Repurpose Your Greeting Cards

My family and friends would tell you that I hate giving greeting cards.  They are so expensive and they end up in a bag in the back of a closet never to be seen again.  They have no purpose after their original purchase.  The sentiments are nice but I would rather write my own poem or message than use the notions of someone I have never met.  That said, greeting cards are a required custom in most families and many celebratory events.  So, while cleaning out my closet this weekend, I decided to find out how I can put these cards to good use rather than continue to use them as space savers in multiple bags and boxes throughout the house.


Donate: While talking with some sisters from my sorority, I found out that you can donate your cards to St. Jude's and they remake the cards for reuse.  Fantastic!  Find a group that you can donate your cards to or contact your local St. Judes to find out how you can help.

Reuse:  For some reason I ended up with cards that hadn't been signed or written on.  Ummmm, those can totally be given to someone else!  But for those of you that are more creative, use the kids cards to make artwork for your babies room or to hand make birthday cards for the little ones in your life.

Here is a step by step for some artwork I made for my baby Gavin.  The experts say to change out the pictures in a small child's room every month or so to stimulate them with new images.  This is a great purpose for those baby shower cards I got plus I get to reminisce every time I see each card in the frames.

You will need:

• Greeting Cards or images from magazines or other media
• Scissors
• White or Colored Card Stock
• Glue Stick
• Picture Frames (I got mine on sale at Michaels but you could hit up the dollar store too)

I started with a very cute thank you card I received from a friend after sending a baby shower gift.  I call my little guy my monkey so I thought it would definitely have a place on his wall!

Next I cut out the monkey figure and used the pattern from the back of the card to make some stripes on my card stock.  I glued it all in place and put it in my simple 4x6 picture frame and voila, it is ready to be hung up.

Do you have any great ideas on how to reuse your greeting cards?  Please post your ideas!  Happy Memorial Day Weekend!