Foto Friday- Updated Christmas Card books

Christmas is over and its time to put away all the decorations. Thankfully, I took it all down earlier this week with the help of my boys in record time of under an hour! It was so great... Aaah! As much as I was loving my garland this year, it was nice to see the house all back in order.

But the one thing I don't just throw away are the Christmas cards I love getting throughout the holidays. They usually hang on the back of our front doors during the holidays for everyone to look when they come over, but I hate the thought of throwing them out just because. So I used to put them into an album, but as of 2012 I found this idea and started putting them into my own Christmas Foto Card books. Its was a super easy idea and it was a practical way to bring them back out every year to look at just because.

So I wanted to share with you my updated version of those books just in case you were looking for a new way to store and keep your Christmas cards.

For many years,  I've ordered our Xmas cards through Costco because they've offered some great options and are priced just right. The last 3 years they have given customers the choice to order 4 free calendar picture cards with your order and I took them up on it each time. They came in handy and I always kept one for ourselves. So as I was putting our cards away this year, I found all 3 years worth of calendars and decided to use them as the title card covers for my books.


Once again: Super easy.  All I had to do was update the book I had made books for 2012 since it didn't have a cover yet. And since I hadn't done a book for 2013 yet, I pulled out those cards and this years cards, punched holes at the top instead (for a flip book effect), and put the calendars as the covers with the colored rings (available at the dollar store). And I did it all in less than 30 minutes. Perfect!




I also added to the end of each book our Xmas card for that particular year to make sure we remember what we sent out.

For 2014 I wanted something very different for our Xmas cards from what we had done before. I wanted a smaller card, simple and crafty so I made them myself by using my own computer graphics, craft paper and good old scrapbooking skills.  I loved it and will probably do it again.  But because I didn't order our cards this means I will not have a picture calendar to use for our 2015 book. Oh well, it just means I'll just have to come up with something new. Can't wait to see what else I can discover to do.

You can also add anything extra you'd like to them. For 2012 I added a Christmas card that Mikey had hand drawn for the family and it was too special not to include.  This year I included the envelope our SIL's family card came in because it was so cleverly and beautifully addressed. She has great writing anyway, but I loved the idea and the detail involved.

 There's 3 more years to add to the collection. 

I'm going to have to get a bigger basket next year, but they look really nice on display.

 

Ready to preserve your Christmas cards?

From my little corner to yours...Have yourself a crafty weekend!