Dreaming of a Green Christmas? 13 Ways to Reuse Holiday Cards

Christmas cards refashioned as gift tags

‘Tis the season to send and receive Christmas and holiday cards. Instead of tossing or recycling the cards, here are some creative ways to reuse them. Many of these ideas also work for reusing birthday cards and other greeting cards.

1. Create gift tags for holiday packages like we did in the photo above. Use pinking shears or scrapbooking scissors to cut fancy edges, sprinkle with a little glue and glitter if you wish, or simply cut a simple tag from a pretty part of the design. A hole punch is handy for stringing ribbon or yarn through the card.

2. Save money by making your own holiday gift bags; simply glue colorful holiday card cut-outs on paper bags.

3. Create new Christmas cards by gluing the fronts of used cards onto plain paper or card stock.

4. Make a seasonal mosaic to hang on the wall by arranging card pieces in a pleasing arrangement and gluing on cardboard or construction paper.

5. Make Christmas placemats. You can ‘laminate’ the finished mat with clear contact paper if you wish.

6. Make holiday ornaments like this beautiful ball created by Liz at The Quilted Turtle blog. Little kids may prefer to simply cut out pictures from cards, decorate them a bit and hang them on the tree. By the way, when you’re cutting out designs cookie cutters make nifty templates. Just trace around the cutter lightly with a pencil and cut away.

7. Here’s a craft idea that young children can do:  make holiday magnets by gluing cut outs from cards on flat magnets. Sometimes you can find unused magnets stuck in the ‘yellow’ phone books.

8. Cut the cards into strips and make old-fashioned paper chains by gluing the strips into circles and interconnecting them. Hang the garlands on the tree or wrap them around a staircase railing.

9. Another kids’ craft: make a holiday bookmark by gluing a vertical strip cut from a card onto a pretty ribbon.

10. Make placecards for each seat at the holiday dinner. Sometimes you can utilize the plain back of a card cut into a rectangle for the placecard, which can then be decorated with a small cutout or sticker. Write each guest’s name on a card and everyone will know exactly where to sit.

11. Scrapbookers can use holiday card cutouts to decorate pages.

12. Make napkin rings by cutting 1-inch pieces from a paper towel tube or toilet paper tube and gluing pretty cut-outs on it.  

13. At the end of the season, send unwanted holiday cards to St. Jude’s Card Recycling, 100 St. Jude Street, P.O. Box 60100, Boulder City, NV 89006. St. Jude’s will be accepting cards this season through February 28, 2010.

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Have you signed up for the 1st Annual January Money Diet yet?

Start out the new year in better financial shape than ever by taking a break from nonessential spending for just one month. Urban Homesteader will be posting money-saving tips, photos, recipes, do-it-yourself ideas and more all month — plus we’ll be hosting guest bloggers and giving away exciting prizes! Participation is free; to sign up, just leave a comment at January Money Diet.

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One Family’s Real Simple Christmas

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Make Your Own Thanksgiving Decoration From Yes, Toilet Paper Tubes

I promised to give you the details about the green craft project I did during my Staycation, so here you go. I first saw the idea of using toilet paper tubes to make art on the Growing Up Creative Blog. You’re not going to believe what a pretty decoration you can make from such humble materials!

This heart is made from about 8 empty rolls, each flattened and cut in 6 pieces: 

To make your creation, just lay out the little leaf-shaped pieces until you come up with a design you like and glue them together. Paper clips can help hold the pieces together if they don’t want to stick.

To finish the heart, I picked a few sprigs of dead grass and dried flowers from the garden, taped them together and glued the little bundles to the top of the piece. I hung it on clear push pins that are lightly tacked into the wall.

If you get inspired to make a creation from something recycled or discarded, you know we’d all LOVE to hear from you and see what you come up with.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

How I Spent My Staycation

Earlier this month, my body started trying to get my attention. At first it was just plain ole’ garden variety stress. Then I felt achey, like my body was fighting something off. This was followed by a feeling of tiredness that goes beyond what most parents often feel at the end of the day. During an attempt to meditate one morning the message came:  You need some real rest, a mad little voice said. If you don’t chill out, I’m going to force you to get some rest by getting sick! My own body had resorted to threats against me!

