pop up box card craft – Esselle Crafts

As you know, I’ve been saving used Christmas cards for quite a few years now, and a lot of the older ones have elements on them that can’t be recycled, like glitter. So here’s another fun idea for upcycling some used Christmas cards – a winter tree box card!

Upcycled Winter Tree Box Card by Esselle Crafts

All of the elements, including the main box card itself, were made from upcycled Christmas cards. I used my Cricut Explore to cut the box card out, together with a simple tree template, then cut the remaining pieces out by hand.

The four decorative panels came from the front of a large Christmas card. There were lots of embellishments stuck to it with foam pads, so I tried to save as much of the lovely little tree pattern as I could.

The larger trees started life as a picture of a red squirrel! Hard to believe, I know, but here is the card as I was cutting them out using the tree template.

The reddish-brown colours are so rich and earthy, and the little sprinkling of snow makes them perfect for this winter card.

With the scraps of card that I had leftover, I cut some little tree shapes out using a craft punch, then glued them around the base of the box card.

I glued a white panel to the back of the box card, and left it blank, so that it could be used for a handwritten message.

Here is a view of the back, where you can see some of the handwriting from the original Christmas card. I chose to leave it like this to show that it is upcycled and totally unique!

I took the gold ‘best wishes’ lettering from another Christmas card, which I first had to soak in warm water to remove it. Then I punched a scalloped oval out of another card, inked around the edges with vintage brown ink and glued the gold lettering on.

I am really pleased with how this box card has turned out; 100% upcycled and 100% unique! Will you try something like this?

Happy crafting!
Suzanne

I love upcycling. I love being able to turn something that would otherwise be thrown away into something else and giving it a whole new lease of life. Take this adorable owl pop-up box card for example!

Upcycled Owl Greeting Card, 3D Pop-Up Box Card

I created the card from used greeting cards, gift tags and other repurposed materials. This is the front of the original greeting card, and as soon as I saw it, I knew exactly what I needed to do!

On the original card, the owl in the top right corner was already cut out and raised up on dimensional foam. I carefully removed the owl from the card with the foam still in tact, then carefully cut around the other five owls.

I then used red-liner tape on the back of those five owls to attach them to strips of repurposed acetate (food packaging).

For the box card, the main structure was originally an old book cover and the decorative panels were scraps from another project.

After carefully arranging the position of the owls, I attached them securely to the box card using red-liner tape. I then positioned the owl with the foam right at the back so that he’s looking down over the other owls.

I then cut out four shiny gold stars from a used gift tag and attached two of them to thinner strips of repurposed acetate. I placed one on each side, then glued another one to the back panel using several layers of scrap card to raise it up.

I just love how the owls seem to be looking at each other! They are such characters!

I glued a white panel to the back of the box card and left it blank so that it can be used for a handwritten message.

I then stamped a ‘hello’ sentiment onto a scrap of white card, cut it out in the shape of a cloud and attached it to the front panel using small scraps of card to create dimension. I also added the other gold star and a sparkly gold heart from another used greeting card to complete the design.