What To Do With Your Christmas Cards

Christmas Card Saver
By: Ashley Connelly for The Creative Place Christmas cards make great keepsakes! This homemade book will trim your trash haul and serve as a fantastic reminder of the holiday season. Now you can relive your favorite Christmas memories all year long.

Materials:
 Christmas cards
 Update letters
 Pictures
 Envelopes
 Glue or adhesive (I use Tombow rolling permanent adhesive)
 Scissors or a rotary cutter
 Ruler
 Cutting mat
 Hole punch
 Two pieces of Christmas-themed ribbon (several inches each, depending on how many cards you have) or two 1.5" jump rings (you can get these at Wal-Mart or Staples - if you have a ton of cards that need to go into the book, you can make two or more books or purchase 2" jump rings at Staples)
 Piece of 5"x7" chipboard to serve as a sturdy back cover, and materials to make a
front cover such as chipboard and embellishments (optional)
Instructions:
1.) Separate your cards into three piles:
- Pile 1: Cards that are one-sided and do not open (like photo cards or postcards)
- Pile 2: Cards that open and do NOT have writing or a picture on the inside left panel - we will be cutting these and covering up the inside left panel.
- Pile 3: Cards that open and DO have writing or a picture on the inside left panel - these are ones that you do NOT want to cut or cover up any part of the card. These will go into the book as they are.

2.) Take the cards in the second pile (that you do want to cut) and cut off the spine of each card, so as to separate them into two different pieces.

3.) Put glue (or rolling adhesive) on the back of each of the fronts of the cards. Glue this to the back of the card (once it is glued, you can see the writing and message on one side and the front of the card on the other side). So, you will have one single card piece now - below is the front and the back.

4.) Punch two holes in the left side of one of the cards - one hole about 2" from the top of the card, and one about 2" from the bottom of the card - both about 3/8" from the left side of the card.

5.) Use the card you just punched holes in as a guide to punching the holes in the rest of your cards. Since your cards are probably all different sizes, center the cards so that the holes are punched in the middle of each card.

6.) If you have a lot of update letters and/or pictures, punch holes in envelopes as well. You can then put the letters and pictures in there without having to punch holes in them.

7.) Now, begin putting the cards on the binder rings, or threading the ribbon through each hole. I did one of each in the picture as an example, but ended up using the ribbon because I liked how it looked so festive.
Finish binding.

8.) I made a cover for mine using a 5" x 5" piece of chipboard, a picture I had taken of our Christmas card display this Christmas and a tag where I wrote "Christmas Cards 2009". A cover is completely up to you, but it might be helpful to somewhere document what year the cards are from.

Find thousands of free projects, tips, tutorials and more at www.AllFreeChristmasCrafts.com