Christmas Card List Organization

I know it's July :D, but around this time my mind starts to think ahead toward Christmas. I always have the dream of having 'all' of my shopping done well ahead of Thanksgiving, but it hasn't ever come true yet :D. I keep trying though (sigh). Among the Christmas thoughts in my head right now are Christmas cards. I may not get my cards actually started in July, but I'm thinking about their designs :). I don't remember what month I started to make my Christmas cards in last year, but I did remember the nightmare of finding those Christmas card addresses year after year! I did not want to repeat that anymore, so with Bind-it-all in hand I went about correcting that problem. I made a little book with index cards to house my yearly Christmas card list. I'm here to tell you that if you have the same nightmare with addressing your cards every year- this is the solution, lol!

My book measures 3.5" x 5.25" so it's a good size for easy storage. The swirly ornament on the cover is my design- I made it on my Wishblade. I was in a hurry when I made this book so it's not really pretty, but it sure is functional :D. This is what you will need to make your own Christmas Card list book: a cereal box, some pretty papers, ribbon or other embellishments, 3' x 5" index cards, some cardstock, Royal Coat or other decoupage medium, and a bone folder. To make the book, I cut four pieces of cereal box into 3.5" x 5.25" rectangles. I just used my ATG to stick two rectangles together since I would be covering them. I cut my cover pieces an inch bigger all around to have room to fold over the paper to the inside. Using Royal Coat decoupage (acid free :D-not that you need acid free for this project, but it's nice for when you do need it) medium, I completely coated the inside of my cover paper and then adhered it to the front of the cover. Use a bone folder to really smooth the paper down so you won't have air bubbles later. Flip it over and trim just the corners on an angle about 1/4" away from the cereal box corner. To get good crisp edges on your book cover, use the bone folder along the edges of the paper, pressing into the edge of your cereal box covers before you fold the remaining edges to the inside. Make sure you have enough Royal Coat on the edges before you fold the edges to the inside of your book cover. Smooth down with your bone folder to remove any air bubbles and really press down the corners so they are nice and flat and smooth. I used another paper for the inside covers cut to 3.25" x 5". That measurement will give you a little bit of a border inside. Adhere the inside covers with Royal Coat. Once everything dried I chose to coat the inside and the outside of my book covers with Royal Coat to make them more durable- I used three coats.
Before going to the Bind-it-all I decided to make dividers for my book to make sorting addresses easier for me. I used three categories: Family, Friends, and Business- because I make my hubby's business Christmas cards. I cut my words on my Wishblade, but you could use stamps, letter stickers, or letter rub-ons. I also stamped and heat embossed a little something Christmas related with white embossing powder on each divider.

Did you notice my altered paper clips :D? I bought some little Christmas buttons and pom poms and hot glued them to the top of my paper clips. Easy, easy!

Now off to the Bind-it-all to put this all together. I made a template for punching my index cards first. I took one of my index cards and measured the center line and marked it with a pencil line. I stacked some index cards behind it and inserted them into the Bind-it-all, lining the pencil line up with the center line on the machine and punched. Repeated until I had punched through all of my index cards. I saved my template so I can use it over and over :D. To do the covers I just placed my template in the center and pretty much eyeballed it, lined them up and punched. When you make your stack to bind them, you need to make sure that your back cover front is facing your front cover front with the index cards behind that. This will put the bound part of the coil inside your book instead of outside your book. Looks much better that way (wink). Here is my book opened up.

Just wanted to share a quick card that made yesterday before I go. My hubby's uncle passed away and the funeral is today so I made a sympathy card. I used the same sketch that I did for the card that I made recently for my aunt. I like that sketch- it's pretty and makes up quick. The card sketch is from Poetic Artistry http://poeticartistry.blogspot.com/. I used the same Rose Wreath, but I die cut it from textured green cardstock and put a Prima flower on top of each embossed rose on the die cut so all you see is the leaves and the vines. I heat embossed the stamped sentiment on the front of the card with gold embossing powder.

I printed a sentiment for the inside of the card from my computer- used lilac for the font color, trimmed to mat size and punched the corners to make them pretty :D.

For the envelope- I make all my own envelopes- I die cut a butterfly and inked the raised areas of the embossing with a slightly darker chalk ink. Stamped the sentiment from the card front with the same lilac chalk ink to finish it.

Details for the card: Martha Stewart 'Lacy Doily' edge punch; Provocraft 'Swiss Dots' embossing folder, 'Butterflies' combo die set, 'Rose Wreath' combo die set; Dew Drops chalks inks by Tsukineko; Prima flowers; Stickles glitter glue-used on the Primas.

Sorry I can't be more specific on the supplies used on the Christmas Card List book- I made it last year. It's not very pretty (sigh)- I was thinking more function than pretty because I was in a hurry, so I may just have to make a new one for this year ;).

Thanks for the comments that everyone has left :D! I know I have been having visitors because of my counter- so don't be shy, leave a comment :). I'll be posting a new card tomorrow that I made yesterday. Have a great day! Until tomorrow......

Blessings!
Barb