Holiday cards become treasures because they make you laugh, trigger a tear, or captivate you with their beauty. But after the holidays, what do you do with them? We'll show you how to use your much loved holiday cards to make scrapbook layouts you'll cherish for years to come.

Never a Dull Moment by Cindy Tobey, as seen in the November/December 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. 

Use a holiday card to create a window or mat for photos.

Display your holiday photo on your scrapbook layout in a fun new way using a die-cut section of a holiday card as a window overlay for family photos, as Cindy Tobey did here.

Original card.

More Holiday Card Tips

• If you aren't fond of part of a card or one of its design elements doesn't quite fit the style of your scrapbook page, simply cover that part of the card using scrapbook accents, just like Cindy covered the dove on her card using a button.
  
• Create a die-cut card look by cutting out sections of a holiday card, and then use the card as a photo overlay.
• Don't forget the envelope! The gold border beneath Cindy's journaling is actually cut from an envelope that housed a holiday card. Cut colorful envelopes into embellishments that work well with your layout theme—it will save you some patterned paper.
• Many holiday cards include fancy dimensional embellishments as part of their design; on Cindy's page, the gold star on the blue pennant was cut from a holiday card. Give your layout texture and pizzazz by including dimensional accents from holiday cards.  

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To learn more ways to use the sentiments, messages, and designs of holiday cards on your scrapbook layouts, read "A New Tradition for Holiday Cards" in the November/December 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.

Appeared in:

November/December 2011