Cards, cards, cards...

I have probably just over a million cards from my bridal showers and wedding. Cards are one of those sentimental things where you never really do anything with them but you don't want to just throw them away. They usually just sit in a pile around your house all messy and thrown about until either you get tired of the clutter and throw them away or you die and someone else throws them away for you. Anyway, I didn't really know what to do with all the cards. They have all been sitting in one of the gift bags in the basement. I saw this on Pinterest and though I should give it a try and it turned out adorable.
First gather all your cards for a specific event, such as birthday cards, wedding cards, baby shower cards, etc.
You will need to go get a 3 ring chipboard album. I found mine at Hobby Lobby for 4 dollars and there are some on Amazon as well. In order to hole punch the cards correctly so they have the same holes as the chipboard, I held the card against the chipboard and marked where the cards needed to be hole-punched.

Then I had my dad hole punch it because I'm a weakling and it hurt my hand, lol
I then started adding the cards onto the rings like so:

For smaller or abnormally shaped or sized cards, its really up to you how to punch them. The ones that were really small I did one punch in and put them on the middle ring.
Then when they are all punched and put on the ring, add another piece of the chipboard to make the front or back of the album.

I had a lot of envelopes with the cards that had James and my names written all pretty on them that I felt bad throwing away so I cut out the ones I liked and used them to decorate the back of the book.

I considered a lot of different things for the front, such as just writing "Wedding and Shower Cards," using a card that I liked to decorate the front, using some of the small cards to decorate, etc. I finally decided to put one of our wedding pictures on the front and used a bow front one of the gift bags.

 I am really happy with the finished product. I sent pictures to James and he thought it was really cute too!

I think they are great not only for organizational purposes but now we can also easily flip through and read the cards over again whenever we want and they are all in one spot for us. Its also good to keep in mind you can get a variety of different sized rings based on how many cards you are putting in the album. I am planning on doing a book for all of James' cards from basic training and that he has gotten from over seas. I also want to do a birthday card book and books holding cards James has given to me and cards I have given to him. They are really easy to make as long as you have all your cards together, even for the non-crafter. I finished mine in probably an hour and a half.
Good luck to everyone trying this! More projects to come!!