Christmas time always brings a shower of beautiful cards
from friends and family, and I delight in each one, taping them in the doorways
to my kitchen and office. They provide a
festive look. But after you un-trim the
tree, take the Christmas lights out of the windows, take down the greenery, the
outdoor wreath, store the table centerpiece and nativity set in big plastic
tubs, wrap up the strings of tiny clear mantel lights, pack the Christmas
stockings, take down the Command hooks, and have hubby stash everything in the
garage for next year, what do you do with the cards? I mean, it isn’t like you can display them
again next year. And they’re so pretty;
I can’t bring myself to throw them out.
Surely there is a use for them.
My Amish grandmother, Olive Yoder, always had a basket that
fascinated me. It was made of old
Christmas cards cut round at the top, sides tapered, with two cards placed
together with their pretty sides facing outward, then sandwiched between two
pieces of some kind of plastic cut to fit the card shape. Holes were punched all around the edges and
top, and crocheted together around an octagon-shaped bottom base also made of
Christmas cards sandwiched together with plastic. Each Christmas season, Ollie would bring out
that pretty, artfully-crocheted basket and put it on her dining or buffet table
and put her Christmas cards in it. I
wonder if she made them to sell or bought them from someone; I never thought to
ask.
This year, I decided to use an idea I read about last
year. I made lots of gift tags! I had three year’s worth of cards tucked
away, and I spent the better part of three days going through them and cutting
out tags. For shapes, I used the rim or
base of differently-sized tea cups to trace out circles, and also cut squares
or rectangles around pretty parts of the card.
A hole punch made place to insert a ribbon.
Another idea is to make Christmas ornaments. Match the round, identically-sized ones, then
glue them back to back and insert a length of pretty ribbon through the hole,
then tie a pretty bow to hang on your tree next year.
The neatest thing about recycling these Christmas cards was
that my granddaughter Nicole was spending the day with me and we worked at my
kitchen table together – she at her craft project and I at mine. The largest cup I used was an old one my
grandma Ollie gave me one Christmas when I was about sixteen years old. It brought back memories of her love and
kindness and Christmas time at her house.
I had tears as I told Nicole about my grandma Ollie and the cup and
saucer gift. I told her about the
scalloped Christmas card basket too. Such good moments with grandchildren are
priceless!
Copyright © 2014
Elaine Beachy
Love that picture of all those beautiful gift tags you created! Good job.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kenton. I'm getting more ideas from friends on facebook; maybe they will publish their comments here rather than just on facebook! One idea was to take 20 cards, cut same size circles, fold in the edges, glue them together, and make round ornaments for the tree.
DeleteCharities can make great use of collected postage stamps from all over the world, common and rare, to fundraise, by selling them on to philatelists and collectors.
ReplyDeletePlease, visit our website today to find a charity that you would like to support. The website is updated monthly, and new charities are welcome to be added to the list as well. http://usedstampsforcharity.weebly.com/
Each charity is listed with the address to send donations to, and the date that they last confirmed their details, so that you know how up to date the listing is.
We are a free, volunteer run directory. We make no money or profit from doing this.
To add your charity, please send us the name of the charity, a postal address for donations to be sent to, and a few words about what your charity does. Don't forget to re-confirm with us monthly so that your charity appears near the top of the list. Charities can make great use of collected postage stamps from all over the world, common and rare, to fundraise, by selling them on to philatelists and collectors.
Please, visit our website today to find a charity that you would like to support. The website is updated monthly, and new charities are welcome to be added to the list as well. http://usedstampsforcharity.weebly.com/
Each charity is listed with the address to send donations to, and the date that they last confirmed their details, so that you know how up to date the listing is.
We are a free, volunteer run directory. We make no money or profit from doing this.
To add your charity, please send us the name of the charity, a postal address for donations to be sent to, and a few words about what your charity does. Don't forget to re-confirm with us monthly so that your charity appears near the top of the list. englishgirl2009-sunshine@yahoo.co.uk