As you all know, I love Christmas crafts and finding new uses and unique ways to use old cards is something I do every year. There are tons of ways to to use those special cards and today I will share an easy way to reuse your Christmas Cards as next year’s gift tags. During this festive season, you can reuse your favorite cards from past years to make your gifts memorable. This is what I do every year after New Year’s to clear up the mantle and it’s a great way to and throw out and recycle less.

A super easy upcycling idea!

During the holiday season we all get new Christmas cards. Why not give those holiday greeting cards new life and put them to good use! This is a fun way to take your favorite Christmas cards and make them into gift tags.

Put simply, I use a pair of scissors to cut out the parts of the card I want to keep, usually from the front of the card. I like using pinking shears – the kind that cuts with a zig-zag edge – to cut out any images, words or pretty patterns on the Christmas Cards I’ve received. You can cut them in various shapes and sizes. I then save them in a box to use as gift tags for next year. Often you can make several gift tags from a single card.

You can use a hole punch to create somewhere to string a ribbon or piece of twine, or you can simply use a piece of sellotape on the back of the card to attach it to your gift boxes and have it be a ‘flappable’ gift tag.

That is usually what I do. You can see some examples of where I use these gift tags in this article about ways to reuse packaging as wrapping paper.

Organize your gift tags for next year!

You can also use old greeting cards or birthday cards from other occasions to make gift tags. I save my gift tags in two boxes in the cupboard. One for Christmas and one for any other kind of gift.

Depending on the kind of cards you receive you may be able to cut out some images that are not overtly Christmas themed and save them for other gifts throughout the year.

For example the photo above of the vase tag. It’s still fairly Christmassy but I might be able to get away with using it as a birthday gift.

Sometimes I get cards in non Christmas colors or with different kinds of images on them. I cut those up too and put them in my separate ‘any other kind of gift’ box to use throughout the year for birthdays and the like.

As well as using old Christmas Cards as gift tags I also use upcycled cardboard from the recycling bin to make gift tags & kraft tags.

Do you have other creative ways to use upcycled materials as Christmas gift tags?

I’d love to hear what they are – drop me a note in the comments!

How to Upcycle Christmas Cards as Gift Tags

Active Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Simple idea for reusing Christmas Cards and saving them for next year's gift tags!

Materials

Christmas Cards

Tools

Pinking Shears
Hole Punch - optional

Instructions

When you take down your Christmas Cards set aside some time to cut out images, text or patterns that could be reused as gift tags.
Use Pinking Shears to give your tags an attractive zig zag edge.
If you like you can use a hole punch to create a place to string a ribbon or twine to attach the tags to your gifts.
Store festive themed tags in a box for next Christmas and other tags in a 'year round' box for use on other gifts throughout the year.

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Pinking Shears

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how to reuse christmas cards as gift tags

If you are looking for more upcycled gift wrapping ideas try the Upcycler’s Guide to Gift Wrapping or 6 Ways to Reuse Packaging as Upcycled Gift Wrap (my Christmas Card gift tags feature heavily in this one!).