Transform Greeting Cards Into Beautiful Bookmarks

Christmas has come and gone, and the evidence of the holiday has been mostly cleaned up. I’m always a little sad to take down the Christmas tree and pack away the decorations. Every year I always wonder what to do with the cards we’d received from friends and family.

I really enjoy the tradition of exchanging Christmas cards. I think it’s a dying tradition with the growth of social media. Still I love the personal messages we receive, and the beautiful cards covered with artful winter scenes. At the end of every Christmas season, I can’t bear to throw away the cards. This year we decided to transform our greeting cards into beautiful bookmarks.

With input from my helpers, I used plain sheets of paper to “frame” the bookmarks. We moved the paper over each card to decide how to best preserve the art.

I used my paper cutter to cut the cards, but scissors also work.

My helpers used a corner cutter on each bookmark.

A few of our cards had messages written inside. We glued colored paper on the backs of those cards.

I laminated all of our bookmarks for durability. My helpers assisted in finishing the cards with a hole punch and adding a simple tassel of yarn.

Any greeting card can be used to make bookmarks. You may have noticed in our pictures that one of these cards was not like the others. My daughter delights in saving any and all cards she receives. She only risked one old birthday card, and was thrilled with the results.