Recycled Art Notecards

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Do your kids love to paint and draw and color?  And do you have piles of artwork lying around?  There’s only so much you can do with all that artwork and it typically gets dumped in the garbage at my house.  I decided to save some of it and use it to make really simple recycled art notecards to send to friends and family on birthdays.

Every year , almost without fail, I make a large stack of simple cards to mail out to friends and family on their birthdays. This year, I decided to recycle and reduce some of the clutter in our house and use the kids’ paintings to make the cards.  After all, who else appreciates the artwork of children like grandparents, aunts, and uncles?

How to Make Recycled Art Notecards

To make the cards, I used colorful cardstock, a stencil with birthday shapes, and a craft knife.

I folded the cardstock into cards {you can use a scoring tool to make that easier or buy pre-folded cards} and used the craft knife and the stencil to cut shapes out of the front of the card.  Before cutting be sure to open the cards, lay them flat, and place the area on a cutting mat.

Once the shape is cut on the front of the card, cut a small square out of the artwork and tape or glue it to the inside of the card, covering the cut space.

Mix and match different colored cards with different artwork and before you know it you’ll have a whole stack of custom, recycled cards!

What have you made with your child’s artwork?

For more clever ways to recycle and reuse your child’s artwork, be sure to check out these nine ways to repurpose art!