Christmas Card Recycle

So I saw a great idea for a Valentine's wreath from here. It's a blog I've come to love for numerous reasons - 2 of them being 1. because she's also adopted from Korea, and 2. because she likes to craft! I loved the idea but wanted to use what I had. So what did I have? I did have a 1 1/4 inch square punch and lots of Christmas cards!
Here's the finished product...

Here's the supplies: a foam wreath, Christmas cards and their envelopes (that's right, you get to use both!), my square punch, 3/4 inch stick pins (leftover from a Christmas craft from last year), and a scoring tool - you don't need the cutting edge, you need the scoring edge. ...and a Packer football game on Saturday night or a few episodes of White Collar to keep you company while your husband is working.

Then punch, punch, punch. The scoring tool was used because it was difficult to get a clean fold on cardstock (from which most Christmas cards are made).

I cut the envelopes into strips to wrap around the wreath as the base layer. I used the parts that had stamps or other postmarks on them cause it seemed more fun. The strips don't have to be perfect, just 1-2 inches wide. Then pin them around the wreath and cut off the excess. You could use a glue gun for this as well.

Here's the stamp from a card that came from France :).

Then take your folded squares and pin them in place. I have to say, I don't know if a glue gun would work on this part. The cards are stiff and don't give well. The pins allow you to rotate them a bit as needed and give a pretty secure hold.

And here's the finished product! (not hung because, well, I don't have a ribbon yet to hang it. And it's the middle of January and time to take down the Christmas decor, not put more up. But I'm excited to hang it up next year!)

Hope it inspires you to make use of all the cards you still have left from Christmas in a pile (if you're like me...).