there are some things i just can’t seem to throw away…
Christmas Cards are one of those things.
so for the past 6 years at the end of january i carefully peel them off the wall i’ve had them taped to and shove them into a big envelope with the year sharpied across the front.
and there they have sat.
and then
the wonderful world of pinterest entered my life.
and i came across this pin…
(from michelle allen)
and i knew exactly what needed to be done
i needed to make my 6 years worth of saved cards into Christmas card books!!
so i did what i always do.
called up jamie and sweet talked her into making me us a cover sheet for our books.
and that she did.
because she loves me us.
i decorated each of mine a little different.
i cut around the shape on this one…
i used some glitter glue (my new love) on a couple of them…
there are two versions of the card. one has a blank space where you can fill in the year yourself. (i just used some stickers) and on the other card all you have to do is circle the appropriate year.
a little pom-pom trim on this one…
the simple steps:
1. download your covers with the date HERE. and the blank covers HERE. then print and decorate.
2. punch a hole on the two red and white striped parts on your cover
3. center your cover on each Christmas card and make two marks through your holes so you know where to punch
4. punch all your holes
5. use a book ring to hook them all together
6. be sure to include one of our own Christmas cards
7. set them out each year and enjoy looking through them all!!
i can’t tell you how happy these little books have made me.
i just LOVE them!!
I'm Jen Sedillo, one of the bloggers behind Eighteen25. I love creating and crafting, reading good books, visiting new places and being with family!
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Oh my gosh! I wish I could get back all the past years cards now and do this! I will do it for sure this year!
Lovely idea! Here's another one from Pinterest….
http://pinterest.com/pin/27795722669819995/
Little gift boxes created from cards…could be birthday, Valentines….whatever! Recycling!!
THANK YOU for posting this…totally know what I'm gonna be doing today now….I've got all our cards/photos from the last few years in zip lock bags…I'll be making these and putting them out every year..THANK YOU!!
(Kathy in Oregon)
I love it!!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!! I have about 5 years worth of cards in my closet!!!! I know what I'm doing today!!! Thank you!!
I saw this on Pinterest too! I made up my books before Christmas and tied bits of ribbon to the rings to dress them up. I didn't think of making a cover! I'll go back and make one! Great job. 🙂
I've been making Christmas card books for years – the kids and I love looking through them every December. It's especially fun to see pictures and how people have changed from year to year. 🙂
I love this idea!! I love saving cards but never know what to do with them, this is perfect!
What an interesting idea. Food for thought for someone who also hoards cards, last year with a view to holding card making classes (recyling being one of my leanings) but that never transpired. Time will tell, tfs Seasons Greetings 🙂
I. LOVE. THIS! i was just thinking to myself "why in the world do i save these things" now I have something to do with them… THANKS YOU!
Oh my, what a super great idea!
That is a fabulous idea! I make paper chains with my old cards – it's nice to know that they were all from friends & family too. Happy holidays!
I was beginning to think that I had turned into the Grinch this year. I threw away loads of my cards without putting them up! (I saved ones from special friends)for some reason they suddenly seemed too tacky and messed up the house.Anyway, I feel guilty now because I could have done your lovely trick to keep them without the bother of displaying them! Thanks.
I love this idea! I always keep all of our Christmas cards in hopes of someday doing something with them. 🙂
I keep all of my cards too…To hard to throw them away!
I am going to do this too! Thank you for sharing
Lori
I totally just pin'd this! 🙂 such a cute idea!
Love this idea…thanks for providing the covers!
Oh my goodness theses are just tooooo cutye! i love this idea!! 🙂 so beautiful!!
That is such a fantastic idea! Thank you for sharing. I have a stack of cards from Christmas' past (some of which I put into scrapbooks and are just plain messy!). I am so going to get onto doing this. I love it!
this is so awesome-thank you so much! and yes, I had this pinned too. 🙂
LOVE it!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've had the idea book marked for a year now, but couldn't get motivated to make the covers! Now I can whip these out in no time! I've saved my cards since my husband and I got married in 2003 – so I have some serious catching up to do!!
