upcycled holiday cards

upcycled holiday card - Warren Kimble Cards

I am finally getting around to decorate the tree we got 2 weeks ago.  As I started unpacking my decorations, I found several ziplocs full of holiday cards from the years past.  They were just too pretty to throw away...so I save them each year thinking I will do something with them...yet there they sit, away in a bin, year after year.  I did a little research to see what I could come up with...after all, I do have an empty tree to fill!

photo courtesy of martha stewart website

Martha Stewart (of course) has a whole gallery filled with Christmas card craft ideas.  Check it out, so many great ones from ornaments, to tags, to garlands.

photo courtesy of Bobbi Lewin

Bobbi @ Bobbi's Art created a really sweet green holiday garland out of holiday cards.  Her whole blog is very fun, take a moment to look it over.

After being inspired by all the great ideas I found online...I decided to try out one of my own as well.  I took out some of my bottle cap supplies from when I was making vintage bottle cap pendants not too long ago and decided to make a few bottle cap ornaments for my tree.  These ornaments are very simple to create. 

 Using a 1" circle punch, I punched rounds from the holiday cards.  I used a small dot of craft glue, Sobo works great, to adhere the circle to the inside of the bottle cap.  

Then for the hanger, I cut a piece of ribbon and used a small dot of hot glue on the back of the bottle cap.  I bet a few dabs of glue and a sprinkling of clear glitter would be the perfect finishing touch to add that extra sparkle to these sweet little ornaments!

If you don't have the time or you just don't think you are the crafty type of person...don't be so quick to throw away your cards after the holidays.  St. Jude's Ranch for Children is a wonderful organization that will accept your old cards and the children they work with turn the previous years cards into new cards!  They also accept all occasion greeting cards, so be sure to go to their website and read all about how to mail them your old cards not only from the holidays, but all year round!

Now...I still haven't finished decorating my tree or made my holiday cards this year and Christmas is less than a week away!  How are you doing with all your holiday preparations?!