Upcycled Gift Tags Made From Last Years Holiday Cards
Why create upcycled gift tags? Because after the holidays are over, we return to our regular lives sans ribbons, cookies, and sparkling lights. What do you do with those beautiful cards friends and family sent to wish you happiness?
Some of the most special cards might be tucked away in a warm-fuzzy-memory box. But what about the rest of the pile?? I like to see and use what gives me joy. Holiday cards, whether handmade or store-bought, all seem to be works of art, and these treasured memories can find a new life and keep us smiling when they are shared with others. Therefore, I love to upcycle these works of art into new items to share with friends and family.
Women’s Club Event
I held an event with our local women’s club where I brought craft supplies and they brought their old cards. With some snacks and eggnog, I shared the basic steps and supplies and we began creating festive upcycled gift tags.
At first, there was a little hesitance to cut into these small works of art, but once the first cuts were made, these women were die-cutting and punching beautiful tags and adding ribbon and glitter! Their creativity was inspirational!
This is a very easy way to find joy again with your stash of old cards and to create unique gift tags for your loved ones. You can even get your kids into the fun of making these holiday gift tags.
Suggested Supplies:
And lastly, a hole puncher!
Basic Steps to create gift tags from old holiday cards:
- Firstly, grab a card with a beautiful picture.
- Cut out a part of the design (or the words on the inside!). Don’t worry–pretty cards make for pretty tags!
- For rectangles and squares, use your paper trimmer. Then you can punch with the Scalloped Tag Topper.
- For circles and other shapes, use the Circle dies with your Big Shot.
- Glue to cardstock (if desired). Try cutting a circle from your cardstock one size larger than a circle cut from your card.
- Punch a hole at the top (if you didn’t already use the tag topper).
- Tie ribbon or thread around with a slipknot. This will look gorgeous on a gift!
“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun.” Mary Lou Cook
So much inspiration! For instance, many ladies also made bookmarks from their holiday cards with these same supplies.
We also adhered some of the bigger image cards to gift bag fronts, with a few strips of ribbon glued around it for a pretty border. What a way to dress up a plain bag!
Imagine how beautiful these will look on gifts this season! I hope this inspires you with a new and unique use for your stash of cards! Please let me know if this is something you will do with your holiday cards! I’d love to see any tags your create!
I love reusing things to make new and useful things. I started doing this and making upcycled gift tags a few years ago when I didn’t want to just throw out my cards, but they were consequently piling up. Plus I needed gift tags. Sometimes the sender of the card receives it back as a tag on their gift, and they love to know I created a new life for their card!
If you also love reusing things and using every scrap, take a peek at these nautical cards from a kit. Or these scrap-tastic birthday cards!
Happy Crafting!
