Anneke Lipsanen - Recycling Christmas Cards: Eco Craft Projects and Ideas to Repurpose Holiday Cards

Recycling Christmas Cards:

Eco Craft Projects and Ideas to Repurpose Holiday Cards

With 45 Special Blank Templates Included as Downloads

By: Anneke Lipsanen

This e-book is one of two parts in this set.

The 45 printable templates and bonus items are in a separate file which can be downloaded here:

You may sell the crafts you make.The templates themselves may not be sold, distributed or used to create new books or digital or printable crafts. The e book may not be sold, shared, or given away for free.

Disclaimer

No part of this publication may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form without prior written permission from Anneke Lipsanen.

The author, publisher, and distributor of this book assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this product, or for any injury, damage and/or financial loss sustained to persons or property as a result of using this book. The liability, negligence or otherwise, from any use, misuse or abuse of any instructions or ideas in the e book is the sole responsibility of the reader/ crafter.

Digital Edition 2014

Text, Photos, Styling, Book Layout and Templates designed by Anneke Lipsanen. Copyright Anneke Lipsanen. All Rights Reserved

In this e-book you will find fun projects to turn used Christmas and Holiday cards into charming new items.

In this e-book you will find fun craft projects to turn used Christmas and Holiday cards into charming new items.

Make these projects for yourself, or to give away as unusual and thrifty gifts, packaging and favors. You can also sell your crafted projects at craft markets, school or church fetes, fundraiser events for retirement centers, childrens playschools and more.

Included are projects for packets, pockets, boxes, containers, table decor, scrapbook items, wall art and Christmas decorations, as well as nifty stocking stuffers.

Follow along in the e book on your device or computer screen while using the templates to make the craft items!

The downloadable templates have been scaled to fit 5 x 7 inch (13 x 18 cm) cards which is a common size. The templates can be enlarged or reduced, and can be used for other paper crafts too.

I wish you happy crafting.

Anni

Anni Lipsanen is a professional graphic designer and illustrator with more than twenty five years of experience in the fields of book design, illustration, packaging, corporate identity, paper crafts and product design. Anni Arts is her graphic studio and publication site. In recent years she also started to design and illustrate paper crafts and downloadable printables that are available from her Anni Arts Crafts web site. She is also an enthusiastic recycler and loves to create projects to repurpose and upcycle used items.

Her motto, in business and in life is: CREATE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL

This book is dedicated to frugal crafters, creative recyclers and all those interested in the innovative repurposing of consumer goods.

I had so much fun making these projects and so will you! You will also find that you get new ideas as you go along. It is not just about recycling Christmas cards, but about recycling Christmas fun all year long! Get started now for the next Holiday season - for fun or profit.

If you enjoyed the book, please do leave a review, and blog and talk about it if you think other crafters will enjoy these Eco crafts.

Recycle, Reuse, Reduce, Rethink, Remake Repurpose!

Get your equipment, cards and templates ready. The more organized you are, the more you can concentrate on the creative process.

The projects are rated as Very Easy, Easy, Takes Time and Tricky

WHAT YOU NEED

- A stash of used Christmas and Holiday cards

- Craft knife

- Cutting board

- Steel-edged ruler

- Scissors

- Tooth picks

- Glue specifically suitable for card stock projects

- Clothes pegs to clamp glued sections together to dry

- Paper clips to keep sections together and keep small glued pics in place while drying.

- Pencil and eraser to make marks that can be erased

- Empty ballpoint pen to score indentations for fold lines

- Invisible tape and double sided tape to use instead of glue for some projects and to seal boxes

- Cardstock craft sheets in white or a solid color

- Printable cardstock or acetate sheets to print the templates from your printer

- Gift ribbon or regular trimming ribbon

- A printer to print the templates in black and white and color for the red Advent numbers

THE CARDS

- The projects utilize the whole mix of cards one ends up with after the Holidays: the pretty, the so-so and the ugly. No fancy coordinated craft shop designs or expensive embellishments were used for this book. So just use whatever you have. The happy medley is exactly what provides the projects with their charm.

- If you have any cards lying in a box or drawer somewhere, you can start your crafting straight away. Ask friends, family and neighbors for theirs too. (They can white-out or black-out any private names and messages before they pass them on.)

- For bigger volume production you can ask for a collection box at churches/religious centers, retirement homes and schools. Or put a little classified ad in your local newspaper and arrange for a pick up point. Local supermarkets and malls can get involved and have collection bins too. Also ask for used ribbon and wrapping paper.

- Why not begin a craft group and start making these ornaments, gifts and favors for the next seasons holiday or charity markets? Likewise retirement centers, youth clubs, sports clubs and associations can form groups and make these crafts for their own fundraising efforts.

- And many of these projects are great for school craft classes to be given as gifts, used for school decorations or sold for school funds. Ask parents ahead of the holiday period to keep their cards.

- Folks love to browse craft fairs and shops for those inexpensive little something gifts, while children also like those type of gifts to give. Many of these projects provide just that.

- In the spirit of recycling most of the projects were constructed entirely from used cards to limit the cost of purchased card stock - but a few projects involved pictures cut from cards that were pasted onto a base made from card stock. For craft classes the base card could even be cereal boxes, packaging from mens shirts or such.

- To avoid confusion, I refer to the greeting cards in the projects as used cards, Christmas cards, Holiday cards or greeting cards and call any purchased card cardstock throughout this book.

- Many of the small items are great to combine and they can be added to a nice mug or basket to make combo gifts, small gift hampers or to give with flowers or seasonal greenery.

- Most of the projects in the series are super easy, while some are more time consuming (which you wont mind a bit because youll find them so pretty). I suggest you stick to the easy and very easy ones for volume production and keep the more fiddly ones for your own satisfying makes. They are also suited to different time allocations.