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Are you stuck for ideas of what to do with your old Christmas cards? I have a huge selection of old holiday cards from years gone by. But did you know that a fair few of them cannot be recycled due to their plastic coverings or glitter content? How do you prevent these old greeting cards going into landfill? By upcycling them! And today’s tutorial is one of my favourite Christmas card crafts ideas for using up old Christmas cards. Here is how to make a Christmas card basket or Christmas card bowl from holiday greeting cards!
How To Make A Christmas Card Basket
You may not want to throw away your old cards. They may have sentimental value, or remind you of people you once knew. However, even if you did want them to be recycled, it may be that they aren’t suitable anyway, due to having glitter or plastic coatings to make them shiny.
In an effort to be more zero waste, I have been sending fewer and fewer Christmas cards each year. But I do still receive them, and am always looking for cute Christmas crafts and ways to use this brilliant craft resource.
See my other ways of ensuring that you have a more zero waste Christmas.
What to do with old Christmas cards though? There are lots of Christmas card craft things that you can make.
This cute basket made from upcycled greeting cards is a lovely way of utilising your old cards, whilst keeping the best part of them on display.
In fact, it’s a very kitsch and nostalgic make. I am not the person who invented this Christmas crafts idea, I am pretty sure that one of my aunts had something very similar in the 70s. But I do I think it would make a lovely Christmas gift, filled with some wrapped candies or bagged up goodies.
This idea isn’t just for Christmas either. Yes, I used old Christmas cards to make this bowl, and I think it looks lovely made with vintage xmas cards. But you could just as easily take some vintage prints or postcards and use them to make your own take on this idea. Whatever suits your home and style best.
It’s a really easy DIY craft idea too!
How To Make Christmas Cards Baskets – You Will Need
- Old Christmas Cards
- Glue or double sided tape
- Scissors
- Embroidery yarn
- A needle with an eye large enough for your yarn.
- My Christmas Card Bowl Template
How To Make Fancy Christmas Cards Baskets Or Bowls
Here is how you go about making a Christmas card basket. Print my free Christmas card basket pattern out – I would suggest printing it onto card stock if possible.
Alternatively trace around the vintage greeting card basket pattern pieces onto thick card (or the back of an old Christmas card.) And then cut out these patterns to use as templates instead.
Find 14 cards large enough to fit the Christmas card basket template onto. Trace around the templates and then cut out the 12 side pieces and 2 bottom pieces that you need from your old Christmas cards. I like to try and make sure that I get the best picture from each card within the template outline.
Glue two side pieces wrong sides together so that the pictures are facing outwards. Repeat with the two bottom pieces.
Sewing The Parts of The Bowl Together
Sew all around each of the 7 pieces with a blanket stitch. Sewing Christmas cards can be quite tough, so you can pre-make holes at regular intervals before doing this if you so wish. But I actually found using a sharp needle with a large enough eye to take the full thickness of embroidery thread worked well enough for me. In places it was hard to pull the eye of the needle through the two layers of card, but nothing a wiggle around didn’t solve. I used quite large blanket stitch about 1/3 of an inch long with stitches about 1/3 inch apart.
Once you have finished sewing all around every piece, take the base centre piece and lay out your side pieces around it. This way you can see the finished design before sewing it together. You may want to swap and turn pieces over to give the best layout.
Sew each of the bottom of the side pieces to the base piece in turn, by sewing and weaving your thread through all the blanket stitches from each side in turn.
The basket now looks like a flower. Next, sew up in-between each side piece, again weaving and sewing the blanket stitches together that you made earlier to create a Christmas card hexagon bowl shape.
The Finished Bowl
Your recycled Christmas card basket is finished.
How To Make A Vintage Christmas Card Basket
This cute and kitsch Christmas card basket bowl is a lovely way to use up all your old holiday greeting cards! Or you could even use old postcards to create your own display piece to match your decor.
Materials
- Old Christmas Cards
- Embroidery yarn
Tools
- Glue or double sided tape
- Scissors
- My Christmas Card Bowl Template
- A needle with an eye large enough for your yarn.
Instructions
- Print my free Christmas card basket pattern out - I would suggest printing it onto card stock if possible.
- Find 14 cards large enough to fit the templates onto.
- Trace around the templates and then cut out the 12 side pieces and 2 bottom pieces that you need from your old Christmas cards. I like to try and make sure that I get the best picture from each card within the template outline.
- Glue two side pieces wrong sides together so that the pictures are facing outwards. Repeat with the two bottom pieces.
- Sew all around each of the 7 pieces with a blanket stitch. You can pre-make holes at regular intervals before doing this if you so wish. But I actually found using a sharp needle with a large enough eye to take the full thickness of embroidery thread worked well enough for me. Use quite a large blanket stitch about 1/3 of an inch long with stitches about 1/3 inch apart.
- Once you have finished sewing all around every piece, take the base centre piece and lay out your side pieces around it. This way you can see the finished design before sewing it together. You may want to swap and turn pieces over to give the best layout.
- Sew each of the bottom of the side pieces to the base piece in turn, by sewing and weaving your thread through all the blanket stitches from each side in turn. The basket now looks like a flower.
- Next, sew up in-between each side piece, again weaving and sewing the blanket stitches together that you made earlier.
- Enjoy your finished recycled Christmas card basket.
This is such a cute idea!!
I love this! Such a great idea. I am going to make one… but not from my cards!
I remember making these as a kid.
I love a bit of nostalgia, don’t you?
Oh this is such a lovely idea and a brilliant way of recycling old Christmas cards. Have pinned to try making later. #MMBC