A belated Merry Christmas and seasons greetings to all of you. Hubby and I spent our first Christmas Day at home. With no commitments, it was a wonderfully relaxed day filled with lots of computer gaming :)

Every year, I hand make a small number of cards which get sent to a select number of friends and family. In return, I sometimes get a Christmas card back. Every year, I go through the whole, “now what can I do with these Christmas cards” thing. This year, I thought I’ll take a quick look at different ways of keeping your Christmas cards out of landfill.

Cute Sock Monkey Christmas Card by sunsetgirl creations

• I love these flickr photos of cute little boxes and magnets made from recycled christmas cards
• Recycled ribbon spool ornaments – this one uses recycled christmas cards and old ribbon spools!
• Birdhouses from Greeting Cards – cute little bird houses
• Recycle and Reuse Christmas Greeting Cards – this is a great resource – lots of links to crafty projects you can do with your christmas cards, including creating gift tags, miniature gift boxes, magnets and more.
• DIY Holiday stars – takes a bit of time but fun looking holiday star, also good as a tree topper
• Recycled Christmas Card Ornaments – make christmas tree ornaments with your old cards.
• Recycle them in your yellow-lidded recycling bin.
• Donate them to your local child care centre, school or nursing home for their craft activities.
• Make them into new cards for the following year.
• Create a keepsake basket from your old cards

Plexiglass trees by Lauren Manning

Avent calendar cones by Francine Clouden

While this isn’t made from Christmas cards, I love this advent calendar made from paper lying around your house.

Any other fun ways to recycle your old cards?