Use them next year to make plain bags into gift bags. I do this with my home made goodies as well as other gifts. I kind of decoupage them on with clear big tape and it looks very nice. Don't take the backs off until you use them so you don't give them back to whomever sent them to you.

Great project for the kids!

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

My mom use to cut the picture part off, if there was no writing on the white/blank side; She then made Christmas postcards....

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

Neat suggestions. I am so into reuse if you can!

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

A friend of my parents always had the nicest looking packages under her tree.

She used white tissue to wrap everything and then she pasted cut outs from Christmas cards on them.


You can also cut out some of the cute ones and use them for package name tags, Just use a hole punch to add the ribbon tie.

I learned this tip here last year and my gift tags were so cute this year. In fact, my packages looked awesome with the recycled gift cards. I cut around shapes of Santa, etc. and they really looked nice.

I like all of the ideas in this thread. Fun too. Thanks for sharing.

I have already cut my Xmas cards into name tags, and saved every box that was salvagable. I reuse gift boxes until they can't be used again. I know most stores give them away with purchase before Xmas, but I don't want to waste any. I always get them when available even if it is not a gift item. That way I always have plenty of gift boxes available.

We reuse the gift boxes, gift bags & tissue paper that's not torn.

I saw a thing on Good Morning America about reusing wrapping paper and ribbon. That's getting a little hard, IMO.

But we do our part to reuse what we can.

We got hardly any cards this year - all but a couple were pictues of people. It's really weird - even pictures of adults. We found this years card season very strange!

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

that is a wonderful idea, thanks for sharing it.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Great idea!! I'm saving the nicer saying to put in my cards for next year and some of my cards will end up in my scrapbook. Gift tags for the rest thanks to your idea.

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Laura
Please visit my blog
http://mylifeinlaurasworld.blogspot.com/

I grab the pretty bows (some of our family really puts beautiful ones on their gifts) and ribbon and the gift bags. A lot of our family (not immediate but nieces and nephews and their families) throw away all gift bags and bows. Can you believe that?? They laugh when I tell them 'don't throw those away'. They just put them all together and give them to me! Their response "we'll just buy new ones next year."

Good ideas about recycling on this thread. Thanks, OP!

I'm amazed at the people who throw away gift bags. I don't save paper, bows, or tissue but I do save the nice gift bags. Most people I know just crumple them up and throw them away. I try to salvage whatever bags I can and fold them up - I don't save them if they are torn. I haven't had to buy gift bags in years - just reuse the ones that are given to us with gifts and ones I find laying around after a party.