Saturday 3 October 2009

Tutorials: Recycle your old business cards

A good (design) friend sent me a link to someone who loved their Moo cards so much they decided not to give them anyway and recycle them into magnets. And since the swap over of names and shop I naturally had quite a few Glue & glitter cards left and so after seeing this tutorial for the Moo cards I thought I'd make some of my own but this time with my old regular sized business cards. The design of my cards are perfectly formed (with a bit of luck!) for this project as there is a square just dedicate to my illustrations and since all the other details on my business cards are now redundant I was able to just snip them off to leave a the illustrations in their square form. So here we go.

1. All you need is some old (or new) business card, some scissors, some double sided tape and a magnetic strip. Here I am using some magnet paper I had left over from years ago, but you can buy a magnetic strip tape which is already tacky on one side and fairly cheap about £1.50 for 1 metre.

2. Here is me snipping off the redundant part of my business card to leave the pretty illustrations. I'm not sure what I could do with bit I cut off but I am convinced I must be able to do something, especially as one side has "glitter" written across it. Maybe this will be a later tute when i've thought of something.

3. I cut my magnetic paper into small long strips and then taped them up with the double sided tape. If you buy the magnet strip tape then I don't think you need to tape the back as it is already done for you, making them project even more simple!


4. Peel off the tape and stick to the back of your cards. I have used two pieces, one at the top and one at the bottom. And there you have it some nice magnets which are great for taking to craft fairs or giving as free gifts.

As in step 2. I cut off the details but you could leave them on or if you use the moo cards they have the details on the back. These would be very good to give out as business cards as I reckon the receiver would be less likely to throw them away and so hopefully remember you!


This is a super simple project and so obvious. I wish I had thought of it myself, but never the less we can also have a go and do a bit of recycling. I will be giving my new magnets away with all purchases bought from my shop. Enjoy!



6 comments:

  1. Oooh, neat! Lovely idea and theres so many possibilities with this. Plus I love the fact it means you're not having to bin your old business cards but finding a cool way to recycle them - thanks for sharing, lovely! x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great idea, moo cards are fab aren't they I can quite understand not wanting to give them away:-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great idea- I need to do this with my old cards- not that I have many left now. They'd be nice to put in with orders :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great idea. I wanted to print new plastic business cards but now i will try your idea with my old cards.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for all the great helpful tutorial. You did a great job.
    Plastic card Printing

    ReplyDelete