‘Courier ma’am’, the door bell rang.  It was an invitation card for a forthcoming wedding. Sending invitations is just the first step to ‘The big, fat Indianweding’ These are beautifully designed using all sorts fancy papers, beads, sequins and kundans etc. But once the wedding is over, these beautiful cards are often dumped and finally land up with the ‘raddiwalas’. Don’t you think, these lovely cards can be put to some good use and can be turned to some useful items by using a little bit of our artistic mind. So come on, make good use of your time in the holidays and dig out a few old invitation cards and lets get started.

PEN  STAND

You will need- an empty can, some strong glue, old invitation cards.
Method- Remove the top part of the can with the help of a can opener and see that there are no sharp edges left. [you could take the help of some elders for this] Now choose a card and cut a rectangular piece out of it according to the size of the can and cover the can properly with this paper and stick it with the help of a  strong glue.  Decorate the stand and its ready for use.

FANCY  ENVELOPES

You will need-Old cards ,glue.
Method-Cut out a rectangular piece from an old card [eg.9’’ by 6’’].On the wrong side of the paper, draw 2 lines, line no.1 at a distance of 2’’ from the top and line no. 2 divides the rest of the paper into two parts of 31/2’’ each. Thus we divide the paper into 3 parts A,B and C. Cut line no. 2 , ½ cm. from both the edges and fold the sides of part ‘C’. Now fold part ‘C’ upwards upto line 1 . Now stick the sides of part ‘B’ over part ‘C’ to form the envelope. Then fold part ‘A’ to form the flap of the envelope. Neatly trim the size of the flap to the exact size of the envelope. Now decorate your envelope and with some decorations or a small Ganesha picture from the cards. You can now give the envelope to your mom for gifting  money next time she attends a wedding.

DECORATIVE  BOX

You will need- a card board box, old cards and glue.
Method- Take a card box or old shoe box. [here I have used the empty box of 1 kg. pack of Taj Mahal tea.] Cut some old cards and stick them in a decorative manner to cover the box properly. Decorate the box with some beads or try your hand at some painting to decorate it. Your box is ready to store all your small things.

NOTE  PAD

You will need-Old cards, blank paper, glue.
Method- Choose an old card which is made of thick paper. Now remove the the papers from inside which have the printed matter on it. Cut some blank sheets of paper to the size of the card and stick them together inside the card. Your note pad is ready. Keep it beside your telephone to take down messages or jot down phone nos.