“Write what you know” is a piece of advice I’ve often followed, but I never thought it would lead me here.  If your struggles are similar to mine, though, I hope the tips below will prove useful.  These ideas apply to any cards you receive—birthday, Christmas, thank you notes, or even blank cards that you don’t like the text of but that have pretty art.

1. Decorate with them.  A simple way to do this is to hang the cards up when you first receive them.  I keep mine on a whiteboard at home.  Other solutions include pinning them to your fridge door, hanging them with cute clothespins from a ribbon, or propping them up on a bookshelf or desk.*
2. Recycle them as postcards.  If the reverse side of the notecard’s cover is blank, cut off the cover and use it like a postcard for a new recipient who can enjoy the art.  This works for notecards you’ve received, as well as freebie ones that are pretty but have messages or sentiments that you know you’ll never use.  The same is true for methods #3 and #4.
3. Repurpose them as bookmarks.  When I really like card art, I often resize notecards into one or more bookmarks (working around any text that’s printed on the notecard cover).  Then, you can keep enjoying the art for years to come inside your books.  What’s great is that the glossy or matte cardstock that most cards are printed on is often an ideal weight and quality for a bookmark, which is also relevant for my next suggestion.  Tip: Using a paper cutter will help you achieve straight edges on all sides for the bookmarks.
4. Turn them into gift tags.  Similar to the bookmarks, you can cut the notecards into little gift tags.  Even the “boring” parts of a card can sometimes be useful for this purpose as they can provide you with blank cardstock gift tags that you can customize—whether the part of the card you’re cutting is white, ivory, blue, or another solid color.  Tip: Make sure to check both sides before you cut so that the reverse side doesn’t have text from the back of the card.
5. Use them to make new cards.  While all the other ideas are ones that I’ve used before, this last one is mostly a concept.  But I imagine people who like building their own notecards with punches, ribbon, and other scrapbooking-style methods could make some great new notecards uses bits of old notecards cut and pasted onto blank notecards.  Another use I’ve seen is to use notecards as models for art practice—for example, copying a notecard cover that you like so you can practice your painting or sketching skills.

The same principle that inspired several of my tips may lead you to some ideas of your own.  Think about ways you use cardstock and see if any of them would make for good notecard repurposing (ex. place cards, signs for serving dishes at potlucks, etc.)!

*If you struggle to get rid of sentimental items, I suggest rereading the cards when you take them down from where you’ve used them as decorations.  Cull the ones that you no longer want to keep, and put the rest in a box for a year.  After the year has passed, sort through the box and get rid of the cards that don’t have handwritten messages or notes that you want to reread.  And while you’re at it, consider applying some of my ideas to the cards with pretty art and repurposing them so you can continue enjoying the notecards and remembering their senders.