I did a search for my question and did not come up with anything so forgive me if the question was asked recently.
I do not purchase Birthday or holiday cards because I always end up throwing them away when someone purchases them for me, but I would like to send something out durning the holidays and I am at a loss. Any creative ideas for me for next year?
I received a few family picture holiday cards that are awsome so I may try.
What do you do with your holiday cards after the holidays?
When we get Christmas cards in the mail, I put the envelopes and any letters that come in it, in a santa box I have sitting out. Then I hang the cards on the horizontal blinds in our dinning room for decorations.
Then after the holidays, I put them all in the santa box (with the envelopes so I make sure I have the right address) and store with my decorations. The next year, I will take out the cards, cut the front off (if there is no writing on the inside) and use them for tags for gifts. This year I cut up last years cards and used them to stick on bark I made for friends at church. I typed the bark recipe and glued it to the back of the tag with their names and from our names. They turned out really cute. So that’s what I do with our cards. Kind of recycle them I guess. =)
I do estate sales for families that need to clean out their loved one home, after the loved one has died.
I go in and make different piles. Personal items, items of value and junk.
I have never, had ANY family keep or want all of the saved Christmas cards, birthday cards… They do not even look through them… they just say, “toss those”.
I love receiving them when they include the photos…But I do not keep them.
But now with facebook and email, ecards… getting an email with the photos, are perfect. i do not have to keep a paper copy, instead I can click and drag those photos to a file.
I cut out the picture ones and put them in collage-type frames in our family room, updating them each year, if they are close friends or family. For the non-picture ones, I take a Tag shaped punch and make my gift tags for the next year out of some. The rest I donate to the school. Our special education program will use them as templates to help the students with their fine motor skills. Learning how to cut is one of the things that they continually work on over time, and that really helps the department out.
I use them for projects with the kids. The winter scenes are great for winter projects.
I make gift tags out of them.
I throw some away.
I keep the photo cards & put them in a scrapbook.
& I treasure the ones my loved ones give…especially my Gma who will be 92 in February! She addresses each one personally, sometimes adds a note, & her handwriting would put all of us to shame!
We hang all the cards we receive on a closet door in our living room. I also hang up the fanciest bows off of our presents, and make a really nice display out of all of it. It stays there until probably September or October of the next year, as a nice reminder of those who love us and think of us and that we love and miss.
When I take them down, I tie a ribbon around the stack and put it in my box of Christmas cards. I suppose one year I’ll just throw the whole little box away, but for now, I keep them.
We hang them up around the doorway in the kitchen all season as they arrive in the mail, and leave them hanging until about January 7 or so. I save the picture cards from close family and friends, and toss the rest.
We hang them on the wall, at least for the holiday season and some I keep. We keep letters and we display photo cards pretty much the whole year and then put them away.
I leave them up on the fireplace mantle for the holiday and throw them out. To be honest I don’t care much for them and would much prefer to give and receive holiday wishes by email…
We have some friends who send us a card and a picture of their family that they print on their home computer…I like that much better than the generic holiday card from the store.
Good luck.
I have ribbon on my kitchen cabinets. During the holiday we enjoy the cards by clothes pinning them to the ribbon. After the holidays, I cut the pretty cards and recycle them for gift tags for next year. Often the picture ones get put on a bulletin board in my laundry area. Sometimes I trim off the Christmas greeting to save space. So I get to enjoy the pictures year round.
Current year cards get put on the door frame with garland and ornaments. Last years cards get converted into gift tags and or ornaments or even converted into gift wrap by glueing to to plain wraping paper over a gift adding ribbons, bows, and ornaments.
All cards coming my way get a second life.
Photo cards are adding to my digital collection and a collage of them are created for either printing later or sending out as a reminder of our Christmas cheer.
I use to tape them to a door near the living room for the holidays, but this year in our new house I am putting them around a large living-room window. After the holdidays I do get rid of them, but I do enjoy getting them to add to my decorations each year.
I do send them because for some people that is all I can afford to give them & it lets them know I am thinking about them.
If they are picture cards, I put them on my refrigerator. If they are just cards, I usually through them in my Christmas tote. Then the following year I refer to them for who I send them out to. Then yes, I usually toss them.
My aunt Betty used to do things with hers, like cut them in circles then laminate them into a place mat. She was creative like that.
I have a cousin who uses them to make homemade Christmas cards the following year.
I prefer photo cards as it gives me a sneak peak at how the family is growing.
****Oh and I tape mine around the opening area between my living room and kitchen and keep them up until after I take decorations down. Then the picture cards go on the fridge and so on.
Last year, I collected used greeting cards and donated them to St. Judes Ranch. See website hyperlink below. They take all kinds of cards, except certain character brands (I guess for licensing reasons). I collected a huge amount and mailed them to St. Judes.
If the cards contain family photos, I just put those in a photo album/scrapbook or scan.
I would say 80% of the holiday cards I get are photo cards. Since I am camera shy (or whatever is more extreme than that!), we do ours with art work from my daughter who is an artist. This is the 3rd year we have done that and they are well received. Kind of a mini art show! She is 18 now and starts Art school (college) next month after a semester off since graduating High School last June.
Photo cards I save and have a collage in a family room hallway downstairs. Its pretty snug now, but the several years worth of photos, now that that is so popular and cheap to do is fun to look at!
Regular cards I save for projects the next year for my daycare (santa type ones). If they are penguin/snowman, etc and more winter than Christmas, we use this season for projects and cutting skills. Most are just too pretty to trash!
I keep all the photo cards. The rest I reuse as gift tags for Christmas gifts!!! Lots of them have beautiful pictures on them! Sometimes I use the whole card for a big gift, sometimes I just cut out certain parts/pictures of the card, hole punch and tie it on with ribbon!
What do we/I do with all the ones we receive?
It is displayed during the holidays.
I make note of anyone who has a new address etc. and update my own records for it.
After the Holidays, I throw them away.
If I kept every card received over the years and this year, then that is another thing, to store/keep/clutter the house with.
If you don’t want to buy or send any “card”… then there are e-cards. Sent to people via e-mail address.
Saves paper and cost.