Reusing Christmas Cards

My sister-in-law Debbie is a frugal maven.  She loves a great deal, and rarely lets things go to waste. She has always reused last year's Christmas cards as gift tags for the following year.

This year she gave out thank you notes from her and the kids using the old cards.  She just cut off the portion that had writing on it and wrote on the back as you would a post card.  I thought this was a fantastic use of resources.

I did a little searching online and found this Better Homes and Gardens article that has some wonderfully creative ways to use those cards that are about to head to the recycling bin. If you are seriously constrained by budget, use these tips next Christmas, or as Debbie did, say thank you with this easy money saving project!

I think you could make some beautiful letter banners with old cards too!

Making Old New Again: Metal Tray Makeover

At my garage sale last Saturday, I came across a tray that was looking pretty shabby, and I decided I would sell it for $0.25 and get it out of the garage.

I used to use it as a tray for a houseplant, but it had gone unused for several years.

What the tray looked like before painting.  Good bones, but not usable condition.

I kept looking at it and decided it had such great "bones" I would try my hand at giving it a little makeover.

I cleaned it up with a dry rag and found some old Krylon indoor/outdoor robin's egg blue spray paint I had in my garage. If you have something like this and it's really corroded, you may need to sand it with a very fine sand paper.

After one coat of paint, I could see a beautiful gift emerging!

A few coats of spray paint brought it back to life!

 I sprayed the top and let it dry, and then flipped it over and did the same. All in all I gave it three coats.

I love how it turned out! This would be the perfect addition to the gift for my sister-in-law's birthday!

I ended up using a different, more colorful bouquet for her gift.

At a garage sale a few months ago I purchased this pretty tea cup for $3.00. The jasmine tea was also also on sale for about $3.00. The vase I ended up using was free from a neighbor looking to get rid of it, and the flowers were from my yard.

The "new" tray, a vintage tea cup, Jasmine tea and flowers from the garden.

The tray really brought everything together. The gift was so pretty, there was no need for wrapping! My sister-in-law loved her gift and wanted to start looking for trays she could spray paint. It was simple, easy, and quite frugal at only $6. Best of all, she used the tray that very evening!

What have you made-over lately?

Making Old New Again: Upcycling an Earring

When living the frugal life we often need to stretch our resources.  While it can makes things challenging, it also inspires us to be as creative as possible. It's one of my favorite things about living this way! 

Here is a simple, easy, and frugal way to take something old and unusable and make it new again and all it requires is a few things many of us have lying around.

I had purchased these earrings at a local drug store. They were inexpensive, but I thought they were so pretty. They were also lightweight, a quality I really prefer my jewelry has (and if it doesn't, I likely won't wear it). Being lightweight is probably one of the reasons I tend to lose earrings, but I digress...

My sad little earring, lost without its mate.

Somewhere along the way I lost one of the earrings - but I wasn't ready to toss it just yet in case the missing earring revealed itself at the bottom of a drawer, or on the floor of the laundry room (it's been known to happen). That day never did come, so I decided instead of throwing it away, I would "upcycle" and turn it into a necklace!  

Here's what I used: 

The earring                                                                                         

An old chain from which I took a small jump ring

Another old chain to use with the new necklace

Tweezers to remove the earring hook and attach the jump ring (these were used in place of the jewelry pliers I was too lazy to go in search of).

Here's how I did it:

I took off the earring hook and went and found an old skinny chain I wasn't using.  I attempted to put the earring on the chain, but the hole at the top of it was just too small.  I needed a little jump ring to attach to the earring and found one on an old chain that wasn't going to be used.  I attached that to the ring, making sure it was closed tightly.

Wearing my new necklace!

Voila! In a few minutes I had taken something headed for the garbage and gave it new purpose. I knew that earring was destined for greater things!

Have you ever turned an old earring into a necklace? Is it something you might try?  What old things do you make new again?