Make Repurposed Gift Tags
Call us a couple of hippy Scrooges, but our little family has a really tough time with the corporate Christmas card culture. Businesses send hundreds (even hundreds of thousands) of holiday cards made in China to one another and to you and me. Now that I’m in Germany, those cards go from China to the US to Germany.
I wish the companies would donate their card budget to a charity and communicate this decision with us the way they otherwise communicate with us: either by email or not at all.
It’s fun to display cards we receive from family and friends. But if you’ve received a few holiday cards that you’re not particularly attached to, pull out those scissors. It’s time to repurpose! Make gift tags with this year’s cards instead of stashing card tops all year long or tossing them. Ready?
Just cut around each image, punched a hole at the top, and string some repurposed yarn or ribbon through each one.
Now we’ve got three lovely snowmen gift tags. You could also hang them on a tree. And the best part is besides being cute, they require absolutely NO new materials. You’ll have Mother Nature giving a big ho ho ho in no time.
Don’t forget to check out the gift tags we made last year with packing materials and fabric scraps. And for more gift tag and other eco-savvy ideas, pick up a copy of my ebook, A Green Christmas.
Do you make your own gift tags or identify your gifts in a unique way? Any creative solutions you’ve seen or that you want to try? Do tell!
Stay tuned for Monday when we repurpose toilet paper rolls into a little holiday cheer…
December 18th, 2009 at 2:24 am
Do you have a Nanu Nana store near you? They have red and white candy canes, but beware, they have a strange fruity flavour instead of being minty. :-) Quite a bit of snow here and I’m loving it.
December 18th, 2009 at 8:26 am
I really love this idea. I have been using my old Christmas cards to do Christmas ABC books for my children, but I have many more cards than I need. I am going to get rid of some with your wonderful idea!
~a
December 18th, 2009 at 9:04 am
What a great idea!! If you’re into scrapbooking you could also save them to use for materials.
December 18th, 2009 at 10:29 am
I’m not huge fan of cards sent from local businesses or of cards being made in other countries for us all to send to one another. I’d rather just make my own. But, I definitely don’t enjoy receiving email cards from friends and family either. Maybe it’s just me, but it feels a little impersonal (although not much different than when people simply sign their names to cards – a little handwritten note goes a long way). I always just pick a few people whom I love, but probably won’t get to see over the holidays and send them a little handmade card. It cuts down on the stress of having to keep up with a long list and saves paper from flying all over the world. And yes, I definitely repurpose the prettiest Christmas cards.
December 18th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
You are a genius. I needed to make some gift tags, but had no confidence in it…I’ll do this. Thanks!
December 19th, 2009 at 4:28 am
Cute idea! I usually repurpose old cards for children’s crafts (ornaments, cards, etc) but never thought to use them for gift tags. I used to love using the self-adhesive gift tags when I was a kid, but now that I’m the one with purchasing power, I don’t feel the need to buy one more thing when you can just DIY.
December 20th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I really like this idea. It could also be done at the end of the season and saved for next year. It could be kind of a way to remember those special cards you might not want to cut up yet. I think I am going to do that. I still have material we used to make cards last year that we have used as gift tags this year.
December 20th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
This is absolutely brilliant! Love it!
December 21st, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Sarah, I actually used the boarder around the card for a scrapbook project. It’s not shown here since I pasted it so quickly. You’ve got me thinking about it even more and making that card idea a habit.
Katie
December 21st, 2009 at 2:12 pm
That is a great idea…we have so many cards and I feel bad just getting rid of them…we have these cute small round Christmas ornaments and cut off nice pieces of the old Christmas cards and write names on them and stick the in the top ring thing and use them for place settings…
December 28th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
My mother did the same thing this year, and it was adorable! I’ve already decided to cut out my cards from this year, to save for next year!