Preserving Baby Cards...or Organized Card Hoarding

This project was a long time in the making. I started it during my first post-baby crafternoon with Misha back in July and just corrected/completed the project this weekend.

My mom saved all of my baby cards, and I want to do the same for our children. (Yep, hoarding runs in the family.) For my project, I was inspired by this post and Misha's wedding card collection.

Here is my version:

I didn't take photos along the way, but let me tell you about my process as it was a bit different than the inspiration tutorials. 

The front and back covers are scrap pieces of cardboard that I had stashed in my craft cupboard. Good sources of scrap cardboard include cereal boxes, books that are shipped with protective cardboard, calendars, sheets, picture frames, and undershirts. My scraps happened to be the right size for my project, just an 1/8 of an inch or so taller than the tallest card and about two inches wider than the widest card. I cut four pieces of scrapbook paper to the same size (7"x8.5") and adhered it to the cardboard with scrapbooking mounting squares. I decorated the front and used the same technique as Misha for my "m" embellishment. The colors I chose reflect Madeleine's nursery.

The heavy lifting in this project is the hole punching. I used the Crop-A-Dile recommended in the inspiration post, and it made easy work of the cardboard covers and of a stack of cards at a time. (I really, really, really wish I would have had this when I made our wedding programs and killed several regular hole punches in the process.)

I made this handy dandy template so that the holes would be uniform distance apart and distance from the edge of the card. Note that I originally thought I'd need four holes, but the outer holes only applied to a couple of cards, so I scrapped them.

I used the template to punch the holes in the cover, too, but I did so about an inch and a half from the edge. Make sense?

Once it all came together, the book seemed like it could use some extra structure, so I added a hole in the front and back covers for a ribbon. I know that the ribbon is going to fray with use, but I don't plan to open and close this book of cards very often.

Ta - da!




Do you hoard save cards? How do you keep them organized?