One More Seasonal Tradition: Scrapbooking Holiday Cards

I have been doing the same thing ever since this idea appeared in one of your books. I keep the layouts, along with a layout featuring our family card, in a Christmas album. During the holidays, I display the past few years on my magnet display boards (IKEA) so that everyone can enjoy them. I always get lots of compliments, and it's fun to see how everyone has changed over the years...that is as long as they send me a card every year.
I also love using the non-photo cards in this layout...it's just like patterned paper!
Thanks for the GREAT ideas!! Keep 'em coming!

I love what you do with your cards and I will definitely try my hand at that this year! I have saved all the cards from the past several years and they are just mixed up in boxes that are in storage...I am embarassed to say that the other day I happened upon some that were still hanging by clothespins on the twine that I used to string them up in our windows! Now that I have succeeded in doing the DD album, I really think I will follow through with the card LO, too. I am thinking I may do these to fit into the DD album...Thanks for all the inspiration!

I cut the cards into pieces 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 to make them into artist trading cards. After embellishing, they go on my 7gypsies spinner to display next Christmas.

at the end of the season, i take my favorite ones, glue them back to back, punch holes in them and put them throughout my december daily album.

I make a little book out of five white 9 x 12" envelopes (from Staples)that I fold in half to make 10 pages. I cut the picture cards to paste to the pages and the cards with no pictures get a bit of ribbon attached to them and are tucked inside the open end of the envelopes. I've been doing it this way for 3 years and love looking back through the books to see how everyone has changed.

I keep a few pics intact of our immediate family then use my punch for highlights like you do. If i really like the crd I'll use it along with funny calender pages to next year's Dec daily. I add the collage to my 12 x 12 album as my Dec Daily is already too full. Do you add this to your 12 x 12 or Dec Daily?

Wow Ali! Another totally cool idea!! Typically I rubberband my cards together and hang on to them. The photocards stay up for several months after Christmas. Right now they are taped to my kitchen pantry. Once in a while I toss the regular cards in the recycle bin. Quite honestly, I never knew what to do with the cards, but now I do! Thanks for a great idea!! P.S. My word for the New Year is "abundance". It's already on your list from yesterday. Here's how I'm looking at it: I have an "abundance" of stuff (clutter) in my home and plan to spend the year purging like crazy. I have an "abundance" of blessings and plan to record them in a journal. I have an "abundance" of photos that are still in boxes and envelopes. I plan to get them in albums this year. I have an "abundance" of daily stuff on my stay-at-home-mom plate. It's stressing me out like crazy. I plan to purge some of that stuff too. I have been putting way too much pressure on myself. This is big for me. I love my little word and I thank you for inspiring me to do this.

I scrap mine in a 2 page layout. Love loving back at them from year to year. We're a young family, and my children enjoy seeing how their cousins and friends grow older each year. I currently mix my pages in with my albums chronologically, but eventually I think I'll pull them out into an album of their own.

i love this idea -- i have a pile of cards that i just can't bear to throw away. this is perfect.

I have a "through the years" scrapbook where I put the picture cards I got for the year. Its a great way to see how families grow and children grow up!
-Valerie

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!

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 :)

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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

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!

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