Holiday greeting cards = next years' ornaments

I LOVE getting Holiday cards. Period. I like it that I'm on someone's "list" to get a card during the BUSY holiday season. I hang them up across this wall in my kitchen so I can always glance at my growing line of cards as I walk by.

You can imagine I have the hardest time tossing them when the holiday season is all said and done.
So, I turn them into ornaments. I'm sure there are WAY fancier ways to do this but I chose to do it very basic so the boys could help me.

The first way is just cutting the picture from the card with those scallop scissors, hole punching it and threading ribbon through it. Mason is actually glued to those scallop scissors so he was very excited about this project.

The second way is for when you have a card that has multiple pictures on it. The pictures are already squared off so its easy for the boys to cut out. We lined them up to look like a tree and glued toothpicks on the back to hold everything in place. Then we hole-punched it and threaded ribbon through it. It's driving me nuts that I forgot the "tree trunk" but you get the idea.

The third way is to just take advantage of the after Christmas sales and buy those festive, tiny picture frame ornaments for next to nothing. The pictures on holiday cards are the perfect size for those things!! This actually makes a cute gift for someone if you have some of your own cards left over (or if you have a baby annoucement you don't want to toss - see pic below).

I have always wanted to make a wreath and hot glue those tiny picture frames to it. For example, if I used the pictures in the second image, put them all in tiny frames, glued it to a small wreath and gave it to the family I recieved the card from, that would be a personal yet cost effective gift. Or hang all of the photo ornaments on a mini Christmas tree (saw a bunch at Joanne's). It would make a great centerpiece for your family or for a friend.

I thought I had bought a little wreath today at Joanne's BUT when I got home realized it was like 25 feet of pine rope. Oh well. It was $2 - I'll find something to do with it!