easy christmas card photo books

December 28, 2017Leave a comment

I have been getting a lot of questions about an Instagram story I posted a couple weeks ago about what I do with all of the Christmas cards that we receive. I wrote this blog post 5 years ago and figured it might be a good time to repost it.

Don’t throw out all those cards, easily turn them into little photo books that you can pull out each year! We now have 9 years of books collected and I love to pull out the books in late November and look through them the entire month of December.

One of my favorite parts about Christmas is receiving the cards from all of our friends and relatives. I especially like the photos.

They make me smile from the day I receive my first card until the day I finally take them down from their display…which is usually one of the last things to come down.

Over the years I have saved the photos in a drawer in my desk. You see, my aunt had albums full of christmas card photos and every year I loved to sit down on Christmas day and look through them. Although I didn’t know all the people, I learned to recognize the familiar faces year after year and enjoyed seeing how families had grown, adult children had gotten married, etc. My plan was to eventually start some albums of my own.

As I was trying to find space in the drawer in my desk for our cards from Christmas 2012 I finally decided to just put the darn books together. I mean, for goodness sake, all I needed was a hole punch (I used a 3 hole punch and a single hole punch), some chipboard, some rings, and a glue stick!

All of my cards were organized by year, so I started punching holes.

{That’s my mom and dad in Italy}

I used two holes of a three hole punch so that I would eventually be able to line up the cards that were differing sizes and shapes.

Then I cut some chipboard that I had from the back of some thrifted frames that I won’t be using. I cut the chipboard a little larger than the largest card…three of the books ended up being 9″ x 6″ and one is 8″ x 6″.

I punched holes in the chipboard and glued our christmas card to the front.

I also made back covers for the books so the cards are protected on both sides of the book.

This year our card was a post card and I wanted to include the back of the card, so I put it on the inside of the back cover.

In less than an hour (it actually took 2 days, but I had to start and stop multiple times for various reasons…kids, dogs, cats, husbands, etc.) I had books from the last 4 years put together!

For now, they are in our basket of photo books in the family room. I think, eventually, I will put them in the attic with the rest of the Christmas decor so they will be a fun tradition to pull out of the bins each year.

Notice a change to the bookshelves? I’ll fill you in on that quick project this week!

Stay tuned…

I hope this inspires you to keep those cards! It’s a super simple project and feels so good once you have it done!

refreshing reveal

May 18, 20172 Comments

last year at this time we were packing up our entire house and getting ready for a big refresh of our spaces.

i never really got around to blogging about the updates, and I have really missed blogging, so i thought i would jump right back into it with posts about the updates we made in our home!

if you’ve followed my blog for years, then you have already seen the transformation of our kitchen BEFORE last summer…if you’re new, you can jump to this post to see where we came from.

2008…

9-kitchen 2-2008

4-kitchen 2-2008

12-kitchen 2-2008

2-kitchen 2-2008

fast forward to twenty-sixteen…

1-kitchen 2-2016

4-kitchen 2-2016

5-kitchen 2-2016

7-kitchen 2-2016

and, here is the PRESENT…

we didn’t change the layout.

we didn’t buy new cabinets.

we kept our appliances.

we didn’t change the lighting.

what did we change?!

i’ll tell you in my next post…stay tuned.

home is…finally revealing our refresh.

{before and after} home is in the kitchen

February 27, 201616 Comments

we moved into our current house eight years ago.

we’ve done a lot of work on our home, but parts of it still need some major updating.

when we moved in, i took photos of all of the rooms in the house. i didn’t write a blog back then, but as an interior designer, i was used to taking “before” photos for client projects.

i knew that this house would be an ever evolving project of my own, so wanted to make sure i had photos.

i have written a post about our backyard using our “before” photos, but i haven’t written about any of the interior spaces with the before photos.

we are in the process of working on some additional updates to the house, so i thought it would be fun to start some “before and after” posts.

so, here it goes…

9-kitchen 2-2008

one of the reasons we bought this house eight years ago was because it wasn’t updated. yes, you read that right. we looked at houses that had been updated, but none of them had been updated the way we liked. and, even bigger than that, none of them had the lot that this house has. you can always change the interior of your home, but you can’t add to the lot it sits on!

