Tehama Country Real Estate

HOW TO RECYCLE The holidays have come and gone, and now it is time to pack away the decorations and retire the tree for another season. It's also time to decide what to do with the dozens of greeting cards that arrived in the mail over the last few months. According to the Greeting Card Association, around seven billion greeting cards are sold each year. Estimates suggest that roughly two billion are holiday cards that will be sent during the month of December. ese cards frequently hold sentimental value. Tossing them into the trash is wasteful, and some people would rather repurpose them into some- thing that is meaningful and creative. Many cras, gis and even boxes can be made from recycled Christmas cards and other greet- ings. With a little ingenuity and effort, it's possible to create eye-catching items. Here are just a few ideas. • Cut the front panels off of the cards -- the part with the decoration -- and save them in an enve- lope for next year. When wrapping presents, use the cards as your gi tags. • Use the front panels of cards as ornaments. Use stencils and cookie cutters to trace patterns and cut them out. Punch a hole into the top of each cut-out and attach a string to hang on a tree. • Cut the card into strips and then laminate or cover in clear contact paper. Punch a hole in the top and attach a tassel. ese can be used as bookmarks. • Use cards to form paper angels that can serve as table centerpieces next year. With a few embel lishments, like yarn hair and pipe-cleaner halos, these can make for some cheerful additions to your holiday decor. • Decorate inexpensive gi bags or brown paper bags with pieces of cut-up greeting cards. Now you have inexpensive wrapping materials for gis that are also environmentally conscious. • Gather the fronts of many cards and punch holes along the edges. Use yarn to sew each card to another, creating a Christmas tapestry, place mats or other creative ideas for decorating. • Photo cards are popular greetings for the holi- days. Cut out the images of families and friends from the cards and make a collage to be saved. You can look back each year and see how children have grown or fashions have changed. • Use pieces of the Christmas cards to decoupage wooden or paper boxes. en these boxes can be given as gis for the holidays. • Create drink coasters or trivets by cutting im- ages out of the Christmas cards. Laminate the images and attach them to cork to serve as coast- ers. For trivets, attach images to ceramic tiles and then coat in a heat-resistant shellac. Christmas cards do not need to be relegated to the trash can when the holiday season has ended. Such cards can be used to create cras that will add flair to upcoming holiday seasons. Holiday Cards

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