Christmas Cards + Valentine's Craft

I will always love the inspiration that came from this picture. 

via apartment therapy

I saw this two years ago while searching for a creative way to hang the girls' artwork.  Of course, crazy, this was before Pinterest.  The good old days where I googled everything!  But, I loved this and so we bought the Ikea system off ebay and put it in our kitchen.  The fun thing has been the other uses I've been able to use it for - hanging Christmas cards and other seasonal decorations. 

Our Christmas Cards

So, what do you do with your Christmas cards?  I know this post is a bit late, but for those of you who are like me and still had my Christmas cards up last week, maybe this can give you some ideas!

 Love this idea from Tiny Prints - take a picture of the photo Christmas cards, and use the picture as the person's contact image that pops up on the screen when calling.

 This is another favorite - I've considered doing this one, but haven't yet.  Take the cards and punch holes in the side, and use rings to connect and make them into little booklets to set out each Christmas.  Such a cute idea! Via AllenDesigns or Close2MyHeart 

What we've done the last couple years is put our Christmas cards in a basket - and, we call it our prayer basket.  The goal has been at each meal to pull down the basket and let the girls choose some cards of family and friends to pray for - and rotate through the cards.  Love this idea, if I could just make it a routine - it'd be even greater! 

Moving on to Valentine's...

I saw this cute idea on Jones Design Company.  She has a free template for hearts that are numbered till Valentine's Day. And, she created a banner with just ribbon hanging on each of her children's doors, and each day adds a heart with double stick tape to the ribbon.  And, on the heart she writes something that she loves about each child/husband.  Such a quick, yet cute idea! I'm all about simple fun!

So, using her template, I printed out the hearts, cut them out and then let the girls color them.  Pasted them to some fun paper and hung them on our little wall.  Each day, I'll have the girls tell me something that they love about our family, friends, Jesus - anything related to being loved and loving others and write it on the heart.

I love finding creative ways to do things as a family - and, yes, they must be simple!  A late Merry Christmas - and, and an early Happy Valentine's Day to you and your's!