Recycled Christmas Card Bunting – How to

Christmas just isn’t Christmas without holiday cards. I’ve always loved to get mail, and at the holidays, I find the beauty of Christmas cards from around the world make me smile in their color, sparkle, design, and different languages. Some are elegant, others sparkly, some are celebrating winter and snowflakes, while others show off all the traditions of the holidays. Every year, I carefully pick out or make my cards and try to get them out the first week of December. And then.. the waiting begins. I practically stand at the door every day (hurry up postman!) waiting for the colorful envelopes. After all, no other time of year does the mail from my friends and family come in droves – out weighing the bills. (Who likes bills?!?).

Once they arrive, I carefully open each one, basking in the joy of the card (it’s like a little gift in each one) and then put it on the mantle or tape it up to the walls in a lovely display. When Christmas is over, I save each card – and try to find unique creative things to do with them later. It’s a great way to Upcycle, be eco-friendly, and keep memories intact from year to year.

Untitled

This year, I didn’t have much money for decorating my flat. I’d spent most of my savings on medical bills, and that meant that not only was I trying to do handmade items for Christmas (I had time – not money) for everyone, I had to find a unique way to decorate. This is what I came up with. A simple re-purposed series of Christmas cards that were a bit folksy, eco-friendly, and totally made me smile every time I saw them hanging across my mantle.

Here’s how I did it, so you can make your own Recycled Christmas Card Bunting.

Untitled

    Materials:

  • Old Christmas Cards
  • Round template – I used the top off of a Pringles Can
  • Oval Template – I used an old Scrapbooking shape
  • Scissors
  • Craft glue
  • Hole punch
  • Ribbon or String

    Untitled

      Steps:

    Step 1: Take your circle or template and move it around on the card until you find a place you’re happy with. Depending on the card, you may be able to get two circles or ovals per card.

    Untitled

    Step 2: Trace around the template and then cut out the shape. Repeat for each of your cards. Try to get an even number of similar theme or similar looking cards. Don’t forget that you may be able to use the inside wording from the card or back of the card may have pictures too!

    Untitled

    Step 3: For double sided cards, match similar cards together – eg. The two snowmen on the far left came from the same card and look nice front / back. Add glue to the reverse of one of the rounds, taking note of which way is “up”.

    Untitled

    Step 4: Attach the round to the other selection, again, being careful that they are both in the correct direction when looked at on the front and back.

    Untitled

    Step 5: Squeeze out excess glue, wipe it off, and then weight the round with a book for a while until the glue sets. Wait for the glue to dry.

    Untitled

    Step 6: Once the glue is dry, punch 2 holes in the top of each card.

    Untitled

    Step 7: Thread the ribbon through the card, making a center and trying to balance the size / shape / color on each side of the bunting.

    Untitled

    Untitled

    Step 8: Hang up across your mantle, on your wall, or anywhere else where you want the display.


    Untitled

    A few other things you can do with the same technique – just punch fewer holes –

    Christmas Ornaments
    Mobiles to hang from ceiling
    Why not make a Rectangle from a card – and hang several different size rounds down from it like raindrops from a cloud
    Add some mod-podge and make necklaces
    Attach some flower wire and make centerpieces for the table

    What else can you think of? Share your ideas and how this turned out for you – I’d love to see it!

    Share
  • Mardi Gras for Charity

    Voodoo Mardi Gras for Charity Poster

    Last Saturday, March 5, I worked with Fibbers on Ormond Quay to put together a New Orleans Style Voodoo Mardi Gras Party. The goal was to have some fun, and raise some money for Our Lady’s Children’s hospital (Crumlin) here in Dublin. For my friends in the US, they are essentially the equivalent of Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake, or Eggleston Children’s Hospital in Atlanta.

    The Bar Servers

    Jason, (Above center) the bar manager of Fibbers put together a great night – he organized the raffle, he got a fabulous band called T-bone, and printed off the poster and flyers for the event.

    Mardi Gras Queen

    Meanwhile, I did the poster (top) out of a bunch of creative commons images and some of my own from Mardi Gras, made the No Sew Voodoo dolls, and created the bar decorations including a pair of huge poster sized theater masks in frames, decorations to hang from the ceiling (about 20 violet music notes on yellow and green curved backgrounds), and purchased a bunch of masks that were supposed to arrive in time to decorate and sell with the price of admission. It was a lot of work, but in the end, it was worth it – we raised about 500 Euros – despite the hiccups. (The 80 masks and about half the beads didn’t come in time for the party, so we wound up raising all of the money solely through the raffle. Also, not all of the decorations got hung up because there wasn’t enough time in between the underage gig and our fund-raising event.)

    Most of the pictures are up here in my Mardi Gras set.

    I do have some video of the band to upload if I can get my video media maker working again, but it’s a bit dark, so it may not work. Otherwise, by the time I got home and to bed (nearly 4am Sunday morning) I was completely wrecked. Apparently, so was my Mardi Gras dog.

    Tuckered Out

    Here’s hoping your Mardi Gras was as successful and fun as mine!

    Share