I have saved all of my old Christmas cards for years, at least the tops of them, because I knew I could make something with them. To make my pile even larger, I also saved all of the business ones sent to the company I used to work for from our customers and suppliers. This year I finally decided it was time to use 'em or lose 'em. I came up with 3 different ideas and I am still looking for more.
One of the ideas I had always planned on making was these ball ornaments.
It is pretty simple, you cut circles, fold those circles into triangles and glue them together. You can add ribbon or glitter or whatever, if you desire. It is good fine motor skills practice for preschool/Kinder age to trace and cut the circles - they will need help with the triangle folding - and then help them glue them together. Older kids can pretty much be let loose to do it themselves. Check out There's Just One Mommy for step by step pictorial instructions. She makes hers with smaller circles and lots more of them.
And the ever dangerous Pinterest provided me with the idea of cutting circles and using them as toppers for mason jars. Only another 20 or more of these to make. But at least the hard parts of making the jelly and canning it is done.
But the project I am the most proud of is my Christmas cards for this year. I was going to have J help me make cards again this year doing some kid of potato printing or sponge painting, but I need at least 30 and I knew he'd get bored after about 5. I just wanted them done. So I decided to make collages out of my old Christmas cards.
Here are a few of them.
Basically just cut out the parts you like and glue them to a piece of card stock. Mine are 5" x 7". The size doesn't really matter, just make sure they fit in the envelopes you are planning to use with at least ¼" extra to make them easy to get in and out.
And the best part about finally making something with these cards, was finding a letter from my Grandma Ruth from December 2008 all about her great grandson, J. It wasn't too long after that she started to forget who we all were. She passed away a few months ago. I will have to scan the letter to make sure it is preserved for him when he is old enough to understand.
So, do you have any craft idea for using up the several hundred I have still in my stack? Please share!
Leave a Reply