What a Week!

My husband and I celebrated my first Mother's Day, both our birthdays and our wedding anniversary last week. The candles have been blown out, and the cards and gifts have been opened. As we get back to normal life, whatever that is (!), I am taking down all of the celebratory cards we received from loved ones to mark all of our occasions. Cards are obviously not eco-friendly by nature, but they aren't something I am willing to part with, either as a sender or a recipient. It is a wonderfully old-fashioned, romantic gesture to select, handwrite and mail a card to someone in this frantically paced world we live in.

So, as I ponder they ways to recycle these cards, a few ideas come to mind. I keep dozens upon dozens of cards I have received in a large storage box, so that is one way to keep them out of a landfill. But, sometimes storage space is overflowing so it's necessary to place some cards in the paper recycling bin. However, if you have children who enjoy crafts, teach them the thoughtfulness of sending thank you notes and other sweet cards by sitting down with them and a pile of your old greeting cards and get busy chopping away with scissors to make brand new cards.

Let your children choose whichever patterns, words or pictures they'd like from the old cards, and then wile away an afternoon pasting these images onto construction paper. If your little ones are too young to wield scissors, cut up the cards for them.

It might be helpful to keep a small box handy, and when you're finished enjoying your cards, cut them up on the spot, so you'll always have a collage selection on hand to make new cards. This will also help save oodles of money, as greeting cards can cost an outlandish amount!

The recipient of these cards is sure to love their one of a kind greeting.