How-to... save your holiday cards

For years I have been saving all the holiday cards that friends and family send to me.  I used to keep the cards with pictures and notes out of sentiment…unable to throw away a picture of my cousin's new baby.  But seriously, how many cards do we have room to save?

Not so surprisingly it was once again Ali Edwards that inspired me to save a "piece" of each card. . .all their cute little faces…onto a scrapbook page, added to my People We Love album.  So since 2005, I've been putting my cards on a piece of 12x12 cardstock.

It's a simple project that requires only a few tools: a square punch (you can use scissors to cut squares as well), a glue stick and a piece of cardstock.

I pile up my cards, dividing them by picture cards, regular cards and cards with extra embellishments.  Then I start to punch…a square from each card — sometimes two…and if my mosaic gets filled up, I don't feel badly about the card or two that don't get punched.

I free-hand arrange them until I get a pattern and color palette I'm happy with. Then I start to glue them down.

I use the extra embellishments to finish off the page. And now i have a whole history to look through and see how everyone has grown.

2005 holiday card mosaic


2010 holiday card mosaic
 

My kids always ask me "who's that?" on the older mosaics and I tell them, and they don't believe me…It's a fun little craft and an easy way to preserve holiday memories.

Hillary Chybinski is a crafty mom of 2 boys living the American Dream with her husband in the Philly burbs.  This post was adapted from her blog, My Scraps.