by Texas Homesteader ~
Do you need a small gift box? No problem! Did you know you can take last year’s beautiful Christmas cards and quickly turn them into cute gift boxes? It’s simple and it’s zero-waste. Come see how easy it is.
Those beautiful holiday cards! They all come in for weeks and are displayed for their beauty until after the holidays are over. Then what?
Whelp, I’m not throwing them away. These days I’m turning them into small gift boxes. Now isn’t that the ultimate repurposing in action?
Repurposing powers: UNITE!
Check out how easy this is, y’all…
Repurposing Last Year’s Christmas Cards
I take one of those holiday cards with a cute design on front. It’s best to use one that has at least a semi-centered design.
Then I cut the front of the card from the back, leaving me two equal halves of the same card. I’ll focus on the front of the card with that beautiful design first.
Front Of The Card Is Top Of The Gift Box
First I’ll create the top of my gift box using the front of that pretty greeting card I’ve just removed.
I flip it over to the blank side & lay a ruler diagonally from corner to corner. With a pencil I make a light mark about the middle of the card. (mark it lightly, you’ll be erasing it later)
Then I repeat on the other side. What I’m left with is a penciled-in ‘X’ in the exact middle of the card.
Now I fold the short end to the middle of the X where the lines intersect and press to crease.
I repeat that with the other short end, and then with each long end too.
I’m just creasing the sides of my box at this point. I drew lines along the creases so you could view them easier, but you don’t have to do that.
You can erase the pencil X now, you no longer need it.
Starting at the corners on the short end, cut the crease alongside the long end just to where the creases intersect.
You repeat this on the other side. These tabs will help form your box.
Now you fold the corner flaps together (tape if you want) and then flip the remaining middle tab over and around, creasing the extra length.
It’ll be a little longer than the side tabs so it folds over & makes a nice finished edge. If you like you can tape or glue this portion to secure it.
There – the top of our repurposed greeting-card box is complete. Now to assemble the bottom.
Bottom Of Repurposed Christmas Card Gift Box
You’ve used the front of that pretty card to make the decorative top of your gift box. Now you need to make the bottom of the box with the remaining half of the card.
You want the bottom of the box to be slightly smaller than the top so that the halves will fit together easily but snugly. So I cut 1/4″ inch off of just one of the short ends, and 1/4″ from just one of the long ends.
Now you have a slightly-smaller version of the front of the card.
So you follow the exact same directions for folding, creasing, cutting and BOOM! There’s the bottom of your box. The top should slide on it easily yet snugly.
Finished Gift Box From Repurposed Christmas Card
That’s all it takes, y’all. What a cute way to repurpose those beautiful cards after they’ve brought you joy all season. A pretty (yet zero-waste) gift presentation for sure.
I plan to use them to hold our homemade soaps and give them as gifts.
Other Greeting Card Options
You can do the same thing with other greeting cards as well. I enjoy making these small gift boxes from repurposed cute birthday cards and such.
They’re the perfect size for a small gift such as a bar of homemade soap or a pair of new earrings.
And re-using these cute cards in such a way helps me to live my zero-waste values. Plus it’s EASY! Give it a try.
~TxH~
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Thank you! Your directions are so simple. I’m taking this craft to a Christian young people’s camp in Egypt this summer. I think they will love it!
It’s a fun project that’s very easy. I’m sure they’ll love it, Pat. ~TxH~
This is such a great idea thank you for sharing.
I love it!!! What a great way to keep the kids occupied!!
It is a great kid activity Debra! And here’s the thing you might consider too – you can amend the cards \but not fold the boxes together just yet. Staple the prepared front/back card parts together in the corner and since that part will be folded when the box is assembled and not visible anyway. Now you can store them away until next year and they still take up very little space. Next Christmas just un-staple, fold, tape and BOOM – your gift boxes are a breeze! ~TxH~
Ms. Taylor, (did you hear my accent?)
You are brilliant. What a good idea for reusing things we just throw away. Imagine, the landfill problems we could resolve if everyone made boxes? Plus, I’m always looking for small boxes when I want to present a small gift. Now, think of something I can repurpose for larger boxes that I buy all the time for baby shower gifts. Good way to start the new year.
Some of those cards are so beautiful Sondra, it always seemed such a waste to toss them. But cards with glitter are typically not recyclable so I used them for gift tags, but you only need so many! I hated to toss those beautiful cards but now I’m using them for making pretty boxes when gifting our homemade soap. Perfect! ~TxH~
This is such a great idea. I was telling a friend that I wish I could figure out something to do with old Christmas cards. I am going to make a bunch of these. Thanks for the directions.
I agree Cynthia. And you can use any greeting card – birthdays, get-well soon, etc. to customize your gift box. Plus if you still have several Christmas cards you can go ahead & make them up now but not assemble/tape them. Just staple the two parts together in the corner and tuck them in with your Christmas wrappings. They won’t take up much space that way & next Christmas it’ll be quick & easy to assemble your cute Christmas boxes! ~TxH~
I love it anytime something can be re-purposed into something else of usefulness. This is a great little Re-purpose TMH.
A great idea and nice craft anyone can do.
Pinned this to my creative and crafty friend board for other to try.
Happy New Year,
Greg
Awesome Greg – thanks for the pin. I’m planning on making these little boxes with birthday cards too and using them to gift homemade soaps to my friends. I guess there are lots of options! ~TxH~
Hey crafty lady, those are Great. Such cute little boxes for small gift items. Do the same with birthday cards, Easter cards, etc. Great use for all them cards that people have just laying around besides making ornaments or gift tags from them.
I have always donated just the front of the cards to St. Jude’s Hospital where the kids there use and make into cards themselves for them to give to parents, etc.
Exactly Colleen, any pretty whatever-occasion card will do the trick. Even purchasing second-hand cards at garage sales would do if you didn’t have any used cards sitting around. ~TxH~
Hey, just thoguht I’d mention that it was NOT St. Jude’s Hospital for Childres, but St. Jude’s Ranch that used to accept these cards, but they stopped a few years ago. See below. And I can’t really find anyone else who wants old cards. Jenny
For the past 30 years, our beloved recycled card program taught teens work skills by creating “new” cards from used greeting cards, which were then resold in the campus thrift store and online. Unfortunately, card orders have slowly declined over the past four years. We have also experienced limited available volunteers to run the program. Without full-time volunteers, our recycled card program is a time consuming and expensive project as we receive large amounts of cards in the mail from around the nation. Additionally, most of our teens who are gaining life and work skills go through our transitional living program, which has developed real-life training experiences. As a result, St. Jude’s Ranch for Children has concluded its Recycled Card Program, however THERE ARE STILL MANY WAYS TO HELP!
We are very grateful to the many supporters across the country that have sent us their used greeting cards over the years. We hope, as we continue to focus our efforts on saving the lives of traumatized children, that those donors will continue to support us in the years to come.
At this time, we are no longer accepting orders for “new” cards via the mail. Please call 702-294-7142 or visit our store to place your orders for cards we have in stock.