Recycled Christmas Cards

My Mom is giving some gift cards as gifts this Christmas and wanted some nice cards to put them in. She has quite a good card stash, but didn't really like anything that she had. So I took two of her cards and some supplies and came up with these.

Both cards are just standard greeting cards, one was a wedding card and the other a mother's day card. I purposely picked one's with solid background colors to make it easier to match papers.

You'll notice the above card has a lined envelope, because it had a weird logo printed inside. I just deconstructed the envelope and used scraps to line it and then glued it back together.

I took some scrapbook paper and stickers she already had and made sure to cover everything well. I asked her to pick two bible verses to copy to the inside of the cards. I always appreciate a Christmas card with a verse inside.

I took the same papers I used to make the cards and used a few scraps on the envelopes to help tie them in.

This card has a cardboard embellishment that I cut out of the backing of a sticker pack. It also has a random thread I found that I thought matched nicely.

I would say it probably took me 20 minutes for both, start to finish. I'm all about instant gratification. While I don't know if you'd want to undertake making all your cards this way it would be nice for those that you plan on giving gift cards too.

Start saving those paper scraps and think of random bits and pieces that you could incorporate. This would be a great way to use up those odds and ends of things you've been saving from your scrapbook/papercrafting stash. Also start saving your used greeting cards and instead of tossing them...come on you know you do...reuse them instead!

Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" to see where I'll be sharing this idea. Thanks!