Tehama Country Real Estate

Tehama Country Real Estate – R E C Y C L E H O L I D AY CARDS T he holidays have come and gone, and now it is time to pack away the decorations and r etir e the tr ee for another season. It's also time to decide what to do with the dozens of gr eeting car ds that arrived in the mail over the last few months. Accor ding to the Gr eeting Car d Asso ciation, ar ound seven billion gr eeting car ds ar e sold each year. Estimates suggest that r oughly two billion ar e holiday car ds that will be sent during the month of December. These car ds fr equently hold sentimental value. Tossing them into the trash is wasteful, and some people would rather r epur pose them into something that is meaningful and cr eative. Many crafts, gifts and even boxes can be made fr om r ecycled Christmas car ds and other gr eetings. With a little ingenuity and ef fort, it's possible to cr eate eye-catching items. Her e ar e just a few ideas. * Cut the car d into strips and then laminate or cover in clear contact paper. Punch a hole in the top and attach a tassel. These can be used as bookmarks. * Use car ds to form paper angels that can serve as table centerpieces next year. With a few embellishments, like yarn hair and pipe-cleaner halos, these can make for some cheerful additions to your holiday decor. * Decorate inexpensive gift bags or br own paper bags with pieces of cutup gr eeting car ds. Now you have inex pensive wrapping materials for gifts that ar e also envir onmentally con scious. * Gather the fr onts of many car ds and punch holes along the edges. Use yarn to sew each car d to another, cr eating a Christmas tapestry, place mats or other cr eative ideas for decorating. * Cut the fr ont panels of f of the car ds -- the part with the decoration -- and save them in an envelope for next year. When wrapping pr esents, use the car ds as your gift tags. * Photo car ds ar e popular gr eetings for the holidays. Cut out the images of families and friends fr om the car ds and make a collage to be saved. You can look back each year and see how childr en have gr own or fashions have changed. * Use the fr ont panels of car ds 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 tr ee. * Use pieces of the Christmas car ds to decoupage wooden or paper boxes. Then these boxes can be given as gifts for the holidays. * Cr eate drink coasters or trivets by cutting images out of the Christmas car ds. Laminate the images and attach them to cork to serve as coasters. For triv ets, attach images to ceramic tiles and then coat in a heatr esistant shellac. Christmas car ds do not need to be r ele gated to the trash can when the holiday season has ended. Such car ds can be used to cr eate crafts that will add flair to upcoming holiday seasons. 3

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