On our Dollar Store Crafts Facebook Page, Sylvia asks: I’m a small business owner, and since I’m moving, I have about 300 business cards with the wrong address and phone # on them…..does anyone have any ideas of stuff to make with business cards?
- Suggestions for Reusing Business Cards from Recycle This
- Make Business Card Rings instead of handing out business cards by Upcycle Your Life (photo above) – not exactly what you asked, but this project was too amazing not to share!
- Mini Notepad: Clip cards together with a binder clip and keep it by the phone (ha ha, remember when we used to have those phones??)
- ATCs… Light: ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) are little playing card sized pieces of art. Business cards aren’t quite wide enough to be ATCs… technically. But nothing is stopping you from using your old business cards to create tiny works of art.
- Make Gift Tags: Embellish the business side of the card (paint it, or glue pretty paper to it), then put the To/From info on the blank side. (via jennifer)
- Make Mini Scrapbooks: Check this awesome mini scrapbook instruction sheet from Kirsty Neal
- Make Faux Paint Chip Sample Cards: paint stripes of coordinating colors like paint sample cards, and use them for all those fun paint chip crafts (via louisa)
- Keep track of simple knitting patterns (via Ella’s commentin the Recycle This article):I use cards like these when I make scarves and such, knitting the same rows over and over again.Write one row of the pattern on each card, punch a hole in the corner and thread them on a string. When one row is finished, simply turn the card to the back of the stack. Very easy to keep track of which row you’re on.
This beats the photocopy-with-crossed-out-rows, hands down. Also, I save them in case I ever do the same pattern again. They’re usually good for that, even when I’ve travelled with the project.
Readers, what would you do with leftover business cards?
p.s. Over at the Coffee Talk community, I’m chatting about “How Many Gifts are Too Many for Your Kids?” – please come chime in!
14 Comments
Christa Grant
String them together with pony beads for a great chew toy for your budgie or cockatiel
Julie P
I made a set of “face cards” using my old business cards. This was before “scrapbooking” was a thing, so I just used markers and drew them on.
buggal1989
I love the idea of the gift tags – especially if u run a gift shop these would be great to use as give-me’s! Here are a few other ideas that leaped to mind: If they are printed on one side only use them as cardstock and punch shapes from them. Let your child create a work of art on the blank side and then affix a business card magnet to the printed side to make a mini artwork magnet for the frig – make some to give away to family and friends. If you scrapbook these would be great as title plates (glue it on patterned paper and then trim the edges with deckle scissors to create a decorative border then write your title in calligraphy). Make bookplates out of them (add the edge). Use them to create mini flashcards – punch a hole in the corner and attach them using a binder ring. Make coupons out of them – either for your business or for ur hubbie or kids. Another take on the cocktail garland – write “peace”, “love”, “hope”, “joy” in calligraphy on the blank side. Punch holes (use a mini hole punch) in the top corners. Then string them together on jute with beads and fabric strip “bows” to create a mini garland. I’ll let u know if I think of others!
George
If you don’t have a blank side, they’ll still work for a lot of crafts, but my favorite idea is to use them to help bulk up homemade paper.
All of these ideas assume you have a blank back of the card:
-If you find yourself on the road or at a trade show with useless cards like that, they can be used to make a temporary set of playing cards for a game or two at the hotel.
-My former employer always leaves a box of bad cards (carefully labeled so noone gives them out) next to the box of name-card holders in the supply room. They work well as name tags.
-My friend makes toys and mixes his own paints. He uses a stack of business cards to record the paint formulas and a dab of paint. He punches a hole and keeps them on a carabiner at his workbench for reference or to take to the store as a shopping list.
-I keep a few old cards (and a tiny pen) in my wallet for shopping lists, leaving notes, etc.
-They make great templates and stencils for small crafts. I make a lot of tiny wire artwork and jewelry pieces and I often start by sketching it on business-card. I use one of these http://www.amazon.com/Removable-Restickable-Stick-49oz-Repositionable/dp/B001GXFB4K to temporarily stick them to my workbench, and just follow the pattern.
-Useful as price-tags, and can be cut in half or quarters to use on smaller items.
-They work well as informational tags for photos, which you can insert in the frame or stick on the back of it. When I sell a print, I always write the location of the photo, names of anyone in it, and the date on a card and staple it to the back of the frame.
Nidhi
I made teeny tiny art pieces to display in my cubicle with crayon and water color! We had to get new business cards because our business name changed ever-so-slightly. Hello 500 tiny canvasses! http://www.nidhizzle.com/2011/04/business-card-tricks.html
buggal1989
Great ideas! Too bad I threw away those I had that I could no longer use! Just goes to show you that you should nver throw anything away – even if your house is beging to look like you are a hoarder!!!
The comment on the jewlery sparked another idea – use it as a display card for handmade jewlery! If you chose a muted desgin of scrapbook paper you can print the name of your business on it before you cutand paste it on the printed side!
MC
I recently quit my job and have a whole box of old business cards with full colour printing on both sides. There’s no room to write on them, but I am saving them to make a whole bunch of tiny origami shapes that can become either a mobile or a streamer, or fill up a glass vase.
Michelle, from Upcycle Your Life
Fold the old business card in half lengthwise, with the printed side on the inside, staple it to the top of a small sized jewelry/product baggie for a cute product package, then print out your new logo on sticker paper to label.
PS: thanks for sharing my fabric message rings post!
Christie
Love the knitting pattern idea! I just wish I had seen this before throwing out my childhood business card collection, which I had been hoarding all these years.
George
I have another couple:
A friend of mine sometimes uses them as shims in unseen areas of his woodworking projects.
He also uses them to label his parts-cabinet drawers.
I sometimes use little pieces of leftover cardstock or a business card to clean out little crevices like between keyboard keys. You can apply this idea anywhere.
Mary
I punch a hole in one corner of several and put them on my keyring for easy-access notepad, and also re-use them for filing cabinet labels.
My daughter paints on them.
My husband labels his brewing and winemaking projects with them to keep track of how long they’ve been aging, when things will go into bottles, etc.
Elisa V.
I have ones with both sides written on it and used hot glue to make a ring out of them and use them for napkin holders. I added ribbon to the outside for an extra effect!
Autumn
Give them to a teacher friend! They work great for flash cards, word walls, review, matching activities, picture cards– the list could go on and on. Basically anything you could use an index card for.
Mary @ CharmingAndDarling.etsy.com
Great ideas! Unfortunately (or fortunately now) I have a full box of out of date business cards!
I love the idea of painting the text side… maybe I’ll put my new business logo on a sticker on that side and on the back to write “thank you” to my customers to send with orders!
I also love the idea of embellished napkin rings! Great kids project :)