Christmas Card Lampshade

Here's a good way to recycle old Christmas cards and broken lampshades while ending up with a free decoration for next year.

You will need:
An old lamp shade
Old Christmas cards
Silver or gold paper
Red or green bias tape.
Glue

We don't throw much out at my house, and Christmas cards are no exception. We usually end up with stacks of all the prettiest ones from previous years. The question is, what to do with all the left-over beauties? The answer came this year in the form of a cracked lampshade. I realized there was no better way to give new life to both the lampshade and the cards than by putting the two together.

First find an old lampshade. It doesn't matter how stained or cracked it is because the cards will cover the surface. If there is fabric on the outside of the lampshade, cut it off. Cut the backs off the Christmas cards; you'll be using only the fronts for this project.

Glue several cards to the outside of the lampshade, laying them so that the top edges just overlap. There will be 1-2 inch spaces between the card bottoms. To fill those, cut triangular strips of gold or silver paper and glue them to the lampshade covering any open spaces between the cards. Next glue a piece of red or green bias tape to the top and bottom edges of the lampshade.

Next year use the shade to give your lights a holiday feel. You can either change the lampshades for the holiday season, or if your Christmas card lampshade is large enough, just set it right over the other lampshade.