Gift Tags from repurposed cards

I know the holidays have been over for a bit now, but they're not really over until you have ALL of the holiday decor put away. In our house the tree and most all decorations come down the 30th of December, that way we are starting the new year fresh.

But we do have a couple of strays: the holiday photo card book and the card garland stay up until we are sure we won't be getting anymore cards that were lost in the mail. Today I took down all of the cards hanging from my card garland. (I'll show you how to make the "card garland" later in the year.)

And that means for us, the holidays are done. My house feels so bare. Everywhere I look there is a lack of color. The door no longer jingles with sleigh bells when it is answered. I can't read by Christmas tree light. I even put away the "Christmas Cranberry" candles.

Ok, I'm done being depressed.

"Cheap Trick of the Day"

As most of you know I have a hard time throwing stuff away, not like a hoarder, I just like to give a new life to stuff. So before you throw all those holiday cards into the recycling make your gift tags for next year.

Here's what I do:

I take all the cards and using whatever cutter I have handy I start cutting the cards up. I use my corner punch on some. Scissors on the big ones that won't fit in my personal paper trimmer. And a craft knife on the ones that have intricate designs. Some cards can even become multiple tags. When I'm done they look like this...

I started doing this a couple of years ago and have yet to buy gift tags because of it.