I cut the back half of the card off - the part with the words/greeting - and toss it. The fronts with the picture become gift tags.

I've done the gift tag thing with them.

Often elementary schools or nursing homes are glad to get them for craft projects.

And one year, I made a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. You need a lot of greeting cards (or card stock) for that, because each hexagon needs to be basted to cardboard, then whipstitched together. Eventually, of course, you remove the cards, but it's the easist way to get neat, precise hexagons. I've still got a gallon-sized bag of the Christmas card hexagons sitting around--just in case I decide to make another quilt.

We get milk in coated cardboard containers about 2-3/4" square and 7-3/4" high, with top folded like a house roof.

I cut them, then slip two together and staple them to make a tray in which I store various things, including letters sorted according to topic.

I find that cutting cards to fit into the end or high enough in back to show over the envelopes allow me to put a title on them.

Cards, being stiffer, are handier than regular paper.

While it's illegal to send currency in the mail, I'm told, using two pieces taped together, with the bill taped in place between them to avoid shifting) allows one to disguise its presence to reduce the possibillity of interference/evaporation en route.

Sometimes I store various things, including bulk food, in empty peanut butter, etc. jars.

Sometimes I write the name of the item on the jar with marking pen, but sometimes I tape a piece of paper to the jar, but they are rather fragile ... a piece cut from an old card is sturdier. Bend by holding the piece down at the edge of the desk/counter, pull downwards over the edge.

Sometimes it's handier to have recipes on stiffer than regular printer paper, so one can paste a recipe on regular paper to a piece of a card, cut to shape ... or write the recipe on a piece of card cut to the required shape.

Labels for drawers of a file cabinet, cut to required size.

ole joyful

Are these used cards you've received over the years or the "gift" cards often included in charitable solicitations? If unused, and you're not likely to use them, bag selections together and put them in your Goodwill box - with the price of cards these days someone on a tight budget would be thrilled to death. And like azzalea mentioned, so would the crafts/ activities departments of nursing homes, child care centers, etc.

I'm really the wrong one to chime in and occasionally I don't practice what I preach - I just did another major paper of all sorts purge and a fair stash of greeting cards (received over the years) that I had saved for "some reason" went through the shredder or into the recycling. It was liberating because I knew cutting them apart, etc. for other uses would just mean - for me - I'd simply have a pile of cut apart greeting cards that I'd most likely never do anything with. I saved myself a step.

Hi Duluth in bloomz 4 spring,

My rather wealthy but kidless old uncle lived on this farm for many years. After his wife died, as he in his mid-80s had cattle in the barn, with major pain in hips and legs, we worried about him falling in a snowbank, so I stayed with him a while until his cattle went to pasture.

On his death, a couple of years later, about three years ago, the new owner offered to rent the house to me ... at much lower cost than I paid in town.

I opened a cigar box on the evening that this thread was started, around when I made my earlier contribution here.

The cigar box was filled with sympathy cards which they'd received, some many years ago. I wondered about referring to that earlier, but didn't ...

... but in the light of your remark, it does seem rather relevant.

And I have a tendency to be retentive, myself.

Being nearly 80 and with my driving licence in limbo at the moment, that I think that I can get out of, when I made a trip with an apartment-dwelling cousin last week to another cousin's funeral, we discussed seniors dealing with their stuff themselves, rather than leaving it for their offspring to deal with.

I had another lesson when I moved here a couple of years ago, as part of my last month's rent was burned up paying for a box to haul away the residue that I chose not to bring here.

ole joyful

Having missed being part of the "Baby Boomer" generation by a mere eleven days, I'm slowly getting up there anyway, and as I do get older, I'm finding it easier to keep things that I love in my heart rather than in things or stuff associations. Like ole joyful, those who come after me shouldn't have to rent industrial dumpsters to clean up my life. I've seen that happen too many times and have also been involved in dealing with the aftermath of an elderly relative's demise.

And keeping on topic - in going through an elderly aunt's home, I found boxes and boxes of greeting cards she'd received between 1928 and 2005. And she and her husband moved 47 times over the course of their marriage - trucking that stuff from pillar to post just boggles my mind! Well, though I am not without sentiment, the buck stopped with me. And all of this served as a real object lesson.

What others choose to do is simply that - what others choose to do. I'm a firm believer in recycle, reuse, repurpose, but at this stage in my life, the recycling bin is more attractive for some things than coming up with reuse and repurpose ideas.

I thank everyone for taking the time to help me. I mean you have really helped me in so many ways. Joyfulguy, I'm not 80 yet. I'm 55 and wants to make the best of the years I have left on this earth.

While I cut the backs off ONLY those cards that I enjoy..and use them... I've also had to help clean our my deceased single elderly aunt's home. She was 76 when she passed on and had never married. My sisters and I were her "kids". In closing up her house, we found every single note and card that we had ever sent her. She saved them all. I'm so in agreement with duluth about reuse and recycle. If you don't have a legitimate purpose for your greeting cards, recycle.

Thanks to all. I will go through my cards today and cut the backs off.

I looked at those cards that Uncle had saved in a cigar box.

He was married to his second wife, who died about '03, for nearly 40 years.

At least quite a few of the cards, perhaps almost or even all of them ... were received in and around Feb. '56 ... following the death of his first wife.

Quite a few of us financial advisors suggest long-term investing ...

... but that length of time to save cards seems a bit long.

