Recycling Christmas Cards
How to Make Gift Tags from Last Years Cards

Recycling Christmas Cards? Recycling used Christmas cards? Do you still have last years Xmas cards lying around collecting dust? Here are some easy ways to recycle your Christmas cards and turn them into great gift tags.

Recycling used Christmas cards makes fantastic Christmas tags, birthday tags, sympathy tags, baby tags and more.  It's easy, fun and very inexpensive, actually they are free gift tags.

Recycling used Christmas cards makes fantastic gift tags.

From these cards below I will show you how to make the best gift tags on one else has. How good is that?

We all use gift tags as part of a gift, whether it's for gift baskets or other kinds of gifts, to write a message, "seasons greeting" or a simple "to" and "from." 

We normally throw our used Christmas cards after Xmas has gone, don't we? Not any more. By recycling Christmas cards you can make them into beautiful and free gift tags for your Christmas gift baskets or any kind of gift for the next gift you give. These gift tags are so easy to make. 

When making these fantastic gift tags for your homemade gift basket ideas, try using greeting cards with no writing on the back of the picture. This makes it a lot easier.

If it's a picture that you really like and want to use and it has writing on the back, you can always cut some card-stock and glue it to the back of your cut out gift tag. A little more work but it's possible.

So recycling Christmas cards bring them back to life by making some incredible gift tags for your next homemade gift basket ideas, like the ones I made below from my used Christmas cards. Here's how:

How to Make this Kitten Gift Tag

First Gift Tag

This first gift tag is made from the first card on the left (top picture). It's so easy to do, it can't get any easier.

This kitten gift tag would be purr-fect attached to a child's gift basket or someone who likes cats.

1. All I did was cut out the picture of the kitten very carefully.  I used small scissors to cut it out because it has so many small curves.
   
2. The back of this gift tag has no writing on it, so I didn't need to glue any card-stock to the back.
   
3. I punched a hole with my hole puncher and threaded some festive ribbon.
   

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How to Make this Gold Deer Gift Tag

Second Gift Tag

This second gift tag is made using the middle card (top picture). This gift tag is a little bigger than a normal sized tag and could be used instead of a Christmas card to write your season's greeting on. I made this gift tag by...

1. ...cutting the picture from the card.
2. I got an old gift bag and cut a strip of red and green squares to made a border around the picture.
   
3. I glued the picture and the border together.
4. I cut a piece of red card-stock 1/4 inch (0.6 cm) bigger so it makes a border around the gift tag; this makes the back look neat. (Write your message on the red card-stock before you glue it to the tag.)
   
5. I punched a hole with my hole puncher in the middle of the Christmas gift tag to make it look different and used a wider ribbon, which I think goes well because it's a bigger gift tag.

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How to Make this Snowman Gift Tag

Third Gift Tag

These two festive gift tags are made from the first Christmas card (second picture). The snowman gift tag could be used for any age person. Recycling Christmas cards creates these cheerful and festive free Christmas gift tags.

Always look at the back of your cards; sometimes there's a smaller version of the same picture at the back. Use it to make a smaller gift tag. Recycling Christmas cards into awesome free gift tags.

Recycling Christmas Cards: Gift Tag #1

1.  This snowman was stuck to the Christmas card using those foam mounting dots, so I carefully unstuck it from the card.
   
2. Once I did that I had to peel the dots off the snowman. This left the back of the gift tag sticky, so I stuck some white card-stock to the back and cut around the gift tag and wrote my season's greetings.
   
3. I punched a hole using my hole puncher in Santa's scarf. I threaded green ribbon through the hole and tied a bow leaving  plenty of ribbon to tie to the gift.

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Gift Tag #2

Recycling Christmas cards creates these cheerful and festive free Christmas gift tags. This gift tag was stuck on top of the snowman gift tag, using foam mounting dots.

To make this gift tag....

1. .... I carefully unstuck the picture as I did for the snowman gift tag. This was stuck on top of the picture above.
   
