DIY Recycled Christmas Gift Tags!

STOP!  REUSE!  RECYCLE!  GO GREEN AND blah, blah, blah...

Seriously though, don't throw your Christmas cards out yet.  I'm going to share with you, a simple little something I do with the Christmas cards I receive.  I think it's a brilliant idea if I do say so myself, (and I do).  I can't remember if it was an original idea of mine or if I learned it from Martha or Erma or on HGTV somewhere.  I've been doing it for years though and I think you're gonna love it too.

This is the simple way I label my gifts each year. I recycle the Christmas cards I receive the previous year.  I cut them in half so it's just the front of the card, write To: (so and so) From: Santa or (so and so) and bam; I'm done!

One of my very favorite parts of the holidays is receiving Christmas cards.  I literally tackle the postman when he arrives at 3:10 pm each day from Thanksgiving through the New Year.  He doesn't seem to mind, however, the tip I give to repair any damage I inflict never hurts. My unbridled excitement is reminiscent of waiting for a long lost love letter.  By the way, just an aside, you youngen's who are all eletronicified really missed the boat on the old fashioned communication known as a love letter.  Not the same when it comes in email form or through Facebook or chat.  It has to be on that ethereal thin pale blue paper, have a real air mail stamp and be SWAK.  (Sealed with a kiss.)

I'm a sentimental sap, in case you hadn't already noted.  I love greetings at Christmas from friends old and new, even the ones I haven't seen in 20 years!  Doesn't matter to me, I'm just happy to stay in touch.  I especially love the personal photos so I can catch up and love-on all those smiling faces.  I adore the photos of kids, families together, and even pets or vacation photos. They are all a treasure to me.  I fawn over each and every one.  Some make me laugh, some make me cry over how quickly things change and they all get a place of honor in my home during the holiday season.

After the new year when I'm cleaning up,  and stuffing all my crap back lovingly placing each decoration back into their storage box, I keep the best for last.  First I roll up the garland and shimmy the angels and mangers and wreaths out the door.  I'm ready and can't wait to lighten my house up by taking out all the extra things.  The tree which looked and smelled so heavenly at the beginning of Advent is now just a trunk with dead needles and drooping ornaments.  I'd prefer to eradicate all decorations the day after Christmas and move right along into the new year but, my family seems to think that Ephinay is a better choice to remove the tree.  Ephinay usually falls 12 days after Christmas but, I hear one can celebrate on 2 January this year so, I'm aiming for that.  Then the DIY happens.

The Christmas cards, they're the last thing to go.  I have a hard time parting with the cards.  So here's how I solve that dilemma.  After I enjoy and share all the beautiful cards and photos with my friends and family by displaying them from the first one to the last all during the holiday season,  I lovingly place the photos in their rightful place in my scrapbook album.  I murmur a simple prayer for all my friends and their families to keep safe and healthy and happy in the new year.  I keep pages of each individual family's photos from the first one they ever send me, to the present.  That way I have watched them all grow up right before my very eyes.

Holy heck, I even enjoy Christmas letters.  The closest I've ever come to writing one myself though is this blog because, who the heck wants to hear how my brand new cottage has leaks in the ceiling AND in the floor, and how if it doesn't stop raining in this supposed to be sunny all the time place I live called Southern California I'm gonna lay right down and die?  That was a rhetorical question by the way.

After saving all the photographs,  if a card was involved, I cut it in half, only keeping the front.  I use my trusty little hole punch and punch a hole which will serve to tie the card onto a gift I will give someone next year.

 There's the hole, right in the corner.  As you can plainly see, my hole puncher is heart shaped.

An ordinary round shape won't do, 'cause I love you more than that.

So there you go.  Do this before you put everything away this year, store them somewhere you can find them next Christmas, and when you go to wrap your packages you'll have a cute, recycled,  To/From label to put on the gifts you give.  And it's one extra thing you won't have to worry about when you're over flustered and trying to get things done last minute next year.  Nope.  Because you've REUSED,  RECYCLED, AND  GONE GREEN, using your old cards in a new fashion and saved some dough too.  Now don't you feel better about yourself already and it's not even New Year's Day yet?

No more buying the same ol, same ol,  gift tags from Target.  (No offense Target, you know I 'll always love ya.)  



Your new cards might just look something like the one below!

Blessings for a new year full of good health, abundant wealth and all the love your heart can hold!

Tia