Stop! Don't Throw that Away!

I make gift tags out of old Christmas cards.  There.  I've said it.  If you've sent me a Christmas card over the last five years or so, chances are that is has ended up as a gift tag.  Unless you sent me a homemade card or a family photo card.  In that case, then, no I did not chop up your kids to make gift tags.  Those cards are saved.  But all those others are fair game.  And to be honest, I don't chop them up as soon as I get them.  They get tucked away for a year or two and then I find them and chop them up.  One of the cards I cut up today was from 2006.

And this is how I do it...

I collect some cards....

I identify the key components of the card that will make good gift tags.  Like that card on the far right, with the wreath and the creepy dog.  Just the wreath works as a gift tag, so I cropped that and then I pasted it on some decorative paper.  You don't always have to use decorative paper, but I thought this one needed a bit more pizazz.

And then I crop it again and punch a hole in it and then I have a gift tag!

For some cards, you can really get a lot of tags out of them.  Like this one...

I got at least eleven tags out of this one card, because I also used some of the internal images that were not marred by handwriting.  Speaking of handwriting, when you do use the back page, you have to watch out for that.

And that's where decorative paper comes in handy.

Anyway, check out all those tags from this one card.

And I used a fun foil decorative paper for these...

And here are a bunch of tags with the holes punched out:

So, yeah, keep this in mind the next time you send me a card...how many gift tags will I get out of it?