Christmas Card Project

Ok....So you probably have a stack of cards from this Christmas and maybe even a Christmas or two back. I was so tired of having to throw away beautiful cards with well wishes and stories of what family and friends have been up to. So I thought it would be fun to scrapbook them.

The trick here is that it costs nothing, is fun to do and doesn't look bad.

Each card you get has something to work with. The envelope might look cool. It might have stickers, stamps or some cool print to it. The card itself has a front a back and the inside to work with. You can use gift tags, scraps of wrapping paper, tissue paper, ribbon, stickers, and even bits and
pieces of boxes and gift bags.

The first thing you want to do is decided what your going to scrapbook your cards into.

You will need your scrap book of choice, your cards, glue, a glue stick, scissors, a ruler, and a pen to start. All other things are optional.

You can use an old or new book that your not going to read again. This is called altered books. If you go online and search altered books photos. You'll see some really cool ideas. When using an old book, you'll want to glue two or three pages together and then tear out the next two or three pages and so on. This will make room for what you put in the book. I use a ruller to tear out the pages. Just lay it along the inside crease of the book and rip upwards. You don't have to get every bit of the page and the rough edge actually makes it look cool. This doesn't have to be perfect. You can also use a store bought scrapbook or single pieces of paper and tie your own book together.

When prepping your page just use your imagination. You can use nothing or you can glue tissue paper down with watered down elmers, or a glue stick. You can paint your page with water color paint. You can stamp a background. It's all up to you.

When using liquid glue or paints, it's handy to use your blow dryer to dry the page. Don't worry about wrinkles, it adds character. If you don't like wrinkles, use the glue stick.

Now comes the fun part. Your going to want to cut up most of the cards and picture cards. Don't throw anything away. You don't have to use every part of the card on that page. Save the scraps for other pages.

This is a picture of one page prepped with red tissue paper. The other page I took the envelope, unfolded it and pasted it down. The card, that is laying on top, is ready for cutting up.

Ok. So I cut the card up into several parts. Most of them are used on this page. I added 4 gift tags. One gift tag opens up, so I pasted the back onto the page and you can still open it. I used some silver cardboard from one of the kids toy boxes and cut out a star. Very easy and looks cute.

On to the next page.

This is the card and envelope I will use for the next page. The card has writing inside that I want to keep, so I won't be cutting it up. Instead I will past it, as is, so you can open it.

The tissue paper, that I pasted down ahead of time, has glitter to it and makes a great backdrop.

Here, I pasted the front of the envelope with it's rough edge, the card is pasted on top, the sticker from the back of the envelope is pasted just below the green noel circle. I cut a star out of gold cardboard from a perfume box and I pasted part of the previous card, at the bottom of the page.

Here, I have the third page of my scrapbook. I tore a piece of tissue paper into a strip and glued it to one side of the page. I had a picture of the kids and a few cousins and pasted that at the top. I'm going to scrapbook our family Chritsmas card on this page. It's kinda like a post card so I want to see both sides. I have a few tiny brads that will attach it to the page so I can see the back of the card. I'll attach them to the left of the card by poking holes all the way through the card, through the page and out the other side.

I cut out a couple of gold stars from the same perfume box. :) Glued them down,

And did a bit of journaling on the page before.

Now I can pull the card back to see what's on the other side....and even hide a little message behind it.

Ok.....

So this took me longer to post than it did to scrapbook.

I'll probably work on it more tomorrow or next week. I'll post more pictures as I go.

Hope you got some great ideas. If you decide to scrapbook your Christmas cards. Send me pictures. I'd love to get some ideas from you.

HUGS!!!!!

Shannon