However ... emotions, including one's first love, don't pay much attention to time.

Good wishes for enjoyment of this lovely spring week - it's sunny and rather warm today, but a bit windy. I did bit of clean-up in the garden.

ole joyful

P.S. As for the investing ... the longer the better.

When calculating real rate of return, one must remember what part of current income is left in hand after taxes ...and what effect that inflation has annually on one's assets.

If one develops about 8% rate of return, more or less at the stock market average ...

... and has marginal tax rate of 25% ... that leaves about 6% ...

and if one loses about 2% to inflation (and it's often been higher, but I don't want to make you cry too hard) ...

... that takes the real rate of return down to about 4%.

Had you invested $100. at age 15, and achieved a real rate of return of 4%, how much do you think that it would have grown to when you hit 65?

There's an easy way to calculate that figure.

Divide 72 by the rate of growth that you achieve, to find how many years that it will take for your asset value to double: which produces 18. Dividing the 50 years by 18 produces about 2.75. Double 100 2.75 times produces 200, 400 and 3/4 of the way to 800 ... pretty close to the actual figure of $710.67, right?

If you'd invested the $100. at age 25 ... value at age 65 $480. If at age 35, value at age 65 would be $324.34.

Suppose you invested that $100. into an equity-based mutual fund, and paid the manager 1.5% per year (in Canada, about 2.5%), which would have reduced your effective rate of return to about 2.5% ... your value at age 65 would be about $343.71.

And very few mutual fund managers manage to develop a rate of return as high as the stock market averages.

Seems to me worthwhile to learn how money works and invest in quality stocks, directly.

Suppose you'd begun at age 15 to invest $100. annually, what would result? If you'd done it at year-end, $15,266.71 If at the beginning of that year and subsequent years, $15,877.38. With some allowance for inflation.

If you figured that it cost $100. to delay that investing for a year throughout - wrong! It cost $610.67!

o j (not juiced up, today)

My grandmother made us all some hankie boxes from her old cards....it basically involved cutting "the pretty pictures" of florals, landscapes whatever from the front of the cards into hexagon shapes...she had some heavy plastic sheets also cut into the same shape as well as some fancy plain wrapping paper also cut that way. She sandwiched a plastic sheet, the card (so the picture showed), the wrapping paper (so it showed back to back with the card) and another sheet of plastic. Then she crocheted these 4 pieces together by punching holes around the outside of this sandwich in various places (obviously she'd made a template of some kind as the holes were all evenly spaced on each).... once she had 6 of these all crocheted she would crochet them together and do the same making a lid and base...and attach those....for the top she'd only attach one side so you could lift the lid of the thing. I am sure each of my cousins received one of these items and I remember mine being a jewerly box, hankie holder, make up holder....you name it over the years. Seems like alot of work but it did obviously make an impression on me and was a very good gift. Sorry the instructions seem vague but I'm sure you could google some and come up with the idea.

Depending upon what is on the front, I sometimes cut off the back part, verse, signature...just saving the front part.

I then use the pic...scene, flowers, Thank You part of the front, and include and use it to write on when I send out plants and seeds in trade. It makes my 'note' a little 'special' as opposed to a plain piece of paper.

My grandmother made us all some hankie boxes from her old cards.
Those boxes must have been so special. I am one of the few i think that likes, uses, and collects hankies....most vintage. I just love 'em but have several that are too nice to consider using....well maybe I could for 'dress up' occasions.

Sue

Rebbit8, I recycle the picture of the card for postcards or for scrapbooks. I have also cut the designs to tessellate and covered a bowling ball for decoration.
Lexi

I make little boxes out of them to use for stuff I put in the Christmas stockings.
My family loved them!

I don't even send cards anymore, just e cards and encourage my familhy to do the same.

I put them in the garbage.

(well, paper recycling)

I save only a very few. Most of them, they're not even really suitable for reuse on craft projects.

Carol, those little boxes sound so cute. Can you tell us how to make them. Many of the greeting cards that I get are just to pretty to trash.
Thanks, Lexi

Interesting thread....I'm a business woman who regularly sends "Thank you" cards to my clients.....blank notes where I can write my own specific thanks for their use of my business.

One time, I noticed a client had one of my cards on his desk when I made a subsequent sales call to him. I noticed it, and he said he liked the artistry in the card, therefore kept it on his desk to enjoy! Hmmm.....so he remembered me and my card of thanks!

Fast forward to today....I dropped into a thrift store I had seen on the way home from work. I thought I'd check out the blue jeans and sweaters! Guess what? They had a rack of new, unused greeting cards of all kinds, tons of them blank, probably from the estates of many people, and a stack of all size envelopes. I found all sorts of blank cards for my thank you notes. Some of labeled artwork from the Smithsonian, some from all sorts of charities, some from the various wildlife federations, Audubon and the like!

I am quite sure my customers will like getting some very lovely thank you notes from me now, and I help the thrift store! BTW: SO much less expensive than store bought, and each is unique!!!

AND! they had lots of others....birthday, Anniversary, baby shower, Christmas, and the like...

OK, I guess what I'm saying is to check some local thrift stores and get a card for 25 cents if you can't afford the $3.00 kind at the pharmacy or specialty shop. (No offense Hallmark! Love you too!)

Well, I didn't find jeans or sweaters for me this trip, but I have a new place to shop for my thank you notes!!!

Also, my business budget just took a turn for the better!!!