8-kitchen 2-2008

the view from the kitchen window has changed a lot over the last eight years!

10-kitchen 2-2008

we updated all the appliances first.

4-kitchen 2-2008

then, i added our mason jar pendant lights.

12-kitchen 2-2008

11-kitchen 2-2008

in 2013, we {i} painted the cabinets…

2-kitchen 2-2008

and, we had laminate flooring installed on our entire first floor.

fast forward to twenty-sixteen…

1-kitchen 2-2016

2-kitchen 2-2016

3-kitchen 2-2016

4-kitchen 2-2016

5-kitchen 2-2016

6-kitchen 2-2016

7-kitchen 2-2016

these photos were taken at approximately the same time of day during february…eight years apart!

after living through the transition over the last eight years, i needed a side by side…

before and after 1

before and after 2

before and after 3

before and after 4

before and after 5

before and after 6

before and after 7

you guys, the majority of the change came from PAINT!

yes, we put in new appliances and floors, but the big change came on the walls and cabinets.

that being said, if i had it to do all over again, i would have gone about the painting differently. three years ago my kids were three and five and home with me most days. i did this all over the summer with them home! so, the paint job is far from professional, but it makes a big difference!

i cannot go into HOW to paint your cabinets…there are a lot of other places to figure that out, but what i can say is if you think it will make a difference in your kitchen {and home}, it will. there is no question about that.

well, that was a lot of fun. i am excited to visit each of the main rooms in our home {before and after} in the next few weeks!

home is…eight years and a little paint.

easy christmas card photo books

January 5, 20164 Comments

I just finished putting our Christmas card photo book for 2015 together. We now have SEVEN years of Christmas cards collected into little flip books! I looked through the archives and found my original post about how I put them together.

One of my favorite parts about Christmas is receiving the cards from all of our friends and relatives. I especially like the photos.

They make me smile from the day I receive my first card until the day I finally take them down from their display…which is usually one of the last things to come down.

Over the years I have been saving the photos in a drawer in my desk. You see, my aunt had albums full of christmas card photos and every year I loved to sit down on Christmas day and look through them. Although I didn’t know all the people, I learned to recognize the familiar faces year after year and enjoyed seeing how families had grown, adult children had gotten married, etc. My plan was to eventually start some albums of my own.

As I was trying to find space in the drawer in my desk for our cards from Christmas 2012 I finally decided to just put the books together. I mean, for goodness sake, all I needed was a hole punch (I used a 3 hole punch and a single hole punch), some chipboard, some rings, and a glue stick!

All of my cards were organized by year, so I started punching holes.

{That’s my mom and dad in Italy}

I used two holes of a three hole punch so that I would eventually be able to line up the cards that were differing sizes and shapes.

I punched holes in the chipboard and glued our christmas card to the front.

I also made back covers for the books so the cards are protected on both sides of the book.

This year our card was a post card and I wanted to include the back of the card, so I put it on the inside of the back cover.

In less than an hour (it actually took 2 days, but I had to start and stop multiple times for various reasons…kids, dogs, cats, husbands, etc.) I had books from the last 4 years put together!

{october 4} happy corners of our home

October 4, 20157 Comments

first of all, happy FIRST birthday to our puppy, grand river hoji rainbow!

{we get to give her hugs next weekend after almost four months at bird dog
camp in idaho}

we’ve been playing with tissue paper, mod podge, and white pumpkins…

why stick with orange and black when you can use the entire rainbow?!

these are sitting in the middle of our dining room table…not necessarily a corner, but very happy!

we used these tutorials…

but we mainly just cut out our own shapes and modpodged them onto the pumpkins!

baby girl cut out a shape that looked like the shape of the state of oregon, so i added a heart where portland would be.