Love this! Just this morning I was wondering if I should toss our cards or keep them…they are one of my favorite aspects of the holidays each year–seeing pictures of our favorite family and friends, near and far. Now I'm happy to have a reason to keep them and a way to display them for future years!
Thanks so much for the printable!! I, too, pinned that, and was hoping to just put them together – but how fun to have a little cover for it. I still had all my cards from last year in the box we put them in as we receive them, and I just left them there this year and added to them – it made us look extra-popular. 🙂
LOVE this idea! I keep my Christmas cards, but they are just in a file in my filing cabinet. I've heard of people putting them in a scrapbook (not scrapping them, simply sticking them in a book to look at), but I like this idea 100% better. Thanks for sharing!
I love all the ideas you share. I have done the same with all my cards over the years. Can't wait to make these cute books. Thanks for all the ideas and time you take to share them!
LOVE!
Wow …. what an amazing idea…. I saved the photo cards from last year but I didn't know what to do with them. Thank you so much for this great idea and the covers.
🙂 Sue
Fruity Lemonade
I had pinned this idea a couple of weeks ago and was just putting my books together today! Thank you so much for the printables!
This is one of the best ideas ever! I think I will have to make my book for this year with my stack of lovely holiday cards. Thanks for the inspiration!
Chelsea
Genius!!
I have a friend who does this very thing, but uses her card book to pray for a different family every evening at dinnertime, with her family!
I love this! My husband has kept the past few years' worth of cards, thinking that he'll scan them all in so we can save them.
Guess what NEVER happened?
I've been wanting to recycle them or donate the fronts to St. Jude's, but we have tons of photo cards. Thanks so much for this printable – it will definitely come in handy for us!!
Brilliant!!!
what a great idea! This could be done with birthday and thankyou cards too. It would be so neat to see the difference in card art over the years.
Thank you for such a great idea 🙂
What a cute and great idea! Love it, I'm definitely going to have to do that to my christmas cards! Brilliant, thanx for sharing!
Natalie
http://www.projectdowhatyoulove.wordpress.com
Oh these are just tooo cute, and such a good idea! So glad we havnt throw away our cards yet- might try my hand at making these! Just found your blog and love it ^^ now following 🙂 Thanks for all the lovely inspiration xx
I knew I wanted to save my cards and I had started looking at albums at various places but how to get enough pages that were all the right size…
I wanted but had no idea how to execute this on my own but now I have clarity and can get busy! Thank you so very much!
I like Silhouette in Facebook!
I've started collecting my Christmas cards, too, but was just going to make an album with all of the photos. It is a nice idea to keep the more meaningful cards, too. 🙂 Love the covers! Thanks for sharing!
OMG! This is awesome. I wish i had kept my x-mas Cards
Så fina!
I just printed this out! I always feel so bad throwing them out. This is awesome!!!
THANK YOU! Brilliant! (Just need to recycle all my old ziploc bags) 😉
Shar
You are a life saver. My 88 year old Mother is in a nursing home and I just told her I would put all her Christmas cards in a book for her to enjoy after the holiday's. I just printed out your pattern, love it! I still have all her cards from 2010 and will put them together for her as well. When she was living in her own home she would never throw any of her Christmas cards away. This is the perfect gift for her. Thanks for sharing. You are the best! Happy Holidays!
Thanks for sharing! I think my girls and I will be making a book like this today! 🙂 Happy New Year! Michelle
Thank you for sharing this wonderful idea! I just finished my 2011 book…if not for this post, I would have thrown all of the cards away!!
I've been keeping all my photo cards in a scrapbook for the last few years. We get it out every year and love looking at how everyone's families have grown and watch the kids get older! My son and I were just looking at ours today and I had try to explain why he wasn't in some of the ones of Momma and Daddy! He's 3 and the cards go back 6 or so years! 🙂
Oh how I wish I saw this about a month ago. I finally tossed all ours (about 7 years worth!) I kept a few pictures but really wish I thought of something like this 🙁
This is wonderful, and the absolute perfect idea! Thanks so much for sharing and for the free printables too! 🙂
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I love this and am on it right now!
