It's Christmas in April!

I don't know about you, but every after every Christmas I have internal turmoil about what to do with all the Christmas cards we received.  As a family we do the obligatory photo Christmas card each year and try to have fun with it.  But it can get expensive!  This year I designed the card in Photoshop all by myself and uploaded it to Vistaprint and saved probably $25.  What's that?  You want to see our card? 

Boom!  There it is.

 

 

As you can imagine - the response was HUGE. 

 

I saw an idea for the pic on Pinterest.  Then was searching for card templates on Etsy and got the idea for the wording.  I then setup my tripod (never used it before) that Joe got my for my birthday two years ago and had E pose mischeviously (egged on by the help of Mr. Will acting a fool) then Joe and I posed without moving the tripod; then the photos were merged in Photoshop.  The lights E is holding are all real.  The lights wrapped around Joe and I are half real - half clone stamped (Photoshop vernacular). After turning the photo black and white I went in and hand colored the lights.  It took awhile to do (4 hours or so in Photoshop) but it was worth it.  I also had a lot of trial and error too so that added time. 

 

Anyway - back to the real reason I'm writing this post - people spend a lot of money and time on cards and I feel bad just throwing them away.  So for the past 4 years I've been hording and storing all the Christmas cards we get.  I figured that someday I'd have an epiphany and figure out what to do with them. 

 

That day has come my friends.  I honestly think I got the idea while looking at my Benjamin Moore paint samples; lots of cards all attached together....idea was born.  So during E's ballet class last week I ran next door to Office Depot and picked these up:

 

 

 

 They are like a keychain - but just pull apart!

 

 

 

I hole punched the corner of all the cards and strung them on.  Went to my paper supply and made a cover with red cardstock and used my Cameo to cut the numbers out in gold sticker paper and Voila!  A way to preserve Christmas cards! 

 

 

 

 

I also did all the baby announcements we received and hung them in the back hall on our corkboards.  These little rings are turning out to be pretty handy! 

 

Being as it's only April I'm going to wait until next December and probably add a green bow to the rings and display/hang them somewhere during the holidays.  Maybe from the mantle in the den?  (We hang our stockings in the living room). 

 

Does anybody else have ideas on how to keep Christmas cards preserved? Please share!