We all know we need times of rest and refreshing. Research confirms that rest will help your body rejuvenate and may even prolong your life, and even God Himself rested on the seventh day. The thing is, life can be so busy sometimes and the ‘To Do’ list can get so long that a person (let’s not name any names) can feel counterproductive and guilty for putting the brakes on. As proof of my commitment to Get My Important Things Done, I had three (3) gift certificates for spa treatements that my family and friends had given me languishing in my desk drawer. Friends, can we agree that if a person has numerous unusued spa gift certificates in her possession something is terribly out of balance?

There was too much on the calendar to take a beach vacation, but I knew I needed relief NOW.  So I X’d out two precious weekdays on my calendar for the following week and let my clients know that I’d be out of the office. Just knowing that I had the time off ahead made me more relaxed during the following days. I also called the spa and booked an appointment.

Here’s what I did over my two days off and the weekend that followed:

* Just as if I was going on a real vacation, I turned on the autoresponder the night before my Staycation so I could take a break from e-mails and the computer.

* I imposed a ban on

Simplify Your Holidays in Minutes with One Easy Step

If you do just one thing this holiday season to make your holidays simpler and merrier, try this. With Christmas just 7 weeks away, now is the perfect time to help your family create an online holiday gift wish list. Our extended family has used Christmas Wish List since 2002, and we love it. 

Here’s how it works: you create an online group for your family, and then each family member logs on and creates a wish list of things they could really use and enjoy for holiday gifts. Group members can note when an item is purchased, but you can’t see the status of your own list. It feels a little funny at first, being so transparent about  The Stuff You Want. However, I predict that if you try it for one year you’ll be hooked.

The advantages are many.  You’ll save hours of shopping time because you’ll know exactly what your hard-to-buy-for father wants. You’ll save time after the holidays, too, because you won’t be returning the light-up Rudolph sweater (size XS Petite), that Grandma bought you. You’ll save storage space, because you won’t be tucking away the fishing lure toilet seat your brother-in-law bought so that you can bring it out the next time he visits. And you’ll probably save money, because you can comparison shop online for the best prices.

Meanwhile, you can ask for something you could really use and enjoy — perhaps a gift certificate to a nursery to buy vegetable seeds next spring. Or something to support your green lifestyle, like a solar-powered battery charger or a rain barrel. Perhaps you have all the stuff you need, and you’d love to direct givers to support your favorite charitable organization in lieu of a gift.

What steps are you taking this year to simplify and ‘green’ your holidays? I’d love to hear your ideas and share them with our readers.

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One Family’s Real Simple Christmas

Can You Compost a Poinsettia?

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Can You Compost a Poinsettia?

Dear Ms. Homesteader,

Now that the holidays are over, my poinsettia is dropping its red petals and becoming less attractive by the hour. My wife suggested throwing it in the compost pile, but I thought I remembered reading that poinsettias are poisonous. To compost or not to compost?

Sincerely yours,

Poindexter Settya

Dear Mr. Settya,

You will be happy to hear that poinsettias are not poisonous, so yours can be safely added to the compost heap. Some people are sensitive to the milky sap that comes from the poinsettia’s branches; it can occasionally cause an itchy rash. Wear your gardening gloves when you add the plant to the compost, and be careful not to rub your eyes after touching the plants. Here at the urban homestead, we composted our very own poinsettia plant just yesterday, and it immediately transformed the compost heap into a festive and colorful montage:

 

Sincerely,

Ms. Homesteader

One Real Family’s Real Simple Christmas

Our good friends Jerry and Beth McDonald announced in early November that they were going to simplify Christmas this year, and spend the money they saved to take the family on a ski trip to Colorado. Just like Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis in the movie ”Christmas with the Kranks,” Jerry and Beth explained that they were skipping the Christmas tree, skipping Christmas cards — and even skipping presents.  “It will be an experiment worth noting,” Jerry wrote, and we wondered if they would be able to resist the pull of the mall. On December 26, I couldn’t stand the suspense any more. “How was the minimalist Christmas?” I asked in an e-mail.  “Did you resist the temptation to buy gifts? How did your kids respond? Do tell!” Here’s an excerpt from Jerry’s response:

“The minimalist Christmas was