DIY: Upcycled Christmas Card Prayer Book

I LOVE Christmas. I didn’t always, but it’s become my very favorite holiday! And my favorite part about Christmas? The CARDS!!! It’s so fun to check the mail everyday and find a beautiful sentiment from a dear friend or family member. Especially these days…people sure do get fancy shmancy with their card-sending…oh, myself included! I love making my card every year. It’s a great opportunity to get creative, and even better…a perfect excuse for a photo shoot! In fact, most of the cards I recieved this year included beautiful, amazing family portraits! Gah! I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed each and every one of them. So with all this being said, I just can’t bear to just throw all the cards away once Christmas has come and gone. I can’t do it. So this year I finally figured out the most AWESOME way to reuse those special cards and photographs! Turn them into a prayer book for The Homeschool Room. I want so badly for my children to be rooted and grounded in the power of prayer. Heck, I need this book for myself! The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing” and it’s a really good thought…but in all honesty, how often do you find yourself telling someone “I’ll pray for you!” and you pray that day, maybe once or twice, and then you simply forget? I do it all the time. There’s alot going on in this little brain of mine! Well, I don’t want to forget anymore. Prayer is powerful, because the One whom we pray to is all-powerful! He can do anything! Here are some more scripture references about prayer:
-Psalm 17:6 I am praying to you because I know you will answer, O God. Bend down and listen as I pray.
-Psalm 120:1 I took my troubles to the Lord; I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer.
-Matthew 21:22 You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.
-Luke 5:16 But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.
-Luke 6:28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.
Luke 18:13 But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.
(I love that last one because it reminds me of how lost and destitute I am, but that God still welcomes me to “come boldly to the throne of grace!”)

30 minute DIY Upcycled Christmas Card Prayer Book:
(Did I succeed in giving this tutorial a terribly obnoxious name? Great!)

Supplies you’ll need:
all your photo christmas cards
9×12 construction paper, any color
1 piece scrapbook paper (completely unnecessary, but adds a nice touch!)
tape or a glue stick
hole punch
2 book rings
one or more tape/glue happy children

1. Cut your construction paper in half so you have a good stack of 6×9 paper
2. Hole punch the top corners.
3. Cut your scrapbook paper to size, hole punch it, and sandwich the construction paper with it.
4. Cut out all of those lovely photos!
5. Have your child tape or glue one photo on each paper. I did front and back to cut down on bulk. 😉
6. Send a group email or FB message asking what your friends and family need prayer for and write that on their page. (Unless you already know what they need prayer for! What a great opportunity to regularly pray for those friends and family who are still not saved!)
Jacob really enjoyed helping me out with this, and I can’t wait to teach him (and learn a little bit myself!) more about how important it is to pray.