A Solution to Your Christmas Card Pile
If you’re anything like me, you have a hard time deciding what to do with all the great cards and photo cards you receive each Christmas. I've been collecting my Christmas cards from the time I was married, nearly 19 years ago! Recently, I ran across an idea on another blog and had an “aha!” moment and knew exactly that’s what I wanted to do. And in about 40 minutes, I had my first project done and couldn't be more pleased!
For this project you’ll need:
Your favorite scrapbooking software (this tutorial shows SBC 4.0, but I now use PSE)
Your scrapbook kit of choice. I used here Creative Memories 'Digital Winter Additions'
Corner Rounder
Hole Punch
Scissors or paper trimmer
Tape Runner
Your scrapbook kit of choice. I used here Creative Memories 'Digital Winter Additions'
Corner Rounder
Hole Punch
Scissors or paper trimmer
Tape Runner
First, I corner rounded all of my cards and photos using my Creative Memories corner rounder. Then I hole punched each of the cards, using only two of the holes of the 3-hole punch so that the holes were centered on the card. If the hole was going to go through an important part of the card or photo, I moved it to the side a little bit.
I measured the width and height of the largest cards. That dimension turned out to be around 6.5”x9”. I made the project with a 1” border around for folding over. That made the project 8.5”x11”. I used Winter P1 as my background, with birds and snowflake embellishments. I added text and shadows. You can see here how I added the tab guidelines so that I would know what portion of the design would be on the front of my cover and what would be folded behind. Remember to take into account where the hole punch will go when placing important items.
I measured the width and height of the largest cards. That dimension turned out to be around 6.5”x9”. I made the project with a 1” border around for folding over. That made the project 8.5”x11”. I used Winter P1 as my background, with birds and snowflake embellishments. I added text and shadows. You can see here how I added the tab guidelines so that I would know what portion of the design would be on the front of my cover and what would be folded behind. Remember to take into account where the hole punch will go when placing important items.
If you’re printing your cover design onto card stock, simply print, punch, and add it to your book. In this case, I printed onto paper and wanted something a bit stiffer for my cover. I recycled some 12x12 cardboard that comes with CM paper packs and cut it to 6.5”x9” (I used scissors, but you can use your rotary trimmer). Place the cardboard in the center of the back of the printed page and use a tape runner to affix the cardboard to the paper. Cut off the corners at 45 degree angles and fold each side down. Affix that to the back of the cardboard.*
I printed out a 6”x8.5” piece of paper with Winter P4 to affix to the inside cover to cover the remainder of the cardboard. I did the same procedure, using Winter P2, on the back cover. Hole punch the covers.
You can use ribbon, ring binders, raffia, string, yarn --you name it-- to feed through all your cards and letters and bind them into a nice book. Use this method to bind together Christmas cards, baby cards, anniversary cards, or those Mother’s Day cards you just can’t part with. I know that I’ll be doing this project over and over, both traditionally and digitally, and maybe soon I’ll have an empty basket that I can fill with something else!
*If you want a rounded cover, you’ll need to skip the trimming at a 45-degree angle and carefully wrap the paper around the corner, folding in small increments and tacking down with bits of tape runner as you go.
