I love vintage Halloween cards, but I don’t like the piles of buy clone cards from Halloweens past gathered in boxes. You can use the cards for different craft projects, as they are usually cardboard and have very nice images and colors. The first idea that comes to mind is to use the old cards in your scrap-booking. You can either use the cards as they are, or cut pictures and words out off them, or you can use the cards as colored paper, and cut strips, figures and even letters out of them.
You can make new cards of the old ones. If you have folded cards, you can simply cut off the “cover”, fold it in two and use it as a mini card, use it as a single card as it is, you can glue the card on card-stock, or you can cut pictures or shapes of the old card and glue on card-stock. You can make place cards. Cut squares or rectangles, fold them in half, cut a half circle slit in the front, and tuck a name card into this slit. You can also make napkin holders by cutting strips of cards and then fastening them into rings what ever way you prefer.
You can make standing figures by cutting a rectangle so that you leave at least half an inch around the witch’s head, cat, pumpkin or what ever image you wish to use. Then you mark the middle of the card and cut around the outline of the witch, cat or pumpkin above the middle line. When you fold the card (carefully as not to fold the figure), you get a standing witch, cat or pumpkin.
You can cut out pictures from cards and use for decoupage. You could glue the images on tins or cardboard boxes, like shoe boxes, you have either painted or papered first. You can add ribbon or tape to decorate the jar or box further, or hot-glue artificial flowers or Halloween decoration on it. You could make a Halloween tray by painting a tray first black or orange, then gluing on the card images and then sealing it with a couple of layers varnish. You could cover an old, simple frame by covering it with pictures from old cards.
You can make table mats and coasters by cutting a circle or square from the cards, and laminating it between two sheets of self-adhesive plastic. You can use a colored sheeting as base, but, naturally, the other layer must be clear, so that the card image shows. You can also use wrapping paper or scrapbook papers as base on which you glue the image, and then laminate this mat between two layers of clear self-adhesive plastic. It is really easy to just wipe these clean, and you can make as many as you like.
You can also make ornaments or bookmarks out of tiny pictures by laminating them between two layers of self-adhesive plastic. You can make bookmarks by cutting the cards in strips and gluing on nice paper to cover the backside. You can make ornaments by taking an old lid to a jar, cut a circle from card and glue it on the lid, and punch a hole on top for hanging. You can make ornaments by cutting circles from the cards that aren’t very nice, and cut the circle into a spiral. Attach a string in the middle of the spiral and you have a cute little curlicue ornament.