One More Seasonal Tradition: Scrapbooking Holiday Cards

2009HolidayCardsPhoto

One of my last holiday traditions each year as I am cleaning up & putting away is to get out my square punch and attack our holiday cards.

My goal is simple: create a collage of faces and designs from the various cards we receive throughout December. I grab my punch and go for it. Over the years I have used different sized square punches depending on the number of cards. This year I used the Extra Giga from Marvy Uchida.

I did a little searching in my archives and found this post talking about the process back in 2005. Here's an excerpt:

Since I am all about simplifying I came to the conclusion that I do not need to keep all the Christmas cards I received this year. I loved getting them. I celebrated each one that came through the mailbox. And now that Christmas is over I would still like to have a bit of a record of the cards from this Christmas, but I certainly don't need to hang on to them all.

It is ok.

How do I decide which part of the card to punch? I think what I have always loved about punching is that I am taking a bit of something and bringing it together with other somethings to create an entirely new something. When I was punching I tried not to think too hard. I laid my punch with the metal side up, slid the card in, and moved the card around using the window as a guide. When I saw something that looked just fine and I punched. Some of the photos were too large to get everyone in the square and that was totally OK. My vision was to bring together a bunch of bits of this year's cards - not preserve each one in its orginal state.


One thing I noticed this year is that people had their photos on all different kinds of papers: metallic, shiny, canvas, etc. This was definitely more of a trend than in years past.

And as much as I love doing each layout individually it is almost more fun to see all these layouts here together. Here's a look at the past card layouts from when I first started this process:

2004:

MerrychristmasBOTH

2005:


2006:

Christmascards06_low

2007:

2007HolidayCards_Low

2008:

I found 2008's layout in need of a little assistance. When I found it in the 2008 album last night it was two pages with only the top two rows of photos on the second page. I decided to trim that off and attach it to the top of the full page (and use the Fiskars Apron Lace punch along the bottom).

2008HolidayCards_Low

2008flipup

2009:

2009ChristmasCardsLayout
What do you do with your holiday cards? Keep them? Toss them? Make something with them? Donate them? If you do donate them I would love to hear more about it.

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246 thoughts

  1. Jessica says…
    01/07/2010

    That is a great idea! I already threw away all of the cards we got this year, but I will remember this for next year!

    Reply 0 Replies
  2. Holly Smith says…
    01/07/2010

    What a great idea. I always feel bad not keeping the cards, but I love this idea to preserve the memory of each one. Thanks so much :)

    Reply 0 Replies
  3. Cathy says…
    01/07/2010

    I put our Christmas cards in a basket and each morning when I pray, I end it with a card from the basket...praying for that individual or family. As the year goes on, I add any other cards I might receive. I love the idea of the collage, but the card have already been tossed from last year! Hopefully, I will remember that for this year's cards.

    Reply 0 Replies
  4. evalyn says…
    01/07/2010

    As I was inspired by you years ago, I punch out my cards and photos and create a layout. If there is a sweet sentiment or a handwritten something on the inside or even my mom's, "Love, Mom and Dad", I will punch that out as well.

    Reply 0 Replies
  5. Emily says…
    01/07/2010

    Ali,
    Another GREAT idea! I am going to do that next year. What I did this year was incorporate my christmas cards into my December Daily album, you can see it here:
    http://simplyem.blogspot.com/2009/12/december-daily-complete.html

    Reply 0 Replies
  6. Vanessa says…
    01/07/2010

    This is a great idea and something I really wanted to do with last year's Christmas cards and now I am inspired to do it :) This year, I picked out some special cards and placed them in my Dec Daily. Since the Canvas Prima album is 8x8 they fit in there nicely. I used one of the canvas pages that had a pocket sewn on like yours and just stuck them in there... thx for the inspiration!

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  7. Therese says…
    01/07/2010

    What a wonderful way to recycle cards that don't go into our layouts! Thanks for the link.

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  8. Tina says…
    01/07/2010

    Hi Ali,
    This is what I do with mine...
    http://happyinmyblueroom.blogspot.com/2009/01/christmas-cards-what-to-do-with-them.html
    I just can't cut the family pictures up... and having personal handwriting from loved ones who have passed is wonderful!
    Love your simplicity, though! I do love "simple"... :)
    Tina

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  9. Christine says…
    01/07/2010

    I use last year's standard (non-photo) cards to make this year's gift tags. I usually add copious amounts of glitter. I would just throw the photo cards out, but I always felt a pang of guilt. I love this idea of yours, and I don't know how I missed it in previous years. I'm totally going to do this with all the photo cards (and some of the others) that I've received. Thanks!

