Seven Ways to Upcycle Greeting Cards

[Creative Commons photo by Richard Moross]

If your friends and family are anything like mine, you probably have a mantle covered in greeting cards by now. Of course, some cards are special and go right into the memory box after New Year’s, but there are some that would probably end up in the recycle bin. Why not use your crafty skills to give them a new life instead? Here’s a little round up of some fun ways to upcycle those old greeting cards.

1. Transform an old card into a new gift box with this tutorial from Crafty Pod. All you need is a card, a pair of scissors and some double-stick tape!
2. Zakka Life tells you how to turn greeting cards into a lovely luminary.
3. Try out Julie’s quickie tutorial for making punch out gift tags!
4. Get a jump start on next Christmas by turning them into sweet little animal ornaments.
5. Create easy peasey bookmarks! Just glue two 8″ x 2″ pieces of card together printed side out. Punch a hole in the top and tie on some pretty ribbon or use a corner rounder punch on the edges for extra sass!
6. If you have a bunch of cards, you can make this awesome 3D star! Jenny Harada uses hers as a tree topper, but I bet that if you thread some string through one of the points it would be beautiful hanging from the ceiling!
7. A greeting card would be perfect as the cover for one of these mini journals by Crafty Daisies. You could use things like junk mail or brown paper bags for the pages inside to make it totally recycled!

What other paper crafts would lend themselves well to using old cards? If you have fun-shaped punches, you might use them to add a little color to a scrapbooking project. You could even cut out designs you like from old cards and use them to make new ones!