Archiving your Christmas Cards

I’ve got Christmas cards we received last year that are still stored in a shoe box. The Husband has been bugging me on what to do with them. Being the sentimental person that I am, I don’t have the heart to throw them out.

Good thing Andrea Steed at Scrap Jazz has got ideas on archiving our Christmas Cards!

The entire project was created using only a manila envelope, a square punch, a black pen and a glue stick. Here’s how I did it:

1. Label – First, I divided the cards from the letters and photos and jotted down last names and the date on any of them that didn’t already include that information. Years from now, I’m sure I’ll be thankful I did.

2. List – On the backside of the manila envelope, I listed all of the people who we received cards from. I divided them into sub-lists based on our relationship to them (family, school friends, friends from living in Minnesota, Alabama friends, etc).

3. Crop – Next, for any cards we received, I cropped a representative square from them using a square punch.

4. Collage – Adhering with a glue stick, I designed a simple collage to decorate the front of the envelope using the punched squares.

5. Seal – Finally, I put the remaining photographs and letters into the envelope closed it up. Then I stored it with my holiday decorations (and several additional manila envelopes for future years.)