    Reply 0 Replies
  10. Dawn says…
    01/07/2010

    A friend of mine makes gift tags with the fronts of the card and then tosses the rest. Loved seeing the photo/card collages!

    Reply 0 Replies
  11. Christine H says…
    01/07/2010

    I love the 08 "fix." While I was reading this post, I was thinking what I would do as I thought I had enough for one 12x12 but not two. The 08 version is perfect.

    Reply 0 Replies
  12. carla stolte says…
    01/07/2010

    Oh...I love this idea!! I might have to go outside and grab all the cards I just put in the recycling (except it is -30C outside, so I probably won't) :) I do keep the pictures that I get in a small photo album on the side table in the living room so my kids can go through and see pictures of all our friends and family throughout the year. But this is a GREAT idea. Thanks for sharing Ali!

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  13. twitter.com/senorabotija says…
    01/07/2010

    We don't really recieve that many cards [we recieved 4 this year], so I just add them into my December Daily for whatever day they came. I punch the envelope, so I that I know who, where and when the card came. I don't make my day about that card, unless it is deeply meaningful [like my brother's card this year since he is Afghanistan]. I do love your Card pages like that, but I simply don't get enough cards to do something like that.

    Reply 0 Replies
  14. Deb J says…
    01/07/2010

    I had never thought of doing this. What a great idea. I will have to do this next year. I have already gotten rid of them for this year. I keep the ones with photos in my albums but the others I either donate or trash depending upon what's in them.

    Reply 0 Replies
  15. Tina (teetee) says…
    01/07/2010

    ooooo i love this.... so gonna do this!

    Reply 0 Replies
  16. Jennifer says…
    01/07/2010

    Love this idea!

    Reply 0 Replies
  17. Carrie Alexander says…
    01/07/2010

    I always have such angst over what to do with them; I know how much I love the photos and cards I send out so I know what kind of care and thought others put into theirs. What a great way to showcase happy holiday greetings! My son, two and a half, is loving using mom's "crunches" (punches!), so I'm going to get him involved in doing the "crunching" for me. New Jan tradition!

    Reply 0 Replies
  18. Ali Edwards says…
    01/07/2010

    Me too Amy :).

    Reply 0 Replies
  19. Allie says…
    01/07/2010

    I used them (along with envelopes) in my December Daily this year, since I didn't start that project until halfway through the month. I didn't premake any of the pages, so I used some of the cards to base journaling, etc. on. http://scrappenstance.blogspot.com/2009/12/december-daily-ish-part-i.html

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  20. Holly S says…
    01/07/2010

    OMGosh!!! I love this idea. We have lots of holiday cards and shutter at the thought of throwing them away every year-I also love how looking back on last year's layout, you were ok with changing what you didn't like about it! I have a few layouts that 'haunt' me and not look just right but have been weary about making changes and possibly making it worse-how fearless of you! Thanks for the gentle nudge to fix mine once and for all!

    Reply 0 Replies
  21. Ali Edwards says…
    01/07/2010

    Oh, really love this idea Susan.

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  22. Cynthia Friese-Hassanein says…
    01/07/2010

    You rule! I was thinking about your christmas card lay-out and doing one this year!!!!!! Thanks for the post!!!!!!!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  23. Elsa-Maija says…
    01/07/2010

    I make holes to them and turn them into a book. And my baby loves to read it.
    http://mediaserver-2.vuodatus.net/g/20455/2188099.jpg

    Reply 0 Replies
  24. Erica says…
    01/07/2010

    I love this idea! I just shove mine in a drawer and then eventually pitch them, but i would love to have a way to keep them and not take up so much space. Thanks for sharing this.

    Reply 0 Replies
  25. Kathy says…
    01/07/2010

    I keep a few with personal or touching messages, but the rest go to my son's first grade teacher (and my colleague), who uses the cardstock the following year for the kids to make gift boxes and other crafts from. She really appreciates this.
    My school gets a lot less reusable items than we used to - I hope that means things are being used at home - but things like yarn and cloth etc just don't find there way to us anymore. I'm glad when we can find new life for things.

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