Reuse Greeting Cards

Don't you hate to throw away the special greeting cards that you get from family and friends?  These cards can be so meaningful.  Why not include some on your scrapbook pages?  That way, you can keep them forever.

Sometimes the pictures on the cards add that extra something special to your page.  On the layout below, I included a stack of cards that I got for my birthday this year.  The colors and design of the card on the top of the stack really add a lot to the page.

Supplies: lavender cardstock (Wausau Paper), white cardstock (American Crafts), chipboard flowers and butterflies (DCWV), border stickers (Doodlebug Design), journaling spots and alpha-numeric stickers (all from Echo Park), page protector (Office Max Archival Heavyweight Sheet Protector), adhesive (Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L for lightweight items, Glue Dots International for heavier items).  I also used a mechanical pencil to outline my alpha-numeric stickers, in order to help them stand out. 

Other times, it's the words on cards that give extra meaning to your layouts.  My cat, Tina, died last autumn, and I thought that the quote on the sympathy card on this page was a perfect memorial to her (see below).

Supplies: white cardstock (American Crafts), assorted patterned paper (all from October Afternoon), yellow cardstock (Wausau Paper), light blue cardstock (Bazzill), assorted label and alpha-numeric stickers (all from October Afternoon), adhesive (3L and Glue Dots International), page protector (Office Max Archival Heavyweight Sheet Protector), pen (Zig).

The quote on the card reads: "We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own live within a fragile circle, easily and often breached.  Unable to accept its awful gaps, we still would live no other way.  We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, never fully understanding the necessary plan.--Irving Townsend."  My journaling on the layout reads: "We lost Tina suddenly on September 4, 2010.  She died of a rare disease called autoimmune thrombocytopenia.  We miss our angel."  It's a sad layout, but it's precious to our family in that it preserves our memories of our dear pet.

Whether you're using greeting cards to add pictures or words to a layout, make sure to protect your project from any acid that may be in the cards.  In both the example pages in this post, I trimmed down plastic sheet protectors and placed my cards in them.  I adhered the sheet protectors to my pages, knowing that the plastic would create a barrier between the cards and the layouts.

Thanks for taking a look at my pages!