{Christmas Card Display}

Don’t you just love getting things in the mail? I really hope that email never truly takes over snail mail. It may be slow, but doesn’t it feel more personal? To me it does. It always brightens my day to get a letter or package in the mail. Especially at Christmas time. I love seeing all the cute cards with the darling pictures of loved ones and friends. If only there was a way to display them.

Recently, I needed one thing at Micheal’s but they were having a coupon that was $5 off of a $25 purchase so naturally, I had to spend $25. As I was walking around looking at all the Christmas ribbon, ornaments, and garlands. I had a plan pop into my head. I needed to make a contraption to display all the lovely Christmas cards, I’m hoping to get in the mail. Here is a tutorial of my card displaying solution.

First: Gather your supplies

• wooden frame
• clothes pins
• paint & paint brush
• ribbon
• hot glue gun & glue
• glitter
• thin cardboard

I was so excited that I painted the frame red without taking any pictures. Just so you know, it was a wooden frame that I bought at Micheal’s for $1.49. I thought it was a pretty sweet deal. Second, paint your frame or you could leave it just as wood and use varnish to kind of distress it a bit.

Third, paint and glitter your clothes pins. I used small clothes pins. They were pretty cute as is, but I wanted some color. I painted these babies red and green just on the side that would be facing out with the cards pinned to the ribbon. I took half of the pins off of the cardboard. Mistake. Keep them on the cardboard or pin them to something a little sturdy while you paint them. It was so much easier than painting them each individually (Notice all the green paint on my fingers, but please ignore the fact that I really really need a manicure).

I painted each pin with two coats. If you are using acrylic paint it dies fairly quickly so give them a quick coat. Do something else for 15 minutes and come back to check if they are dry. When they are, do a second coat. Right after the second coat I just sprinkled glitter on the wet paint using my fingers. Then leave the pins to dry more completely.

Next, I used hot glue to attach a green pin to the frame to hold my family Christmas card. Maybe I am a little self-centered here, but when people come to my house I don’t want them just to enjoy all of my relative’s cards, but mine as well. I don’t send a Christmas card to everyone I know. Just to the closest people, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want them to miss out on the opportunity to enjoy our Christmas wishes.

After your pin is glued on, turn your frame over to get ready to add the ribbon. Roughly measure how long your ribbon should be. This will depend on where you are hanging your display. I am hanging mine on the outside door of our coat closet. I went down a lot, but didn’t want it too close to the ground (you can always trim it later if you want to).

Now that you have your ribbon ready, get a narrow strip of thin cardboard to glue your ribbon to. Then you will glue the cardboard and ribbon to the frame. Fold your ribbon around the cardboard and glue on both sides. Then clue the cardboard and ribbon to the bottom of the backside of the frame directly under where you glued your pin in the center of the top.

Almost done! My ribbon was very thick so I folded it in thirds and glued the ends so that it would stay together. You could use a smaller ribbon but, I wanted mine to be the same so I improvised. After the ribbon is in thirds fold it around to make a loop. Glue the two ends together. Grab another thin piece of cardboard and glue the loop to the cardboard. Finally glue the loop and cardboard to the back of the frame right behind the main pin. Make sure the loop is facing the right direction before you glue.

Last things! Hang your display on the back of a door or on the wall. Just pin in your favorite Christmas card. Then as you receive the adorable cards featuring cousins, nieces and nephews, and friends pin them to the ribbon and enjoy all season long.

How do you display your cards? I would love to hear. Enjoy and have fun!

I’m linking up with: House of Hepworths & The 36th Avenue & Chic on a Shoestring Budget & It’s a Hodgepodge Life & My Romantic Home & Craft-o-Maniac & Today’s Creative Blog & Skip to My Lou & Sew Chatty.

Be sure to check out these fun sites they will give you lots of great ideas!