Is your house like mine, with Christmas cards coming in the mail just about every day right now? I love this time of year, opening all of that happy mail....seeing pictures of family and friends on their photo cards, reading the annual "newsletters" updating us on all that's happened over the last year, seeing all of those pretty Christmas cards - some store-bought and some hand-made treasures. I don't know about you but the older I get, the harder it is to throw some of those cards away at the end of the season. Now obviously, you may not want to save the card from your plumber or whatever, but those cards with my Grandma's and Great-Aunts' hand-writing on them seem so much more precious to me nowadays. It was with that in mind that I created today's project to share with you. I've put together a SUPER simple Christmas Card Mini Book -- seriously ANYone can make this project, regardless of your crafty skill level. You could even get the rest of the family involved in this project. You can make this mini book as simple or as detailed as you want and the end result is a beautiful book full of Christmas card memories to look back on from year to year.
I've saved all of my Christmas cards from last year, on a shelf in the studio for a whole year, just waiting to share this project with you and I must admit that I had so much fun looking back at last year's cards, seeing how kids have grown and remembering loved ones that we've lost since we got their card last year. These cards are treasures. Why not save them, tuck them away with your Christmas decorations and then pull them out each year as little memory books? Go grab that stack of Christmas cards that have been piling up and let's get started!
All you need to create the cover is some cardboard and a couple of metal rings. These are 1.5" rings, but you can use whatever size you need depending on how many Christmas cards you have. Also, you don't have to use cardboard if you don't want. I had some I've been saving, which I cut down on my paper trimmer, to 6" x 7.5". You could easily use card stock or chipboard, even a cereal box would work. I just wanted my cover to have a bit of thickness to it, so I went with regular old cardboard. A crop-o-dile makes quick work of punching holes in the cardboard and all of the Christmas cards.
For my cover, I wanted to keep the cardboard color showing, so I opted to decorate it up a bit without actually covering the entire surface. I used the 2011 Holiday Tags stamp set and a few dies here to add the little "joy" focal point and spritzed on some Mister Huey's calico shine as well as splattered on some Mister Huey's in calico white and estate green.
The By the Numbers dies were used to cut out the 2010 for my cover, from Candy Cane Prints patterned paper and then I just stitched right thru the cardboard for an extra bit of little detail.
Inside the cover, I used some patterned papers and a bit more Mister Huey's as well as the new filigree border die. That's the beauty of this project......the goal isn't to make it super involved and take up a lot of your time. The goal is just to create a simple, pretty place to store those sweet Christmas cards you've been collecting, and to use up some of those supplies that you already have on hand!
In cases where you get a super cute Christmas card like this one, you simply have to save them!! Since this one's a little pocket with a note that slides out, I didn't want to punch a hole in it. Instead, I simply adhered the little pocket to some Sweet Symphony patterned paper.
That card (above) has remained my favorite Christmas card from last year....that Jess....she's so cute and crafty! Cards like that deserve to be saved and viewed again and again, don't they?
That's the other great thing about saving your Christmas cards. You will end up with a little inspiration book that you can pull out whenever you need Christmas card ideas. Even the store-bought Christmas cards can provide us with color inspiration, layout inspiration and more.
Some of our Christmas cards had little photos tucked inside. I simply used some fun washi tape to adhere them to a piece of card stock......again, I kept things super simple on purpose. The idea is just to have an easy (and pretty) place to store those photos so I can look back on them in the future. I grabbed a few bits and pieces of die cuts and patterned paper that were laying around and tucked them here and there.
You can even use washi tape to tape photos either to the inside or the back of the card they came with!
The cardboard that serves as the back cover is simply covered with patterned papers. It's so popular it is to send photo cards these days......I love that now I've got a place to keep them all together and I can flip thru this book whenever I want. It's already been fun to see how kids have grown and changed from last year to this year. I've already got a book started with this year's cards and it'll be so easy to add them in as they come each day.
You can also save envelopes and tuck them into your book.......perhaps you got a really cute envelope or someone has really fun hand-writing....or maybe there's really pretty postage you want to save. Those envelopes make a great place to tuck loose photos or other memorabilia from the season that you want to save. Tuck those bits into your mini book so they don't get lost!
If you haven't ever made a mini book, this is a great first project. Just think, most of the content has already been done for you -- just punch holes in those cards and you're good to go! Add a cover and how ever many (or few!) embellishments as you want and you're done!
Wishing you all the merriest of Christmases!
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