Don’t throw out your Christmas cards! (Ideas for Repurposing Christmas Cards)

Eight festive ideas for repurposing Christmas cards. What do you do with your Christmas cards after the holidays are over? Well, whatever you do, don’t throw out your Christmas cards!

When I was browsing through the December issue of Country Woman magazine on my Kindle, they had an entire feature on repurposing Christmas cards. So, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite Christmas card repurposing ideas with you from the magazine and elsewhere.

Disclosure: This blog post contains affiliate links for products or services I think you’ll like. This means if you make a purchase from one of these links, The Birch Cottage will make a small commission at no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

Ideas for Repurposing Christmas Cards

Through the years, I’ve seen plenty of repurposed or upcycled Christmas card crafts, but none of them really caught my eye as something I wanted to try – until this year. The one idea that really caught my eye was the Festive Jar Toppers.

I really think you can take this Christmas card repurposing idea and apply it to repurposing just about any card into a unique topper for your homemade Mason jar gifts. Take a look and see which one of these ideas inspires you.

Framed Christmas Card Silhouettes

Framed Christmas Card Silhouettes are the perfect way to save and recycle your favorite Christmas cards. You’ll find this idea on Better Homes & Gardens.

Supplies for Framed Silhouettes

• Exacto knife
• scissors
• Hot glue gun & glue sticks
• ribbon
• pencil
• old Christmas cards

Wine Gift Label

Another great Christmas card repurposing craft idea from Better Homes & Gardens is this wine gift label.

Supplies for Wine Gift Label

• Red Cardstock
• Gold cardstock
• Scoring tool
• 2” Hole punch
• 1-1/2” hole punch
• glue
• old Christmas card

Festive Jar Topper

This festive jar topper is one of my favorite Christmas card repurposing projects. You’ll find the tutorial for these festive jar toppers on Taste of Home.

Supplies for Festive Jar Topper from Repurposed Christmas Cards

• 3” Round paper punch
• Old Christmas cards

Next Year’s Cards

These custom Christmas Cards are a great way to repurpose Christmas cards into next year’s cards. In fact, you could use these cards all year long by customizing them for just about any occasion. You’ll find this idea on Taste of Home as well.

You won’t find a tutorial for this project, but rather just an idea to encourage you to be creative to come up with your own designs. I think if you have a Cricut or other cutting machine that you could cut out words and designs and glue them onto the front of cardstock. Pretty easy and effective!

Supplies for Next Year’s Cards from Repurposed Christmas Cards

• Cardstock or blank note cards
• Cricut
• Glue
• Envelopes
• Old Christmas cards

DIY Winter Scene Gift Toppers

You can use Christmas cards or even vintage illustrations to create these DIY winter scene gift toppers from Design Sponge.

I gotta tell you, when I came across this winter scene gift topper idea, I discovered a new source for digital collections of vintage illustrations and artwork! The RIJKS Studio, which is from the Netherlands. In fact, I created a collection entitled Botanicals that you can view here.

Supplies for Gift Toppers

• Cardstock or photo paper
• Ribbon
• Scissors

DIY Wood Slice Coasters

This is one of many ideas you’ll find in the December issue of Country Woman magazine for repurposing Christmas cards. You simply follow these steps:

• Apply stain to wooden coasters using an old rag. Let dry completely
• Trim Christmas cards to fit wooden coasters and apply using decoupage. You’ll want to apply decoupage to the wooden coaster, place the card and apply decoupage to the top of the card.
• Cut a piece of adhesive felt to fit the bottom of the wooden tile and affix to tile bottom.

For more tile coaster ideas, be sure to check out this post and this post.

Gift Bags

Create beautiful gift bags using repurposed Christmas cards. You’ll find the beautiful inspiration from Garden and Angels.

Vintage Christmas Ornaments

This is an easy craft that you could even do with your children or grandchildren. You’ll find this easy vintage Christmas ornaments tutorial on Petticoat Junktion.

Supplies for Vintage Christmas Ornaments

• Wood star shapes
• Wood pieces for trunk
• twine
• glue gun and glue sticks (or craft glue)

More Christmas Craft Ideas on Pinterest

I know Christmas has come and gone, but there’s no time like the present to start planning for next year. If you’re looking for more Christmas card repurposing ideas be sure to visit my DIY Christmas Ideas board on Pinterest. h

Handmade Gift Ideas

As you probably know by now, my family is all about making, giving and receiving handmade gifts. Here are a few of our favorite handmade gift ideas:

• Microwave Bowl Cozy
• Fabric Wristlet Keychain
• Crocheted Dishcloths
• Easy Sew Pillowcases with Contrast Trim

Which of these repurposed Christmas card crafts is your favorite? If you give any of these ideas a try or have a favorite Christmas card repurposing craft, I’d love to hear about it. Just leave a comment below!

I still think my favorite Christmas card re-purposing idea is the festive jar toppers! I like to make homemade pineapple pear jam (my favorite) as a Christmas gift and these cards would make adorable toppers, don’t you think? I could even write on the back of the topper the name of the jam or print out adhesive labels and affix to the back of the topper or top of the lid.

Again, if you have any Christmas card repurposing ideas that you like to use, I’d love to hear about it!

Til next time…