I was talking to my Mom about my about to be eight year old niece's upcoming birthday. It turns out that much to the dismay of her very artistic, anti-establishment parents (my brother is a goth-like poet and my sister-in-law is a hippy painter), she wants business cards for her birthday.
Yes, you read that right. Business cards.
She's been collecting them and would like to offer her own in exchange.
My first thought was to simply order her a bunch.
But then I recalled the boxes of unused business cards I, myself, have collected over the years. I didn't know what I'd do with them (I changed jobs every year) but I didn't want to simply recycle them.
So I've reused them instead. I designed the business card on 2"x4" white labels, using clipart, and printed them out on the laser printer (black and white was fine). I then labeled over my old contact information. The result looked half decent (good for casual cards but not if you're running a business) and it was pretty close to free.
A bonus was that I could make a variety of cards for all her different moods. Cards with dragon clipart for those dragon riding days (she's big into Eragon), white queen chess piece clipart complete with title for her chess themed birthday party (she is an unusual child), etc.
This was a great reminder that the first solution to any problem is not necessarily the most frugal or the best.