Every year, it seems like such a shame to throw away dozens and dozens of Christmas cards...especially knowing how hard it is for people to get a beautifully posed picture of the whole family. Together. Looking in the general direction of the camera. Let alone smiling!
.
Last year, I heard a great idea that I wanted to try. Someone suggested keeping all of your Christmas cards in a basket and pulling one out every night. At dinner, you then include that selected family in your mealtime prayers. Isn't that cool? Yeah, I never did it. Saved the cards, but didn't say a single prayer. Now you know what kind of friend I am! At least the thought was there...
.
Regardless, I'm now glad that I saved those cards because this year, I decided to scrapbook them. I've seen that idea before, but it never appealed to me until I saw this post. Ali Edwards must have scanned some of the pictures to get them to fit perfectly into each square because with the huge 5x7s and the tiny 2x2 pictures that I get (and everything in between) making a uniform design wasn't possible.
.
I trimmed most of the pictures with some of the cool card designs as filler, then put them altogether like a puzzle on 12x12 paper. I tried to incorporate several clips of the year on the layout and a little bit of variety in size and shape. I left out most of the kid-only pictures, assuming that I'll look back on those later and not remember who the kids belong to. (except a few that we know well)
.
This is my 2008 finished product...
...and here's 2009...
Unfortunately, all of the cards didn't fit onto the layout, but I'm fine with that. Some families who we don't spend as much time with will make the layout one year and maybe not the next.
.
What do you do with your leftover Christmas cards?
Posts
5 comments:
I love this idea of Ali Edward's. You did a great job with yours. I don't get too many pictures so I just save the few I have and the cards for a couple years and just keep hanging them up every Christmas with the new ones I get. Every 3 or 4 years I toss some of them and start over.
I've done this before too!
What I do is not as creative as you, but somewhat similar... I cut out all the pictures (throw away all the cute Christmassy decorations) at use magnetic tape to make a collage of them on the side of our fridge that shows (I like to keep the front clear). This stays up all year until I do it again the next year at new years. That way we can look at all the smiling faces of our friends and family when we want to. My sister in law has a couple of mirrored frames in her kitchen that she does the same thing with - cuts out the pictures and tapes them up there, pretty much covering the mirrored part - sounds strange but looks really cute - it works in their ecletic but stylish kitchen.
Your solution is great, I would totally do it if I scrapbooked!
what a great idea! I love it- so glad we made the cut : )
This is a fantastic idea! And absolutely beautiful also! You have inspired me. Great work! And what fun many decades from now.
Post a Comment