Christmas Notebook

I like to reuse Christmas cards for lots of things. They make great gift tags, can be cut into Christmas postcards, and make beautiful little gift boxes…not to mention the pretty ornaments that can be made from them. We’ll look into these uses in later posts. Today I want to show you how easily an old card can make a plain gift bag into something special.

Choose the cards you wish to use. Vertical pictures work best on smaller bags, but any size or direction can be used on larger bags.

Cut the front of the card from the back, being sure to cut off the fold. I like to use a paper trimmer. It makes a straight cut, and keeps the cut side at a right angle to the bottom of the card.

I used a tape runner on these bags, but any adhesive will work – craft glue, double-sided tape, scrapbook adhesives, etc.

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After the front of the bags were decorated, I went back through the old Christmas cards and cut tags for the gift bags. A hole punched in the corner made it easy to tie the tag to the bag with a piece of ribbon. I like to add the tag this way instead of adhering it to the bag itself because it makes the bag recyclable. The recipient can refill the bag with a new gift, add a new tag, and pass it on.

I found the bags in bundles of ten at our local Wal-Mart, in the craft section. Several other colors were available, as well as other sizes of bags. The white bags make a good background to show off the pretty pictures from the cards.

~~Rhonda