One More Seasonal Tradition: Scrapbooking Holiday Cards
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:
2005:
2006:
2007:
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).
2009:
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.
I wish I would of saw this on Monday as I was taking down everything Christmas. I am defintely going to file this idea away for next year.
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Wow, this post came at the perfect time, I was sorting my cards to send them to St. Jude's recycle card program and came across this post. I love this idea and made mine last night. I plan to do it with those Birthday cards for the kids wtih some pictures from their celebration (god knows there are always lots of those).
Thanks Ali!
(I posted mine on my blog)
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OH - I love holiday photo cards. I actually silhouette cut mine and then create a photo collage. Starting with the largest photos at the top of the page and layer the smaller on top and working my way down. It takes a little bit of time to get the right placement, don't glue down until you have a general plan worked out...but it looks FANTASTIC when done.
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Ohhhh I really love this idea! I love that you can incorporate your extended family & friends into your holiday scrapbooking! Thanks for sharing!!
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Love getting a card from you :)
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Me too Lynley, me too :).
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We don't get a ton of cards (likely because I haven't sent any out the last few years)...so right now they only fill one page. I don't punch all the ones without photos either. I focus on the photo cards + add in a few of my favorite prints from the others.
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Always love getting a card from you sweet Margie :).
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I so love this idea. I just dug out this years cards and 10 minutes later...project accomplished. Thanks so much for sharing. Just wish I now had saved the last 15 years worth. Oh well. What size transparencies did you use for the cover? Not sure if it should be as big as the largest card or if it will matter.
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I too have realized that I don't need to keep all the cards. I have a 5x8 binder with page protectors that I decorated with Christmas theme paper and I put my favorite cards in there and recycle the rest. I try to keep the ones from my immediate family and very close friends plus ones that document something special, like a new baby, or graduation or something like that. But if there is one I really like for design reasons I keep that too.
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Donating most of them (exception is photos) -
I think I read a few posts about others doing the same but many schools, preschools, special ed programs just need things that are seasonal to cut up for art projects. I always donate mine to a special program in our community called Discovery Days or if she has too many, I ask our elementary school. They also often need holiday or season themed magazines to cut up (like Fall, Spring, Thanksgiving, etc) so a lot of my unused mags, cards (including birthdays, and other holidays) go to these places. I always find it hilarious if I recognize something that my kids bring home that I am certain was something I donated.
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I take all my cards and use the bind it all to bind them into a book. Make covers (usually from cereal boxes covered w/Christmas scrapbook paper) and put the year and embellishments on the outside. I usually add some 4x6 photos that I have taken during the holidays mixed in with the cards.
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The cards are a great weight - I cut out designs, flourishes, stripes, gold accents - anything that I can reuse for scrapbooking. The kids help - and many cuttings go into my 'kids scrapping' drawer - supplies that they can use up that I don't see dollar signs flying by for (since they always want to scrap like Mom). :)
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THANK YOU for this idea!
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I love your idea, and the LOs you made! They look fantastic! We don’t get that many Christmas cards, and I could never throw out them out! :) Here’s what I did with mine this year:
http://cristinascrap.blogspot.com/2010/01/christmas-card-keepsake.html
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what a wonderful idea!!!!!!!!!! sadly i have tossed last years cards, but never again! i have photo cards all over my refrigerator door from this year, and i promise to turn those into something beautiful at the end of the year!
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You are brilliant! I completely love the way this looks and it solves such a dilemma for me. You are a bright spot in my day and give me so much joy. Thanks a million.
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Oh I love your idea! I used to keep Christmas cards I received in past, and then it's getting out of hand. It was hard to part with them, so one year I tried to recycle them by making them into tags. But not all cards could be used. I ended up putting them in the recycling bin. Boohoo :-( Now I know just what to do!! Thanks so much for sharing your great idea Ali.
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I loved this the first time I saw it (column? blog? book?) but wasn't satisfied with just a 2" square. I have always saved my cards, but not systematically (i.e., I toss them in a Christmas supplies box to cut into tags, embellishments, etc.) The minute I read today's blog I went online to order the Giga Punch! Now I can hardly wait 'til it comes. At least I have this year's cards all together & can start there. I have noticed, as some commented, the beautiful cards we used to get have become smaller & not as nice, & many do not send at all anymore. Sad. I have a 12x12 album specifically for Christmas, & this will be perfect to add.
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I actually save all the cards we (husband and son) have recv'd through the years. Unfortunatly - i am seeing less and less cards every year so, it's good that I have the old cards to decorate my "card" wall.
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I have a Christmas card album. I add a few pages to it every year. It's a big album, 12x15 and I love adding to it. I list everyone that sent us a card then keep my favorite cards and all the photo cards.
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When my girls were little, I would let them cut out the favorite parts of the cards....then we would assemble them in a collage on TOP of a paper placemat. I would then laminate them (or cover both sides with clear contact paper) and we would use them as placemats! They loved them!!
This year I made a book of my favorite snippets of my cards. I set it on the ottoman in the living room and I think every person who came through the door looked at that thing.
Next year I think I will try one of your layouts! Gotta love it!!!!
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We donate the cards to our local Boys & Girls club - next year they will use the card fronts and verses to make cards for family members, etc.
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Hi Ali - you are so clever. What a wonderful thing to do with the Xmas cards. I'm going to do the same as you now and do a page layout of each years cards. Thank you so much for all your great ideas :-)
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Such a great idea Ali!!
I know its not on topic, but we had a MAJOR breakthrough with Abbi (who has Autism) and I blogged about it. I thought you might "get it" and might find the story uplifting. HUGS!
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