I wish I were crafty enough to make recycled cardboard cuckoo clocks like David Stark. But I did recycle our moving boxes in a useful, fun way when we moved to Brooklyn. After unpacking, I turned our broken-down boxes into moving announcements. It's super easy. All you need is a pair of sturdy scissors, moving-themed rubber stamps, a stamp pad, and your cardboard boxes! For the how-to and materials, see below the fold.
{1} Cut your cardboard into postcard-size squares. Don't worry about super straight lines, measuring, or snips of leftover packing tape on your edges — these moving postcards are charming due to their rough, recycled look!
{2} Stamp the front with images that call out your move. You never want to send a postcard with a completely blank side — I've heard that can cause problems with mailing. I used a house stamp plus a truck with heart stamp that I found at the Ink Pad. Other ideas: use alphabet stamps to spell out "we moved" or more appropriate in our case, "we survived our move."
{3} For the text side, I used a Postcard outline stamp with a stamp that says Check Out Our New Address (also from the Ink Pad.) If you're sending out a large number of moving announcements, I recommend getting a custom address stamp — sure to get a lot of use down the line. I just used a thin sharpie to write our new address and our friends' addresses. Then stamp + send. (And settle in with a glass of wine to celebrate being unpacked!)
