Christmas Card Collage

Believe it or not, I still had one little bit of Christmas still out and about. In the search for my dinning room table, I did find a stack of Christmas cards that I've been holding on to ever since I read Ali Edward's post about scrapbooking Christmas cards.

Now, I keep all of the pictures that everyone sends in their Christmas cards and I haven't quite decided what I want to do with them, but I do know that I want more than one page and I don't want to cut them up as much as this project would require. But, I am willing to cut up the Christmas cards they came in to make a collage. They say something about the year, the styles, the senders, and, well, I'm just a pack-rat and I love to save things like that.

So, in my reckless zest for life that was last Monday {and that I've been paying for this week}, I got out the paper cutter and started cutting up cards.

I started with a red, 12x12 page that I bought from JoAnn's. I picked red just in case I did have any space where I didn't have a card even though that was not my intention.

I laid out the cards on the page. This is the part that took the longest. And, my first finished layout I ended up scrapping because I just didn't like it. I had too many big card pieces and too much overlapping. But, I did like my second attempt. I cut down the bigger card pieces where I could and did much less overlapping.

Once I was pleased, I started glueing.

Believe it or not, we are down to our last glue stick. Amazing. We used to have gobs of them since we used to buy them by the ton at the beginning of each school year. So, I guess we really don't have any kiddos in elementary school anymore.

I glued down the cards in two rounds. The outer round came first. Once complete, I glued down the pictures in the middle. I did have to pull up a few edges to slip another card underneath, but for the most part I was able to plan ahead.

A few of my favorite parts of the project are...

I find it very hard to throw away homemade cards. So much time and effort {and love} was put into making it. So, keeping the best part of the card makes me happy.

These are the signatures of my cousin's sons. I loved that they signed the cards themselves. I think next year I'll save more signatures because this is one of my favorite parts of the collage.

Some of the cards had nice frilly edges. I cut off those edges and placed them underneath other cards in places where there was too many competing colors. Plus, I just loved the edges.

At first, when it came to putting these pieces together, I realized that I had cut off too much and there was going to be a gap. I did not like that and it had me stumped for a bit. But, I had used the white, frilly edges on other parts of the collage, why not back the too-small piece with a part of another card. And, what do you know, it covered the space and looked like I meant to do it that way {which, of course, I totally did}.

I liked that there was a little bit of 3D to the page. All of my digital scrapbooking pages only simulate that with drop shadows, but there is nothing like having the real deal.

And the final product:

I'm still working on pages in 2009. I think I'm up to October. So, this page will not have a permanent home until I get working on the rest of those pages.

Come to think of it, I'm not finished with my photo albums for 2008, either.

And, speaking of projects, I'm coming close to convincing Keith that we should make our own cement countertops to replace that nasty, faded orange formica countertop. I really would like a better background for my pictures.

At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.
~ Salvador Dali