How to Reuse Greeting Cards

Audra Lowe: Well, every holiday and birthday you know the mailbox gets full of greeting cards, but keeping that pile over the years can really turn into a lot of clutter. So our Lifestyle Expert, Mar Jennings, shows Rhiannon some fun things you can do with all those leftover cards. Rhiannon Ally: Thanks Audra. If you are like me, you just feel too guilty to throw out those old birthday cards from your mother-in-law. So don't toss them just jet, Mar has five fabulous ideas for reusing those old greeting cards. So let's get straight to it. Mar Jennings: You probably have everything you need at home. So let's start with place cards, okay? Rhiannon Ally: Okay. Mar Jennings: Very simple. All you are doing is cutting off a small design from the card, and then the finished look is just to take pinking shears and just cut the edges. Very simple and easy to do. Rhiannon Ally: Okay. Mar Jennings: Name tags. How many times do you go out and you buy the actual name tags? Rhiannon Ally: Every holiday. Mar Jennings: Not necessary. Just take the cards and cut them, fold them. Use great, any kind of scissors. There is a variety of different kinds out there. I love using the pinking shears or I love to do swizzles around the design as well. Just take a hole puncture and you are good to go. Recycle some of that ribbon that you can't use on packages and you are done. Rhiannon Ally: I love that. Good idea. Mar Jennings: Very easy, right? Rhiannon Ally: Okay. The next one. Mar Jennings: I love this idea. Rhiannon Ally: Yeah. Mar Jennings: How many times do you get a gray card and you don't want to throw it out, but this is a great idea. You just simply want to find a card that doesn't have anything on the back and then you are going to cut it out. Again, step it up by using your pinking shears and cut all the edges around it. Use it as a postcard. The post office will mail anything as long as it has the right postage. So make sure you know exactly how much you need on it. But go ahead and put that in the mail. Another great way to use a card. Rhiannon Ally: So you just bought someone a card without having to spend any money. Mar Jennings: Very, very simple. It's a great idea and it's another great reason to use your cards. How about taking cards, and sometimes you get a bonus card. What I mean by that is you open up the card and it is basically signed for you. Okay, great little note, but that can come off. So now you have a brand new card. All you have to do is very, very simple. You can take any kind of paper or a nice stock paper and you are just going to fold all the edges and pop the card in. And then with the fun sticker, you can just close it. Rhiannon Ally: Beautiful! Mar Jennings: Now, you might not want to do this for adults, but for kids sometimes you have either students or teachers. You want to send a lovely little card from your kids. Another great simple way of doing it. Rhiannon Ally: Okay. Now, this one I like, because you keep the card, a little piece of it. Mar Jennings: You keep the card and you could add every year. Sometimes you have a card that you don't really have a need for it or it's written all over, top and the bottom. So you can cut it into different strips. What's lovely about this is that, you just go ahead and staple them and just keep adding them to your chain link. You will find that you will have years of these great cards. It tells a great story. Sometimes you can find and read the writing on them as well. So again, another great way to make those cards last, right? Something new, something brand new and using something else. Rhiannon Ally: It doesn't cost any money, love it. Mar Jennings: You have everything. Rhiannon Ally: Thank you so mush Mar. One last tip we got from one of our producers. If you get a picture card like this. Mar Jennings: I love this idea. Rhiannon Ally: Just cut the picture right out and then frame it. Mar Jennings: Frame it. Rhiannon Ally: Yeah, perfect idea. Thanks Mar. Back to you Audra. Audra Lowe: Thanks guys. All great tips. Hopefully, your family and friends are going to do the same with the cards that you send them. If you want to see more of Mar's great ideas, you can head to bettertv.com.