut pieces out of multiple cards and make them into collage cards. You might even be able to sell them on Etsy!

If only portions of a card are cute, cut those sections out to create gift tags.

Keep a scrapbook? Cut out could-be-useful images to use for decorative purposes.

And remember to throw the recyclable remaining bits of the cards into the blue bin!

 

Update: One more idea -- make placemats. The end product looks rather tacky to me, but making one might be a good parent-kid project.... (via Lifehacker)

Photo by ebroskie1234 via Flickr

Comments

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Some local libraries also have old greeting card collection boxes.