How cute! Love them both. Going to use the blank one to make a little book of our Family cards over the years!
You are always so generous with your downloads! Thanks so much for this!
oh my!! amazing idea..
happy new year..
Love it-and all of your designs!! Thank you so much for creating and sharing!!
very cute idea – I always wanted to keep them and my kids birthday cards but stuck in a box wasn't cutting it – thanks
The lady Jamie that you said you contacted to make the cover.. Does she have a company that makes different types of digital files? Can I please have her contact information? Thank You
Thank you so much for this post! It's a wonderful idea and I can't believe I didn't think of it before! 😀
Great idea but might be nice to read "Holiday Cards" as some people celebrate Hanukkah and other holidays as well as Xmas
I FINALLY got around to making these. Great idea and I love the download page you included! I've seperated them by year like you did, but now I'm realizing I could combine several years on binder ring if I wanted (some binder rings of mine are pretty big). If I did that, I would still use the title pages as dividers for the years and just have thicker, bigger books. Possibilites! Thanks again for this swell idea and download!
wow, this is a much loved idea! i, too, hate to throw out cards, but I've made myself do it, while I kept my favorites/closest friends. Can't wait to get your card this year;);)
Fabulous idea – thanks so much for the covers!
Compiled last years, and this year's so far using your printable! I love them. Posted the idea and the link to your blog on mine. Thank you!
http://rookietorockstar.blogspot.com/2012/12/friday-faves.html
LOVE this!
Thanks! I made my book last night and love it!
Thanks for sharing! I made my first one this year & love it! I haven't put a cover on it yet but I got teh book done otherwise!!! YAY, A new tradition!
Terrific idea! Thanks so much for the cover!!
Love this!! Thanks for the inspiration & template!! We are sharing this on our blog today! http://www.nevernola.com if you care to read up on it!
Thank you! I have a question for you. What program did you use to create these? Thanks
Perfect! Thank you!
adorable, love the pompom idea. Thanks for sharing the download
THANK YOU!!! This has been such a help!
Love this idea! My problem is that I have a handful of cards that open from the bottom instead of the side and with this idea, they would be able to be opened to see them.
Thank you again! This is the 7th year I have been able to compile my Christmas cards into a family book. Each year I come back to download a blank template since I found your post 3 or so years ago. It is now a fun family tradition.
Hi! I LOVE these, and so do my mom and sister-in-law! Are you going to make any new ones with later years, by any chance? :o)
So you have any plans to make new ones with future years on them? I know there is a blank one that you can write in the year but I love the other one too! I have these books dating back to 2010 and pull them out every year. Thank you!!!!
As of right now we don’t, sorry. I am so happy to hear you love them though. I do too!! Can’t wait to pull mine out. 🙂
THANK YOU! for sharing this! I love this idea and downloaded covers several years ago but they all had dates and I’ve run out of them now. SOOOO Happy to have the blank ones. THANK you again!
THANK YOU!!!! I have been doing this for about 8 years, but didn’t have a cover. Now I do! I’m going back and adding this to each one I have. So cute!
Yay! So glad you like our cover Melissa!! 🙂
THANK YOU!!!! This is exactly what I was planning on doing, but wasn’t sure what to do about a cover!
I just love my Christmas Card Books!! So happy to hear you can put our cover to good use. 🙂
Can you make this available again without the date? I’ve been using these since 2011 and I need to catch up! Thanks!
Copying the above poster’s comment because I’m in the same boat! “Can you make this available again without the date? I’ve been using these since 2011 and I need to catch up! Thanks!”
Is there any way you could post a link for the blank card covers? The one on the website doesn’t work any more. I’ve been using these for years and love them.
me too! Did you ever get a reply?
The link is no longer working. Can you please email it to me or post another link? I’ve made these books for years and cant find my downloaded copy. Thank you!