| Whenever a holiday or birthday comes, our | | | | own name. You can then repeat the same |
| children end up with many greeting cards and | | | | directions with the cut out balloons. |
| loads of wrapping paper. | | | | Do you ever ship packages? Have the kids |
| Help them create a scrapbook with these items. | | | | decorate those plain white boxes with cut out |
| My favorite scrapbook size is 8 ½ x 11. | | | | pictures from greeting cards. This saves on |
| Since wrapping paper is generally not recyclable, | | | | wrapping paper and is fun for the kids to create. |
| use it as the backing on your scrapbook pages. | | | | This can be done for any holiday or birthday, just |
| Instead of using an actual album, you can also | | | | save the cards. |
| make the scrapbook yourself. Use construction | | | | Let your kids create their own bookmarks. Use |
| paper as your base and then cover the | | | | construction paper as your base. Cut a strip of |
| construction paper with the wrapping paper. | | | | paper the size of a bookmark. Now let the kids |
| Now have the kids attach the greeting card and a | | | | decorate this bookmark with pictures from old |
| photo of the person who gave the card to them. | | | | greeting cards. Take the bookmark to a local |
| Unless the card has a sentimental message on it, | | | | copy shop and have them laminate it. The kids |
| I have always just used the front of the greeting | | | | now have a permanent holiday or birthday |
| and tossed the back portion. | | | | reminder that they can use over and over again |
| Your kids will now have a small remembrance of | | | | as they read. |
| that particular birthday and it will fit right on a | | | | My final idea is more for mom than for the kids, |
| book shelf. Even if your child creates fifteen of | | | | but the kids can certainly help create these. Do |
| these while growing up, they'll all still fit nicely on a | | | | you ever want to save a recipe from a |
| bookshelf and it's a great "friends through the | | | | magazine? You cut it out, but now you have a |
| years" keepsake also. | | | | very thin, loose piece of paper. Take a greeting |
| Another way to reuse greeting cards is to turn | | | | card. Tear off the front of the card and glue the |
| the greeting card into one or two gift tags for | | | | recipe to the back side. You now have a collection |
| another gift. For example, if the greeting card has | | | | of "recipe cards" that can be filed or even put |
| the words "happy birthday" on it and also balloons | | | | into a book for later reference. |
| on it, cut out the words "happy birthday." On the | | | | These are a few fun ways to reuse greeting |
| back of "happy birthday" write the words "to" and | | | | cards. Use your imagination and see if you can |
| "from." You can now fill in the name of the | | | | come up with additional ways to reuse those old |
| person you're giving a gift to and write in your | | | | greeting cards. |