'Tis the season ... to get married!

Being a huge sentimentalist, I kept all the cards and notes my husband and I received for our engagement, showers and wedding last year.  Every. Single. One.  Some may call me a "pack rat" and some may say it's a waste of space, but I love reading through all the wonderful messages people wrote to us in congratulations.  People are absolutely gushy for your wedding.  Seriously... if I ever need a pick-me-up, I'm turning to these cards.

Until this weekend, they were stored one of those cute trunk boxes you can get from Michael's, but truth be told, it was a mess.  Just looking at the trunk stressed me out.  Even worse, it was too much work to dig through it for a good pick-me-up. Haha, I'm kidding.  What really troubled me was I wanted to find a way to preserve these cards, so when I'm 80 years old reflecting on my life, I can remember all the wonderful things people had to say about my first husband (again, I'm kidding!). 

I will be honest, this task took a little longer than I had anticipated (mostly because I'm a perfectionist), but it was totally worth it!


Materials:
Wedding Cards
Cardstock
Ribbon
2 Book Rings
Glue Dots
Double-Sided Mounting Squares
Tacky Glue
Scissors
Ruler
Hole Punch
Pencil
Embellishments

Instructions:

Prep Your Cards:
1.  Gather ALL your cards.  Just make one giant pile.  Like such.  (Not all steps are this easy, so enjoy.)
 2.  Sort your cards based on events and/or types.  I had my shower and wedding cards mixed together, so there was plenty of sorting to do.  Also, I kept all the cards that came with packages.  Some of them were just too good to throw away and were the only card we got from some of the guests.
3.  If you have these types of cards or fairly small cards, I suggest attaching them to larger sheet.  I cut cardstock into a 5.5" x 8.5" sheet and attached the cards using Double-Sided Mounting Squares.

**I decided to have my two books rings spaced 4 inches apart.  You will want to make the decision on your spacing before you proceed.  I found that most of my cards were between 5 -8 inches, so 4 inches was sufficient to hold all of my cards - not too far apart and not too close.

Create Your Covers:
1.  Cut cardstock into 5.5" x 8.5" sheet.  I took one 8.5" x 11" and simply cut it in half for ease.  But if you're using a 12" x 12" sheet, you will need to make your own adjustments.

2.  Decorate your covers.  I used leftover supplies from our wedding for the covers:  the jute was from our head table's table runner, the ribbon from various decorations, the cardstock, monogram and flowers from programs.  I attached the ribbon using extra-strength Glue Dots to ensure longevity.


Hole Punch Your Cards:
1.  If you're super neurotic like me, you'll need to do a little math here.  I wanted to make sure all of my cards were perfectly centered around a 4 inch range.  To do this, find the center point of the card size, subtract two inches to find the top hole, and add two inches to find the bottom hole.  I have included a chart of the most common sizes I encountered and the hole measurements.

2.  Line your card up against a ruler.  Using your pencil, make a mark about 1/4 of inch into the card's edge at each of the hole measurements.  Do this to your entire stack of cards.
3.  Finally, give your hands and arms a workout hole punching all your cards.  Please be careful not to do serious harm to your hands/arms.  Take breaks when necessary and be wary that some cards are simply too thick to hole punch.
5.   Don't forget to hole punch your covers!

Organize Your Cards:
**Again, being crazy neurotic, I wanted to make sure my book was organized so the sizes were staggered.  I sorted them by card size and stacked them in the order I would like them to go on the book rings.

Also, because I had a lot of cards, I split the stack in half.  I had to stack half of the cards on the back side of the open ring and the other half on the front side of the ring for everything to properly fit.  See pictures below.

Load 'Em Up!
1.  Prop open your rings and start feeding cards through the "back side" or right-hand side of the rings.
**Don't forget to put your back cover on first!!!

2.  Once you have loaded up half of your cards, start feeding cards on the "front side" or left-hand side of the rings.
**Don't forget to put your front cover on first!!!

Once all of the cards are fed on, clasp your book rings and gently flip cards to close gaps from loading cards on both sides of the rings.  Tie your ribbons together and ta-da!  An absolutely adorable way to preserve your cards and easily access them for the occasional pick-me-up.  ;)