Wondering…

I usually collect them, and then cut out parts from them and collage them. Then I can either make it into a page… Or I can arrange it into a rectangle, and laminate it and use it for a placemat. One year, I had my grandmother send me loads of her old cards that she had saved (but weren’t anything she couldn’t stand to lose) and created a whole set of placemats for her. She uses them every holiday season!

I’ve seen pics on Pinterest of mini books made of the cards, held together with rings. It looks nice, but then again, even the book needs to be stored and I ask myself if I would ever flip through a mini book with cards from seven years ago? I think probably not. So I toss.

Also, with the pathetic amount of cards we get a book like that would be wafer thin so there is another reason for me to just not bother.

I usually scan them, file them away on my harddrive, and then shred them. I just don’t have the space to keep the physical copies!

I collect them and pack with the Christmas decorations and then the next year we can reread them and see how everyone has grown! Love it!

Take a look at this post from eighteen25.

http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-card-books.html

Yes the cards are different sizes, but I think it looks just fine.

I taped them all together on the backs to form a collage (showing mostly photos) and then hung it on the side of my cabinets.

Hi, Peppermint! It was SO nice to meet you in person at CHA. You were very gracious with my star-struck goofiness.
I’ve been keeping my cards in mini books with book rings for a few years now. I love it. I used to put them in my scrapbooks each year, but that took us so much space. They now live happily on the bottom shelf of my coffee table, and yes, they DO get looked at from time to time. Especially if I’ve forgotten someone’s child’s name or age; viola’! it’s right there in the Christmas letter! Here’s a link to a rather blurry photo I took to show someone else:http://instagram.com/p/UU0Rv8D-BQ/

I scan them with my Fujitsu Scansnap. It took me 5 minutes to scan them all, double-sided. Best paper-clutter-busting thing I’ve ever bought!

Growing up we always had a peg board in the entry way where we hung the pictures. Each year, as we got new ones, we took down the old ones and replaced w/ the new ones. I do a similar thing now. We have this ugly closet door in our entry way so I tape them collage style to the door until next year.

At first glance I thought the partly-visible card on the left was a couple strangling each other. Not a traditional Christmas sentiment but perhaps more honest for some families.

Re-Cycle them. Mine went on January 6th

I have a nice basket out on a shelf where i file/stash them. I save all photo cards there, since I also get photo thank you cards, photo invitations etc. throughout the year. It’ll be a LONG while til i fill up that basket and I or guests can leaf through them all year round. People get really excited that I save them!

I use the mini book idea from eighteen25. I only save the photo cards and usually a good sturdy (and beautiful) card to use as the one at the back. I also include our Christmas photo card as I think it’s cool to be able to see my kids in comparison to all our family and friends’ children. For any of the Christmas letters or small photos that are too small to hole punch, I slide them into a 6×6 page protector (think mine are We Are Memory Keepers?) and then put a cute decorative clip on the top to keep them from falling out. I bought a box of 100 1-inch rings from Office Depot for about $6-8. I have about 8 years worth in one of those cardboard Christmas boxes that sometimes come in sets that nest in each other. I set it out on my coffee table for Christmas and then put it on a closet shelf the other 11 months of the year. My girls loved looking back at themselves and their cousins. My chronically disorganized mother loved the idea and wants me to help her make some. I’m afraid to think of how many years she might have squirreled away somewhere!

I put mine in a plastic baggie with the year written on the outside and I stick them *somewhere* to “be scrapped someday.” I don’t get a lot of photo cards so I figure I can do one 12×12 pages for each year, but I don’t ever seem to get around to it. I’m not organized enough to put all the baggies in one box either, including this year when I bagged 2011 and 2012 at the same time (in separate bags.)

I love this project: http://sharyntormanen.typepad.com/be_good_/create/

She used a Zutter Bind-it-all to make a book of all of her cards. I don’t get enough cards to do it, but I love the looks of the different sizes and styles all bound together!

We do the hole punch and ring to make them into a little book. I about lost it when I realized how chaotic it looked with everything being different sizes at first, but it’s very endearing to me now. And yes, we look through it regularly during the Christmas season so it’s worth the storage space.

Peppermint – I got the idea to use my punches and make a layout of them from Ali Edwards years ago. It’s still my favorite layout to make every year – I have them in their own album with a copy of our card on the opposite page. You can see more on the one I made this year here: http://allthingsvo.blogspot.com/2013/01/2012-holiday-cards-page.html

Hey there’s my card! I hope you saved the envie too. RIGHT??

I kept cards for 15 years and they kept stacking up and then this year I did a bunch of project with them. I made a tree garland from the card art, I realized I had a history of some families and their kids growing up, so I made them a mini-memento books of all those Christmases, I made ornaments, and I used pieces of them in my scrapbooking (strategic cutting to get signatures of grandparents we’ve lost, or a nice note from someone). I still have cards left so next year I can find some other projects to do.