Best time of the year when it comes to mail, is right now! I stalk the mail lady and rush the mailbox for holiday card goodness on a daily basis. Something so special about opening the mailbox to find the grinning faces of those we love.
I know some of you chose not to keep the holiday cards each year, others take photos of them and and use them as the contact images on your smart phones. But if you are like me, you hold on to those cards since it is the best way to keep photographic memories of your favorite friends and family from year to year.
Chelsea, from Two Twenty One, is here today to share her super simple and fantastic way of organizing her annual greeting card collection.
Hey, IHeart Organizing readers! Happy Holidays!
It won't be long until your mailboxes will start piling up with Christmas cards from friends and family. You'll proudly display the cards in your homes until the end of December, and then what happens to them? Well, if you're me, you put them in plastic zipper bags, write the year on the front, and toss them in one of your Christmas decoration totes. You see, I have a hard time throwing away sentimental items. Some call it 'hoarding'. I call it 'memory treasuring'. It's not like I've been stockpiling newspapers since 1998, and I can't find my 16 cats in my hoarder's den. So in an attempt to organize and make my past Christmas cards more useful, I made them into Christmas card books.
I started by gathering my Christmas card bags. See. I wasn't lying.
I created a few 6 inch by 8 inch covers for the Christmas card books, which you can download for free at the end of this post. My Christmas gift to you. Ho, ho, ho.
I printed a cover onto card stock, cut it to size, and used a hole punch to make two holes on the cover. Then, I used the cover as a template to punch the holes in the cards.
After all the cards were hole punched, I grabbed two binder rings and started slipping the cards onto the binder rings. I did one binder ring at a time, but do whatever works for you. Once all the cards were on the rings I added the cover, closed the rings, and wrote the year on the front of the cover.
I displayed the books in a small basket, that I jazzed up with some ribbon and a bow, on an end table in our living room
This project was super simple and inexpensive. My kind of project. I will admit, my hand was a little sore from all the hole punching the next day.
You can download your preferred cover{s} below. Enjoy and happy Christmas card organizing!
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Do you typically keep or throw away Christmas cards?
Do you think you'll turn your Christmas cards into a Christmas card book this year?
"Hey friends! I'm Chelsea from Two Twenty One! I'm a twenty-something living in Indiana with my husband, Brad, and our crazy mutt, Jack. My loves are photography, travel, DIY projects, baking, wine, sarcasm and my iPhone. The husband and I are attempting to make our home a little less cookie cutter and a lot more awesome. My little slice of the internet, Two Twenty One, is where I share my latest home improvement projects, furniture makeovers, crafts, recipes and home & seasonal decor ideas. I am beyond excited to join Jen and the rest of the IHeart Organizing team!" 
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