{31 days} pallet xylophone

October 22, 20143 Comments

~secondhand and created~

…pallet parts and pieces…

…power tools…

…paint…

…and a puppy dog helper.

{You can see another spray paint project that I have been working on…trying to add more color to the backyard!}

Once all the boards were painted I just screwed them into the partial pallet.

I just lightly spray painted the pieces so that they have a weathered look.

The final product makes me smile.

home is…{31 days} a secondhand and created pallet xylophone.

Join me while I link up with The Nester every day in October for #write31days.
Click here to find a list of all 31 posts as they are published.

{31 days} globe pendant light

October 17, 20145 Comments

~created and thrifted~

It’s much like my tutorial for the mason jar pendant light, but easier!

Supplies:

globe
pencil
exacto knife
light kit (i get mine at IKEA)

How to:

1. Cut globe in half…most globes are made of cardboard or chip board and are put together as two pieces at the equator. You can cut along the equator with an exacto knife, but there usually a supporting ring of thick chipboard at the equator that you cannot cut through. I actually put pressure on the equator (with my hand, elbow, or knee) like you do with those pop open cans that cinnamon rolls come in. I do it all the way around the equator…careful not to crush the globe…and it usually comes apart on it’s own without any cutting!

2. Trace around your light socket at the top of the globe and cut a hole with your knife. There is usually a metal ring in between the layers of the chip board at the top and bottom of the globe (where they usually attach to their stands). This is usually the same size as the socket, so if you hit metal, just cut to the outside of the ring and you should be OK.

3. Insert your light kit into the hole and secure.

4. Insert light bulb. I always use a low wattage (40 watt) or fluorescent bulb for safety since the globes are made of paper.

You can also embellish you globe on the inside or outside like I did with these…

You can also see my “how to” in the October 2014 issue of Old House Journal…

home is…{31 days} a thrifted and created globe pendant light.

Join me while I link up with The Nester every day in October for #write31days.
Click here to find a list of all 31 posts as they are published.

{31 days} paper bag flowers

October 11, 20146 Comments

~secondhand and created~

I absolutely LOVE sunflowers and love this craft.

It’s perfect to add a neutral early fall touch to your decor, but packs a punch by being 3 dimentional.

I used a few in baby girl’s room with some tissue paper puffs leftover from her first birthday party!

Click here for an awesome tutorial {it looks like she uses lunch bags, but I used full size brown paper grocery bags}.

{You can also read my original post happy paper flowers from January 2013}

home is….{31 days} secondhand, created paper flowers.

Join me while I link up with The Nester every day in October for #write31days.
Click here to find a list of all 31 posts as they are published.

{31 days} flash card art

October 10, 20149 Comments

~secondhand, created and thrifted~

You need:

flash cards
background paper (I chose a paper bag)
frame
scissors
glue
sharpie or pencil

Cut paper to fit frame.

Arrange flash cards.

Glue into place.

Place into frame.

Hang on your wall.

I also made this one where I added the year we were married, the year the little guy was born, and the year baby girl was born.

home is…{31 days} secondhand, created and thrifted fun with flash cards.

Join me while I link up with The Nester every day in October for #write31days.
Click here to find a list of all 31 posts as they are published.

{31 days} mason jar pendant light

October 6, 201412 Comments

~created~

This is actually an update to one of my most popular posts of all time as well as one of my most pinned posts on Pinterest.

We had existing pendant lights in our kitchen, and I was getting tired of the shades so I cut some holes in mason jar lids and used the mason jars as “shades”.

After posting a photo of my kitchen on Instagram, I decided to write my first ever tutorial for a mason jar pendant light!

{I find my light kits at IKEA, but you can find something similar in the lighting section at Lowes or Home Depot}

IMPORTANT NOTE: After noticing that air needed to be vented from the jar somehow, I added some vent holes to the top by tapping extra holes in the lid with a hammer and nail.