Looking for Creative Idea for What to Do with Cards....

Hey there,
So sorry for your sister and your loss. In my business I specifically take beautiful memories and transform them creatively. I'm currently working on a project of someone's concert tickets that they have saved all their life. Please check out my website and let me know if I can help in any way. www.genuinelyjill.com
Thanks.
Take care.

Decoupage! You can buy decoupage glue at Michael's and then you buy a little keepsake box, kleenex box, or a picture frame, or whatever it is you wanna use, and you smear this decoupage glue all over it and cut the important parts from the cards that you wanna use, and you smear the glue over them and it makes a beautiful art project to preserve all the stuff you care about!

A great way to preserve things like this without taking up any room - take a digital photo of the front and then the inside. You can then take the pictures and put them in a slideshow if you want. Either way the images will be captured forever and she can review them whenever she wants. The draw back is sometimes it is nice to be able to ouch and hold them to help in the healing process, so maybe after doing this with all the cards, she can pick out her most treasured cards and keep those and dispose of the rest after all the pics are taken.

Tell her our hearts and prayers go out to her.

This may not be what your looking for but this is what we did when my dad died. Go to a store like Hobby Lobby. They have beautiful keepsake boxes. They are made of a heavy cardboard similar to a hat box except they are rectangle instead of round. you can get them in many different sizes and shapes. I would get that then she can keep all the cards / letters and look at them whenever she wants to.

christmas cards are different for us we let the kids cut them up to make bookmarks they cut out what they want from the front and back and glue them together. its a nice way to reuse them and when they are not usable anymore they get tossed into the recycle bin unless they get glued to some other art project lol.

There is a store called The Paper Source, three in the chicago area, and you can shop online. They have bookbinding supplies and you can make your own book. You choose a book size, cover material and bookcloth (outside of book) and once assembled you can fill it with the cards. I would recommend picking some of the most special cards for 2 or 3 books, and then get a rectangular box to contain the rest. You could buy extra book cloth and make them match. You can add a photo here or there if you want.
(Look under Paper-source dot com > Kits>bookbinding>textblocks) and classes to tell you how to do it, or you can get a book from the library and do it yourself. There are also many premade books to choose from but the cost is higher. They have lots of inspiration.
You can scrapbook without the plastic sleeves and all the decoration, there are some paper pages that fold in half, so you have the space of two pages. With cards, I have done this, I cut a 1/4" snip in the fold of the card at the top and bottom, and I use photo corners. This way the card is totally removeable, and still can slide back in or it can be read/opened w/o removing it from the book.
We have a small, flat box from my great grandmother's funeral, some cards and mementos inside.
Good luck, it's nice of you to take it on.

I lost my mom many years ago and I have a memory box of all the things that remind me of her. Within the box, I have a box of cards. These cards include cards she received when sick, cards I received from her or ones I gave her and cards from the funeral. I prefer the cards left alone. Sometimes the card says it all when the people sending them don't have the words. Then I have other items in the box too. I have her wallet, her favorite sweater, her perfume and pictures. Its a big box. But special in that the days when I miss her the most I can pull it out and feel close to her. Best wishes to your sister.

I'm so sorry for your family's loss. It is very thoughtful of you to think about this.

I just saw a cute/easy idea in a Family Fun magazine. The mom saved the birthday cards for each of her kids by punching a hole in the corner and putting them on a binder ring. That way, the kids could still read the cards. She said the kids really liked looking at their cards and reading the nice things people wrote. It was a recent issue. Hope this helps! I save Christmas cards too and I think I might do this!

what about making a video display the cards and read who they were from.... a thought also you can photo the cards and the inside and down size them for your computer and bring them up when you want to see them.... good luck

Sorry to hear about your family's loss. You could always get a photo album...the old fashioned kind with static plastic and put them in there for her. That way it's in a book but she can remove them as she wants to look through them and read them. Just a thought.

Hope it helps.
N.

When my Mother was diagnosed with cancer, she had a friend make a very cute wooden box with a handle, (the side would flip up to open it) the friend painted it to match her bedroom, it sat on her nightstand so she could read all of her cards of prayers and love. My mother unfortunately died very quickly, however I now have this wonderful card holder full of memories on her side table in my livingroom. I read them often.
Hope this helps.
So very sorry for your loss.
V.

Sorry, I'm coming up with a photo-album/scrapbook type thing. But, I would just cut out the part of the sentiment and added notes and creatively display that rather than having to open a card.

Also, regarding X-mas cards. One thing I started last year (as I have kept these cards for years and, like you, will someday do something with them!) I started a "Christmas Card photo album". Many people are sending photos or photo cards and so, last year, I compiled them on a page (or two) per family. One of my cousins have been sending me photo cards for about 15 years and I found about 9 years worth. It was so fun to see how their kids and the families have grown. Generally I have 3 or 4 years of Christmas card pictures, per family. It turned out so cool. Didn't use any scrapbook materials - just used artwork from a few other Christmas cards to make it more festive and fill in the blank spots - until next year, when I can update.

So sorry for your loss. It's nice that you are doing this.

Not sure if this will help, but in my opinion the cards themselves are nice to receive, but hard to keep and find meaning in, in the long run - however, the personal written messages inside are what is special. Perhaps cutting out the inside message and making a framed photo collage would be nice. You could always pick a few of the outside cards to frame the outside (with meaningful words, etc), but it is what those that knew him and took the time to write inside that shared something worth keeping.

My Aunt use to give anniversary card to my uncle every year. When she passed away my uncle wanted to preserve her memories for life long time so he printed his photos, along with name, by the help of https://www.plascards.com/ and keep it in frame for whole life. It made the words true that an end of life cannot detach you from the memories of your love one’s you have lost. You can feel their presence in the form of such gifts and cards to keep them alive.

So very sorry for your loss...what a loving sister you are. I liked the idea of the collage using card pictures that your sister loves and then surrounded these with some of the personal.

As part of a membership of a group, we created a "rainy day notes" for each other. These were notes that we wrote to another person to tell them what they meant in our lives. I keep my notes in a box and read them when I need inspiration. A "rainy day box" a hatbox filled with cards of love that can be stored easily and accessed easily