DIY: Halloween Card Album

 I recently shared the card album I made with my daughter's cards and I wanted to show you this one as well. If you're as sentimental as I am and save every card you or your child is given, then this is a great way to keep them together and organized. It's also a great way to honor them and be able to share them with others. We love Halloween around here and my son has received lots of fun cards over the last 6 years that I've kept in a box. I decided I had enough of them to make a decent sized mini album out of them, so I got to work!

 

I cut & covered a piece of cardboard with scrapbook paper and embellished it. You can buy premade album covers, but using cardboard was fast, cheap & easy!

 

I decided to keep them in chronological order, so I made little dividers (the orange square) and wrote the year, my son's age at the time, and what he dressed up as that year, on each of them.

 

Some cards are harder then others to bind due to weird shapes & textures, but I used "The Cinch" binding tool and that helped a lot. You could always use a paper punch to make holes to line up with your rings or spiral wire if you don't have one.

 

When I got to the end of the Halloween cards, I realized that I had just a few Thanksgiving cards (yes, my family loves to give cards!) so I added those at the end of the album.

 

You could make a card album to hold any type of card you want to save & remember~think holidays, birthdays, babies, etc. It's fun to go through the old cards with my son, and now they're a special keepsake. I have this album out on display in my home right now--it fits in nicely with our Halloween decorations!

DIY: Card Album

I'm the sentimental type, so I have saved each and every card my 2 children have ever received.  My storage system is simple; I file the cards in a XL sized photo box in chronological order. (They are both still young so each child just has 1 box so far.) Occasionally I'll take them out of the closet and flip through them or show my kids the cards they got for their first birthday or Halloween and many other occasions. We all enjoy looking through them, so I wanted a way to get them out of the box. Here's what I do with all the Christmas cards we receive each year.

I decided that I'd group them by occasion and put them in small albums, starting with my daughter's birth. We received lots of cards for her baby shower and after she was born, so there were enough to support an entire album.

I pulled this old Covey 3-ring binder out of the closet & decided to repurpose it! It's the perfect size to hold cards. I Mod Podged patterned scrapbook paper to the front, back, and binding to hide the printing that was on it. Here's what the inside looked like...It's solid grey, so I didn't have to cover anything on the inside:

I then had fun embellishing the front cover with more paper, stickers, chipboard, glitter paint, and bling! I tied some tulle around it also.

I then got busy punching holes in all the cards. I used The Cinch Bindery Tool-Version II to punch all the holes. (Got it for Christmas--highly recommend it!) If you don't own one, you can always punch your holes with a 3 hole punch. It was a little challenging since each card is a different size, shape & thickness and I even messed a few cards up a little...but it was my first time to try it and I made it work! :)

 I added a typed sentiment to the inside cover of the album (matted on patterned scrapbook paper) that says:

Madelyn Reese McGarity

My Sweet Little Baby Girl,

These special cards are from our dearest family and friends.

Most were given along with a gift for you at your baby shower

or soon after your birth to welcome you into the world!

Love, Mommy

I'm glad I can easily flip through my daughter's cards now and I plan on displaying the album at her birthday party to share them with our family. Of course one of my next projects is to tackle my son's baby cards by making a similar album. I've already made an entire album out of his Halloween & Thanksgiving cards from over the last 5 years, which I'll share with you this Fall. If your family is the card-giving type like mine is, this is a great way to store them and honor them.

Since I've got a baby theme going on...Here's an article I wrote a while back with a step-by-step guide to creating a pregnancy scrapbook.

FOUND: 2009 Christmas Card Layout!

After my last post, I was perplexed as to the whereabouts of my 2009 Christmas card scrapbook layout, so I went looking through the scrapbook today and lo & behold, it was there! Wonder why I forgot to take pics & post it? Anyway, Here it is. Bothers me that it is a little off-center on the paper, but you probably didn't notice until I pointed it out, right? :)



Has anyone else punched out their cards? What do you do with your Christmas cards after Christmas? Idea: Maybe I should start doing something like this with my birthday cards, too!

Christmas Card 2010 Layout

Every year after Christmas is over, I take the Christmas cards that family & friends have sent us and instead of trashing them (or saving the whole card), I simply punch out an image (or 2) from each card & make a scrapbook layout out of them. It's a great way to recycle the cards and also commemorate that year's cards.

This year I used a large scalloped circle punch and hand cut the "2010" out of portions of 2 different cards. Then I used the old-school Dymo labeler to finish the title.


You could write beside each punch out who it's from, although I don't. I go for quick & simple when it comes to these layouts. No fancy embellies or even paper-I keep the focus on the cards. I actually have fun selecting an image to punch out of the card and getting a layout completed so quickly. Then I throw the remains into the recycle bin~and it's done! Instant gratification!



Want to see the layouts from years 2005 through 2008? Go HERE. (Looks like 2009 is MIA! Where is it? Hmmm...)

P.S. I personally do not punch photo cards (I keep them with my other photos) but you could make a really cute layout with everyone's little faces punched out...

Christmas Card Ideas with Shutterfly

Since we've had a child (and now have 2) I have tried to mail out a photo card for Christmas to update family near and far on their growth. It's the only time of the year I correspond with my extended family that live all over the US, so it's important to me to have a nice, high quality card to share. Last year I used a local printer and was disappointed with the grainy, blurry photo and the lack of quality.
That's why this year I plan to use Shutterfly for my holiday cards.





They are also offering a wonderful deal for all you fellow bloggers out there...contribute a blog write up and receive 50 free holiday cards!!! (Now you're on to me, right?)




Shutterfly offers up some great gift ideas as well. You can create your own calendars or gifts or even make your own holiday invitations or announcements.
Now go get your 50 FREE Christmas cards from Shutterfly.com!

Happy Easter!

Here's a digital layout I made as an Easter card for our family:


(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

What to do with all those Christmas cards...

This is the fourth year that I've made a scrapbook page out of the Christmas cards family and friends have sent us. I cringe at trashing them and always try to recycle them when I can. This is a super fast & easy way to do that. I use a big punch (I just have a circle & a square in the huge size) and punch out a pretty part of the card. Sometimes I punch more than once out of the same card. This year we didn't get that many cards, so I did that this year. Then I arrange them in some sort of pattern and viola! You could even write beside the punch or somewhere else on the layout who gave you each card, if you wanted to. I personally don't include photo cards, but you could if you so desired. (as always, click the pic the view larger)
There's another way to recycle cards here.

2008~I cut a bow out of felt to turn the punches into a "present"


2007~I made a banner-type flag (notice the Nativity is in the center & turned slightly so it would stand out)


2006~I went circular


2005~simple & clean (I like how the title is the only circle)

Today is my Birthday...

I just love this birthday card I received from my parents!(It's a Shoebox by Hallmark, to give proper credit)