An easy way to save those holiday cards, letters and photos

I discovered a great new use for one of my kitchen gadgets and just had to share.

Every year, we get a nice stack of holiday cards, letters and photos, which, of course, I want to save. But I usually end up tossing them into a drawer for "later" and, well, later never quite comes. So, this year I decided (with the help of my word of the year - BEGIN) to actually DO something with those holiday wishes.

I have now started a scrapbook album devoted exclusively to our holiday cards and letters. Nothing too fancy - it's basically a binder with clear protective pages where I can slip each item into. All of the items for each year go in one section and I'll add cute index pages for each year once I have a chance to visit a scrapbook supply store. I used a white binder with a clear cover, so when I have time, I can make a cute holiday-themed "cover" to slip inside the front, back and spine "pockets."

The part I wanted to share is how I created the inside pockets for the items that are smaller than a standard-sized page. We don't have any suppliers in our area that offer more than your basic 8.5x11-inch protector. And I wanted a way to store smaller sized photos and cards without using a whole protector page for each. I knew (from experience!) if I wait until I could go shopping for specialized pages, the project would never get started. So, I used my vacuum heat sealer from the kitchen to create my own pockets on the pages.

I enjoy freezer cooking and was fortunate to receive a Foodsaver Professional III sealer last year for Christmas. But I'm guessing just about any sealer would work if it has the option of sealing without "vacuuming." Basically, I just laid my protector page in the sealer where I wanted a side seam and then used the manual seal option on setting 3 for heat sealing time. I sealed the top of the page closed, then added seams to make smaller pockets within, depending on what specific items I wanted to put in each page. To make openings to slide the items in, I then used my rotary paper cutter and removed the original seam from one side of the page. It worked really well and I plan to use this method again for my other scrapbooking projects, especially when I'm in a hurry and don't want to wait for an order of special pocket pages to arrive by mail.

Now that this album is started, it should be easy next year to just add another section. Plus, this will make it much easier to go back from year to year and see how people have changed!