Kids Crafts from Recyclables

1. Send holiday cards to St. Jude's Ranch, a nonprofit home for youths that collects old holiday cards for reuse. Either cut off the backs of the cards or leave them intact. Children at St. Jude's earn money by creating new holiday cards from the old.

Mail the cards UPS "ground" or "bound printed matter" to St. Jude's Card Recycling, 100 St. Jude Street, P.O. Box 60100, Boulder City, NV 89006.

2. Cut off the backs of old holiday cards that do not have writing behind the front and use them as postcards.

3. Create your own card by cutting and pasting parts of old cards onto a new blank card. You can find packages of blank cards at most arts and crafts stores.

4. Use old holiday cards as gift tags by cutting them into square or rectangular shapes and punching holes in the corners for string or ribbon.

5. Make placemats out of holiday cards instead of buying new ones. Cut out pictures or shapes from the old cards, place them between two pieces of contact paper and press together.

6. Save holiday cards for arts and crafts throughout the year if you have children.

7. Make your Christmas Greeting Cards reusable this year! You are recycling your Christmas Greeting Cards when you place these: "Stick On, Peel Off" labels on them! Each Label is 3.5 inches high x 4 inches wide. All labels are easily applied to and removed from your greeting cards. Visit: Thoughtful card sender to check it out!!!

8. Carefully cut out the shapes and use them for scrapbooking.

9. Cut them into strips and use them for fancy book marks.

10. Cut the front to 4"x 5" or 3" x 5" size and use as index cards for recipes, for craft projects etc.

11. Make them into gift boxes for next year (see instructions below).

What You Need:
An old greeting card -- or two or three.
A ruler or straight edge.
A pencil.
A pair of scissors.
Crayons or markers for decorating.

What You Do:
First, get an old greeting card.

Next, rip it in half at the fold.

Using your ruler, make an "X" on the card by drawing two lines that cross at the center of the card. (see diagram).



Fold the edges of all four sides of the paper over to the middle of the cross. (see diagram)


Cut the red lines as shown in the diagram.



Fold the tabs in to create a box and tape the box together.

To create a lid for the box, do the same as above, only instead of folding the edges to the point of the cross, fold them slightly outward so the lid will be larger than the bottom.