Project Post 17: Flip Book

Since this is the last day of January, it's probably time to get out of the Christmas frame of mind. Now, I took down my decorations on December 26th, but I left up all my Christmas cards to enjoy them a little longer. So, I must confess that just up until a couple of days ago, the wall in our kitchen still boasted this:

And there were a lot more on a vertical swivel display on my island, too. Oops! Now they're down, packed neatly away and stored, and the chalkboard is free to display non-Christmas messages.

After I got married and way before we had a little one running around, I thought it would be a good idea to scrapbook my Christmas cards every year (also back when I had an abundance of free time in the morning and evening). It was a good idea, but now it's just a little unrealistic, and living in a small house makes me stingy with storage. I don't necessarily love the thought of having 4 bulky scrapbooks of cards (and counting) just because I enjoy looking through them from time to time. Plus, I had a complete album of 2008 cards, a partial album of 2009 cards, and 2.5 years of incomplete albums that were eating away at me to complete. So, I decided to get rid of the album idea and go with the little flip-book-on-key-rings idea floating around Pinterest. I didn't even pin a picture of it on one of my boards (as far as I remember), but I've seen dozens of them floating around.

Last night I finally got around to putting it together. I love finishing a task that gets clutter off my counters, island, table, etc. And this one did it, so it is a very rewarding craft. Here are the details:

{Punched two holes in each card, made a little cover for front & back, secured with two scrapbook/key rings}

{This takes up WAY less space :)}

{Detail shot of inside - cards arranged by year}

{Detail shot}

(Note - this really only works for picture cards, which are really all I keep each year. It would be impossible to do this with regular greeting-style cards I think)