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Posts Tagged ‘Keepsake’

Keepsake Christmas Album

Do you hate throwing your Christmas cards away every year as much as I do? This year I decided to try to come up with some way to preserve our Christmas cards, as well as find a way to organize all the Christmas letters I’ve been faithfully filing away for the past six years. I decided to make an album for our Christmas letters using decoupage to decorate the covers with this year’s Christmas cards.

I love decoupage. It’s so easy to do and so versatile. It’s really hard to get it wrong. I started by finding something to paste the Christmas cards on. I had some dark red card stock (next to the paper at the office supply store) that seemed heavy enough to withstand all the gluing. Next I cut our Christmas cards into all different shapes and sizes. I cut out little characters, scenes, greetings, and even signatures of loved ones who had sent the cards. I next arranged the cutouts, overlapping one another, on the card stock, and started applying them one by one with the decoupage finish.

There are several kinds of decoupage finish available. You can find a variety at your local craft store. I have two different kinds: Plaid Royal Coat Antique Decoupage Finish, and Mod Podge Gloss-Lustre. The first one gives an antique-like appearance. The paste yellows when it dries, making your collage look aged. The more you apply, the yellower it gets. The Mod Podge dries clear. I used the antique finish and was quite happy with the result. You use the finish to actually glue the individual pieces on with a paintbrush, and then when you’re finished (adding scraps here and there to fill in the blank spots), you brush a coat over the entire page. After it dries for about 10 minutes, you can apply another coat. I found that adding several coats made the pages sturdier–more like a album cover, like I wanted. I had just enough Christmas card cutouts to cover two pages, one for the front cover, and one for the back cover.

After the pages were dry, I used a three punch to punch holes in the covers. I decided I would use wide fabric holiday ribbon to tie the covers together. That way every year I could untie the bows and add new letters to my album. I used 2 1/2 -inch-wide wire satin ribbon (dark red). I liked the wire ribbon. It was easier to adjust the bows and looked really nice. It was also leftover from my holiday gift making this year, so I didn’t have to buy any extra.

When the covers were ready, I arranged our Christmas letters from oldest to most recent, and punched holes in all of them. I then placed them between the covers and inserted the ribbon through the holes and tied big red bows to hold them together. I chose not to string ribbon through all three holes–just the top and the bottom.

I was really happy with how my keepsake Christmas album turned out. It was easy, took only about two hours to make, and I didn’t have to buy anything extra to make it. After you buy the decoupage finish (about a bottle), the uses for it are almost limitless. You can apply it to almost any surface, giving you the opportunity to create timeless keepsakes in a variety of ways.

Keepsake Christmas Ornament Box

I love handmade Christmas ornaments. Throughout the years I have collected a number of them, made by myself and several family members. These ornaments will make great keepsakes for our children and grandchildren.

I have been looking for a creative way to store these keepsake ornaments. In the past I have stored them with all my other tree ornaments, but I wanted a special place to store them, especially my daughter’s ornaments that we have been collecting for her throughout the years. After purchasing about in supplies and spending a couple of hours working on the project, I ended up with a beautiful keepsake ornament box that I hope my daughter will cherish for years to come.

To complete this project, you will need:

- Unfinished wooden box with lid
- Modge Podge (for decoupaging)
- Christmas
- Scissors
- Paint brushes
- Craft paint (optional)
- Acrylic sealer/finisher spray

All of the above items can be purchased at a craft store. The craft store I went to had a variety of boxes to choose from. I chose a small box that was .99. It was just what I was looking for!

The box I chose has a raised border around the edges that looked like it would be difficult to work around with decoupaging, so I chose to paint it instead. I painted all the borders with several coats of red acrylic paint.

Next I went through a big pile of old Christmas cards to find suitable images to decoupage onto the box. This was the fun part! Not only can you cut out pictures, you can also cut out holiday sentiments from friends and family members. Just in the past couple of years, several members of our extended family have passed away, and projects such as this keepsake ornament box are a great way to remember lost loved ones. Cut the cards into a variety of sizes and shapes.

Using a paintbrush, apply Modge Podge or a similar decoupage medium to the back of your cut out, then place the cut out on the box. Paint a coating of Modge Podge over the cut out. Continue pasting cut outs to the side of the box until it is covered, then go over the entire side again with another coating of Modge Podge. After the box is completely dry, you can apply another coating for good measure.

After the box is complete (and dry), you can spray an acrylic sealer/finisher spray over the entire box to protect the artwork and eliminate the tackiness of the decoupage.

That’s it! There is no limit to the possibilities of decorating this beautiful ornament box. I haven’t tried it yet, but I plan to line the inside of the box with felt to give it a more finished look.