2. I glued some white card-stock to the back of the tag and wrote "To" and "From" on the back because it already has a message on the front. I punched a hole using my hole puncher and threaded beige ribbon through the hole.

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How to Make this Christmas Wreath Gift Tag

Fourth Gift Tag

These next two Christmas gift tags are made from the card in the middle of the second picture.

Always look at the back of your cards; sometimes there's a smaller version of the same picture. Use it to make a smaller gift tag.

Recycling Christmas cards into awesome free gift tags.

Gift Tag #1

1. To make this tag I cut the picture out and also the writing.
   
2. I cut a piece of red card-stock 1/2 inch bigger than the picture.
   
3. I glued the two together. Put something heavy on top so the card doesn't curl up as it dries.
   
4. I punched some decorative shapes with a puncher from white paper, and glued them around the edge of the card.
   
5. I made a hole with a hole puncher and threaded some festive ribbon through.

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Gift Tag #2

This next gift tag is made from the picture on the back of the card. It is very easy to make and looks just as good as the one above.

1.  I cut the picture out. If you want the picture a bit bigger, cut more of the white card around the picture.
   
2. I cut some light blue card-stock measuring 2 1/2 inches square. (6.4cm square)
   
3. I glued the picture to one side of the card-stock and on the other side I punched a few decorative holes.
4. Through one of the holes I threaded some ribbon.

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These Christmas tags would go perfectly with Christmas homemade gift basket ideas.

How to Make this Children's Gift Tag

Fifth Gift Tag

Recycling Christmas cards makes great gift tags for different occasions, like this one. This fifth gift tag is made from the third card on the left (first picture).

Another quick and easy gift tag to make.  This would be ideal for a baby gift basket or for a children's gift basket.

If I wanted to use this tag for Christmas, I could add some glitter to the bear's collar and maybe to the top of the stocking and change the ribbon to a more festive color.

1. All I did to make this gift tag was cut the picture out with sharp small scissors.
   
2. Punched a hole using a hole puncher and threaded some red and beige ribbon.
   
3. The back of this gift tag has no writing on it, so I do not need to glue any card-stock to the back.

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How to Make this Dove Gift Tag

Sixth Gift Tag

These last two gift tags below are made from the card on the right (second picture). As mentioned above, always look at the back of your greeting cards; sometimes there's a smaller version of the same picture that's on the front of the card. Two for the price of one!

These two gift tags would be ideal for a sympathy gift basket. By recycling Christmas cards you get the most out of the greeting cards. 

Gift tag #1

1. First, I decided to use the two Doves as the actual gift tag.
   
2. Then I cut a piece of white card-stock which measures 1/4 inch ( 0.6cm) bigger than the picture.
   
3. I glued the two together.
4. Then, I made a hole with my hole puncher and threaded some white ribbon through.

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Gift Tag #2

This last tag is made from the picture on the back of the greeting card. You can make these pictures bigger by gluing two or three layers of paper or card-stock on top of each other. These can be any size you wish.

Here is an example of what I mean.

1. Cut the the same picture out as the one above but smaller. This is from the back of the card (opposite top left)
2.  I cut white card-stock measuring  1 1/4 inches square (3.2cm square)
   
3. The other card is a piece from the Christmas card I used. This measures 1 3/4 inches (4.4cm) by 2 1/4 inches (5.7cm)
4. 4. I glued all three pieces of card together, gluing them all to one corner. 5. I punched a hole with my hole puncher and threaded a piece of decorative ribbon.
   
   
   
    I'm sure this has given you lots of ideas on recycling Christmas cards for your next fantastic homemade gift basket ideas.

Didn't find what you were looking for? Search the web for more great gift tags.

Do You Recycle Your Christmas Cards?

What do you do with them? Do you make greeting cards or gift tags to go with your gifts? I would love to hear your stories, ideas or tips for making gift baskets. Go to my contact me page and share your ideas with me and others.

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Things of Interest

How to Make Gift Tags from Birthday Cards

Christmas Gift Basket Ideas

Birthday Gift Basket Ideas

Bereavement Gift basket Ideas

Decorating a Gift Basket

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