Craft Day: What to do with Christmas Cards?

Time for a bit of memory keeping fun. Are you, by any chance, one of those people that have a particularly hard time throwing cards away? I am and particularly struggled with Christmas cards complete with pictures of my friends and family, but what to do with them? Last year, I discovered this solution from Ali Edwards. (Please read her more detailed instructions here as what follows is my short-hand version of what I do).

The general concept is to gather all your cards and a large and small square punches (I suspect you could do this with other shapes, but this makes it so easy to assemble). Then, I just go through the stack and punch out all the bits I like. As you can see, this includes a random sampling of art, pictures, signatures, and text from the cards we have received. This year, I primarily used the larger punch with a thin border of the smaller punch to fill out the page. I try to relax and not stress about "losing" something and also try to be pretty calm about my arrangement. I attempt to alternate photos with text or art, but am not 100% successful if the mix of things I've punched is otherwise. The final step is a ribbon across the bottom with the date centered on a tag.

 
The 2009 page is a bit more random mix of sizes and arrangement. I happened to find my saved 2008 cards just before doing my 2010 cards, so I did them both the same day.  The end result is a more similar presentation, but I doubt this will hold true in the future.

2010 also brought a new problem. I had a couple cards that were not conducive to my punch size. You'll notice the cute artwork on the front of a card from my nephew (aged almost 3) and the Wainrights adorable family picture that I couldn't punch without ruining the effect. I also liked the glittery card from Holly & Dwight. That left me with a bit of space left. What appears to be pattered paper with a title is actually an pocket. Inside are Christmas letters and some special encouragement I got this year from people sensitive to how hard my holidays were. I have been using pockets in several places lately so our next craft moment will be a Glue Dots post on creating and using pockets on pages like this. Meanwhile, get to punching out your cards and you'll have a page of sweet memories rather than piles of cards laying around in no time.