Upcycle your Holiday Cards

Upcycle and reuse your Christmas and Holiday cards into festive ornaments, gift tags, monogram labels, and good wishes!  Martha Stewart has a great idea pictured below for a Good Wish Tree.  Just cut squares out of your cards, punch a hole in the corner and attach a ribbon or string.  Use branches from the yard to make the tree.  Friends and family can write notes of holiday cheer, good wishes, or season's greetings on the backs of the squares.  It's a festive way to brighten the holiday spirit!

 Holiday Card Ornaments - tutorial from Martha Stewart.  These little ornaments are so pretty, and can be used in a glass display as shown here, or used to decorate table trees and garland strands.  Such a fun idea!  Click the pic below to go to the tutorial.

Make gift tags from re-purposed Christmas and Holiday cards - add ribbon or string, and use decorative scissors to give them a fancy scallop.  This idea came from www.thegoodstuffguide.com.

Here is another wonderful idea from Martha Stewart on how to reuse Christmas and Holiday cards.  You can even do this for birthday cards, too!  Simply use a stencil to cut out letters and create monogram labels for packages.  So easy, and so cute!  I will be using this idea for the next gift I give!

Reuse and Repurpose Your Old CD Cases

CDs are becoming a thing of the past with MP3 downloads and digital media.  Do you have a CD tower filled to the brim with your favorite tunes?  Do you have stacks of  plastic cases?  I've listed some ideas on how keep landfills free of  plastic CD cases and ways you can re-purpose and reuse.


 

Make wall art:  This tutorial is in Country Living Magazine.  Click here or click the pic to go to a tutorial on how to make this festive display using 20 CD cases. The tutorial says to print out 5 3/8" x 4 5/8"  pictures on photo paper, but there are other options.  For example, you can reuse old calendars, posters, or picture of artwork that otherwise would end up in the trash.  Just cut 5 3/8" x 4 5/8" squares from your favorite print, back them with a piece of cardboard the same size, and insert it into the CD case. Voilà!

Make a CD Carousel: Love this idea!  I found this on a blog by Sunrise Packaging.  Click the pic below to see the tutorial on how to make the carousel filled with your favorite pictures!  There is also a link on the tutorial about  how to make a CD photo cube.  These are nice ideas of ways to reuse the cases!

 

Freecycle: Put unwanted CD cases on Freecycle so that indie bands can use them for packaging their demo or album CD's. It's a great way to share with the community!

Recycled / Upcycled Picture Frame - Christmas Craft

If you're like me, you have oodles of old picture frames in the attic, in storage, or in the garage.  Why not re-purpose and "upcycle" them for your holiday decorating?  If the frames are scratched up, you could easily add ribbon, or paint them in a color of your choice, and you could even add glitter! And, if you don't have a picture frame, you could make one out of a couple of wooden yard sticks or rulers by cutting them to size and gluing the edges.  You could also use cardboard pieces, or measure and cut a frame out of a cardboard box, or a cereal box.  Then, you could use craft pain, ribbon, and glitter to make it pretty! Be sure to let the glue dry completely before hanging your frame. The options are endless when it comes to making frames.

Well, now that you have your fabulous frames all prettied up and ready to go, whatever shall you do with them?  Use them to display Christmas ornaments, Christmas cards, Christmas stockings, or other things that don't look quite right just hanging on the wall by themselves.  You can even reuse holiday wrapping paper for the background for your frame.

 I found some examples of uses for the frames that are fun and functional.  Click on the pic to go to the website to see how-to's and more info.  Happy framing!