Holidays, birthdays, going-away parties — you name it, there’s a greeting card for it.
Greeting cards are sweet to get and give, but they can pile up. Throwing them away can feel like a loss or wasteful. Good thing that can be completely avoided without allowing them to clutter up your space.
Let’s get into a few new uses for old greeting cards.
1. Use them as postcards
Cards are often only written on the right inside half, so this leaves the left half ready for use.
Cut the card in half, separating the blank side from the written-on side to create a postcard.
One side of the postcard will feature the original card’s design; then you can use the blank side to add a note, the receiver’s address and a stamp.
2. Make new cards with them
Keep the original card intact for this hack.
Cut a piece of cardstock or construction paper to the size of the card then paste that piece on the inside over the original message. This gives you a blank space to fill in yourself while being sustainable and spreading the joy of the card’s design.
You can also buy blank cards from a craft store and cut those up for cardstock instead.
3. Donate them
There are people who can take up the reins if you’re not feeling crafty enough to make new cards yourself.
The St. Jude’s Ranch for Children charity group helps at-risk kids, teens and young adults. It takes card donations and gives them to participants to creatively repurpose. They don’t accept cards from Hallmark, American Greetings or Disney.
Hallmark has its own program, though. Send back its products, and the company may repurpose them for props or displays.
4. Use them as gift tags
Cut around parts of your card to create a tag you like, use a hole puncher, then run a ribbon or string through the hole and voila! You have a gift tag.
This is a trick that Money Talks News managing editor Karla Bowsher uses.
“I cut off the cover of the card with a paper trimmer so I get a straight edge and take a round corner punch to each of its four corners for a more finished look. Then, I punch a hole in the tag so I can tie it onto a gift,” she says.
5. Use them for scrapbooking
If you’re a scrapbooker or have wondered where to start as one, old greeting cards are a perfect addition to your arsenal. You can cut around and use them along with coinciding memories, decorate pages or even create collages.
6. Make bookmarks with them
Finding creative ways to make bookmarks is definitely a step up from using random paper scraps like I used to.
Although a freshly bought bookmark is pretty, this writer loves repurposing things around the house for bookmarks, and greeting cards are a great resource to do so.
Just cut along the area you’d like to use and you’re set. You can take things a step further by adding ribbon or other little decorative pieces.
7. Upload them
If you’re too attached to a card to completely repurpose it, you can still declutter.
Use a scanner or scanner app on your phone to capture cards that are important to you. From there you can upload them onto your computer and storage drive for safekeeping while doing away with physical copies.
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