decorating with Christmas cards

Dear readers, I have been dealing with what my husband has been referring to as my "Christmas train wreck." As in all those crazy tasks and crafts and such that I happily assumed would be easy to check off my list piling up into a wreck! I think I am going to have to do my Christmas cards in August next year or something. I definitely don't have it all under control this time around! Hence, the lack of attention to this blog. I've had some stuff cooking though so you can look forward to some posts this week.

I know decorating with greeting cards is a topic I have covered on this blog before but I can't help but show you what I artfully arranged this year. I think being a graphic designer and a fan of art in general makes me especially attuned to the cards I love. So I keep them from year to year for displaying and use in crafting.

This year, I have several themed areas in the living room. For example, I have a red snowman plate (so appropriate near my red couch!). He's friendly and cheerful so I arranged some equally fun snowman-themed cards near him.

I grouped these two bright, graphic cards near a family photo. (Here's a great tutorial from Maker Mama for making those paper balls if you are so inspired!)

What belongs with the book Mary: Images of the Holy Mother? Cards featuring depictions of Mary of course!

This year I tried my largest nativity set on my white shelves instead of on a table. I actually think it's a nice (safe!) spot for it. The pieces spread across several shelves. I filled in the edges with appropriate Christmas card art. Above, a gathering of stars and angels.

more decorating with Christmas cards

I always save my favorite Christmas cards and rehang them on my lovely French doors (one per pane) but this decorating season I have used them in new ways.

I like to tuck them in various places: a long horizontal card on the windowsill above the kitchen sink, two featuring my "cow cat" sitting on a side table, one with calligraphy text depicting the various names of Jesus near a large letter A that I display year round, a cheery snowman card near a cheery snowman decoration and so on.

Here, the lavender robes of this Mary illustration and the tall, thin orientation of the card mimic the antique glass bottle I already had on display. And now that I am looking at the photo again, I notice that the floral pattern and gold found within the plate also pick up on details in the card.

Something new for me this year was using them on my mantle. I sorted out all of the old cards featuring Christmas tree designs and aligned them on top of my garland.

crafting for the Library – ornamental balls

The Library hosted a series of craft programs after this year's Santa Claus Parade. I volunteered my time (I know, what was I thinking?) and pre-made some items and then was on hand to help with the actual event.

The Martha craft that I got quite obsessed with was making ornamental balls. The suggestion is to use old Christmas cards. I also did some using paint chip samples, Celebration of the Book brochures, invitations, and other miscellaneous cards I happened to have kept. It is a fabulous way to use scraps. I think any slightly heavy paper item will do.

I invested in a 2" paper punch for cutting out the circles. Each ornamental ball is made of 20 circles upon which you score an equilateral triangle and then fold up the flaps. There is no way I would have the patience to carefully cut out each circle!

After that, it's just a matter of gluing! There are 5 that point in towards each other to make a "helmet" shape. You do this once for the top and again for the bottom. With the remaining 10, you simply glue them in a row alternating pointing up and down. Glue that into a loop and then glue on the top and bottom and you have an ornamental ball!

Here is a finished product nestled in the Christmas tree:

a few of my favorite things

On top of a shelf in the bathroom you'll find a few of my favorite things:

Evergreens.
I enthused about them a few weeks ago. A simple and inexpensive item to incorporate into your seasonal decor.

Milk glass.
I really like the look and feel of those little bumps! In my experience, milk glass is abundant and inexpensive at antique stores. Think multiples on the mantle like I did here, especially if your house has white trim like mine.

Bright red against blue.
A color combination that seems to come up in my house again and again!

Little birdies.
Also – I love and adore the art of Genine, who also shares my adoration of our feathered friends. Check out her blog too if you have not before. I am quite sure I have mentioned her before on this blog.

Reused Christmas cards.
A clustered group sharing the red bird theme. As I have written about before, saving and reusing favorite cards is another easy-on-the-earth, easy-on-the-budget way to decorate.

in progress

I've got a few creative projects in the works. Here's a peek – proof I am keeping up on my personal art.

I have a few scrapbooks that I tend to once a year. One for Halloween pics, one for Christmas pics, and this one which I refer to as "the family scrapbook." It gathers a year's worth of refrigerator art, Christmas cards, party invitations, funny notes, and the like into one place. More like a genuine old-fashioned scrapbook before the advent of paper shapes and fancy stickers.

This is going to be a doll quilt to match my daughter's bedroom quilt. Hopefully the small size means I won't be spending 18 months on it! The new favorite doll has been named "Sweetie Love." Isn't that cute?

crafting for the Library – card tree

In another Martha-inspired moment I sought to recreate her card tree. First you hunt down a collection of branches and a favorite vase or bucket. Then you choose a variety of Christmas card fronts and either use them whole or cut smaller shapes from them. A simple hole punch, some ribbon, and perhaps a bead and you've created custom ornaments. Some sort of rocks or gravel will probably help to stabilize your branches.

For my tree I stuck to a specific color scheme – blues and teals. This made it easier to sort my cards and select the ones I would ultimately use. For the most part my ribbon was too thick for the beads I had so for a few I chose to use thread.

Like all my artistic endeavors, it took me longer than I expected. However, it's a fairly simple craft and a great way to make use of favorite cards from years past. My finishing touch was a partially full box of vintage blue Christmas bulbs (another treasure from my mom's bountiful basement!).

Christmas card inspiration

My favorites from the Met Museums's catalog:

The colorful, free illustrations by Andy Warhol (he's more than soup cans!), the elegant ornamentation of Aubrey Beardsley's angels, and the adorable partridge by Eyvind Earle.

I won't be buying traditional cards this year because I'll be doing photo cards but if I were to buy some they might look like these. And I am very inspired by those angels. One of these days I am going to get back to doing some linocutting and that style seems to lend itself to that medium.

frugal festive food gift

The past few years my husband, our household chef, has whipped up multiple batches of a delicious chai tea mix. We give it as thank you gifts to various service people: the mail lady, the newspaper delivery people, our family hair stylist, the staff at our branch library, our pastors, our dentist, our pediatrician, and so on. I think my favorite was the time we gave jars to the women who were preparing our Christmas morning breakfast at the hotel we were staying at over the holidays. They were so pleased to have a gift. No matter how many jars he makes I find more people to gift them too!

I was getting them ready to go when I realized how very fabulously frugal this gift was. Since I just entered November budget data I can confidently say that the jars cost about a dollar each in grocery costs. And the packaging costs me next to nothing.

The glass jars with cheery red lids are from my favorite peanut butter of which I consume quite a bit. Some people start their day with coffee; I start mine with peanut butter toast.

The tags are punched out from old greeting cards. The punch was a gift to me and I am quite pleased to have it. I imagine I will get years of use out of it.

And, I will confess, I even bought the curling ribbon at a thrift store years ago. Hee.

happy hearts at home

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are some photos of how we decorate using our homemade heart hangers, valentine cards, and a few simple red cardboard hearts. Plus, I left my old window up on the mantel from Christmas time and re-purposed that for a change.