Cards on a Ring

When I got married I was so thrilled to see Mr. & Mrs. on an envelope that I saved every Christmas card we received that year.  Next thing I know I've got four years of cards packed away in my Christmas decorations.  Here's what I used to make them special & keep them organized.  You should know way back then we had very little money.  Now I could make them with much finer material, but I enjoy the tradition.  Here's what we're making:

I've seen a few versions with two rings, 

I don't like putting holes in the cards to begin with so I use just one.

You'll need:

1. all your Christmas cards from one year
2. a frozen pizza box or other thin cardboard
3. glue (I use Elmer's glue stick or school glue)
4. scissors
5. favorite gift wrap scraps, scrapbook paper, child's art or whatever you want for a cover
6. hole punch
7. circle cutter or template or a juice glass
8. scrap of unlined paper

9. pen 

10. about 15 minutes or less if you've already gathered your supplies

 

First find your tallest and widest Christmas cards.  Trace around the cards on the cardboard twice to make your front and back covers. Cut out your covers.

 Glue gift wrap scrap to one side of your covers.  Leave an edge to fold over to the back which will become the inside of your cover.

 

Cut another two pieces of gift wrap about 1/4in smaller than your covers.  Glue to the inside of the covers.  Then cut a circle and write the year in it.  Try writing a few family highlights from that year around the edge of the circle. Glue the circle to the front cover.

Just wanted to point out a few sentimental details from this year's card covers.  A Santa from the reverse side of one gift wrap was added to the inside of the back cover to join his reindeer. Why not show off that reversible wrapping, right?  I even used a bit of wrapping with the sticker gift tag on it for the front.  That's why the circle is off set. Oh yeah, punch a hole in one corner of each cover.

 

Use the back cover to line each card up for hole punching so all the cards fit nicely when the holes are punched.  I tried just punching the corners without lining each and every one up and the cards didn't fit within the covers at the end.  Also after the front cover and about 3 cards are punched, open the ring and stand it like shown above.  This way as each card is punched it goes straight on the ring.  Saves the step of added them all to the ring later. 

Close the ring and you're done.  I usually hang them from command hooks around the door because it is now also a tradition for friends and holiday guests to take them down and look at them.  Since fewer and fewer people send Christmas cards anymore, it's even more special to enjoy the ones I have.