Greeting Card Distress

[BattleMaidenStudio]

I'm slowly working on the prep for my very first scrap book. I've saved every little thing since my daughter was born (2.5 years ago... where does the time go!?) including all of the greeting cards. I've got cards from her baby shower to now...

I really want to include these sentiments (or at least some of them) into her baby book, and my first instinct is to cut the front from the back, so that both pieces are visible. However, I really stress out when I think about defiling all of these priceless things. I keep trying to tell myself "Not every scrap of paper that has entered her life is sacred" and I would hope that in 40 years or so, she'd just be happy that I took the time to preserve it all... I just don't want her to regret all the cutting I did.

Someone tell me I'm crazy

Or, even better, let me know how you handle greeting cards in your scrap books. Links to pics would be fantastic too.

[Kajikit]

Remember - a scrapbook page does NOT have to be flat and you don't have to see every single thing on it at first glance... when I made my wedding album I included all our cards at the back of the album. I arranged them nicely and glued them onto the pages and if somebody really wants to read a particular card they can pull that sheet of paper out of the page protector.
As you can see from the pic, I wrote a note next to each card saying who it was from, and I decorated the space inbetween nicely with little page decorations.
http://family.webshots.com/photo/1430090634015899315UITDTn?vhost=family

[Paper Shred Jane]

You could always scan in the greeting cards before you "defile" them by snipping it into a wondrous new summation of what it said. That's the beauty of being in the digital age, you can scan it and keep it.

[BattleMaidenStudio]

Jane... that is a FANTASTIC idea! How did I not think of that?

Thank you!

[beekeebear]

I saved all the cards from our wedding with the intention of buying and inserting them into a special album for that purpose that I saw at Joann. It's basically a regular album with vertical ribbons that you can slide the cards behind. So the ribbon acts almost like binding--sits in the crease of the card and holds the card down flat against the album page. I can't find an online photo, so I hope that makes sense.

I like Kajikit's suggestion--and you could merge the two ideas. Instead of gluing the card down permanently, glue a ribbon down and use it to hold the card to the page.

And if you use Jane's great suggestion--don't forget to create a back-up!

Happy scrapping!

[KLCM]

I've done different things with greeting cards:

(1) use adhesive corners - then you can always remove the card from the page if you want to do something else with it...

(2) if using the pocket pages, make the page with the card on it, slide the page into the protector and carefully use an xacto knife to make a slit along the fold of the card, but only through the page protector.  Open the card through the slit.  Downside:  front of card isn't protected by the page protector, but you can open it and read the inside without pulling everything apart.

(3) For our Christmas cards I make a separate "album with 2 covered pieces of chipboard and then hole punch the cards and cover and use two binder rings to hold it all together.

Don't know if any of those would work for you...

[richardm]

You can also sew the ends of the inner folds, or group them and make them into (a)

"mini-scrapbook(s)" within a scrapbook   
Also, the last part of the card might be blank, fill it with the gift cards--sort of a literal backstory.

[Alexus1325]

A friend of mine made a wedding scrapbook. To keep her cards, she cut around just the inside message/signatures and arranged them on a pair of facing pages with a few of her favourite elements from the fronts of the cards. So she had a bunch of poems and personal messages surrounded by angels, wedding bells, and flowers and such.

[randim]

This is what I did with all my wedding cards, you could probably do something similar?

http://www.sowderingabout.com/2011/11/trying-to-tie-up-loose-ends-before-d.html

[scrappingistherapy]

I often make pocket pages to hold cards, invitations, announcements, etc.  That way you can slide them out of the pocket and still look at them.

Pam