Christmas card books

I thought I would share a bit more about how I made my Christmas card books. They were very simple.

First I went thru and punched 2 holes in all of the cards. I only worked on one year at a time since I had a few I wanted to get thru to get me caught up to this year. I made a template out of a piece of cardboard to make sure that all the cards were punched evenly. I tried to centralize the holes on each card.

After all the cards were punched I chose a good sized sturdy card for the back,

and one that I thought would make a nice cover for the front.

I threaded all my cards onto some elastic ribbon, although it would have been just as nice to use book rings. (and probably a little easier too, I just didn't have any on hand)

For each book I punched out a scalloped square to write the year on and simply attached it by stapling to the end of the ribbon.

I tried to vary the card sized to make the book more interesting to look thru, I really enjoy the staggered look.

I included any picture cards that may have come as well.

As well as any Christmas letters. This was where I had to get a bit creative. I wanted to be able to read the letters after they placed into the book. I played with a few different options. First try was simply punching holes in the top and folding the letter up.


Second option I tried was placing all letter into an envelope. I had several smaller pictures to include for this particular year as well, so the envelope worked out perfectly. And I really liked the look that the added envelope provided. Had I been making these in real time I may have saved one of the envelopes I received to reuse in my book.


My finished books all varied in thickness and variety.

I also tried to make sure my covers would all be a bit different to add some visual interest too.

Now all I have to figure out is how I am going to display them each year. For now I have them all stacked in a big basket, which looks pretty neat. Maybe I'll just bring out the basket each year and place it somewhere everyone can have access to it so we can peruse the cards from year to year. We'll see!! If any of you have put one together I would love to see your finished books!! Let me know!!