Paper garland...Do we take Xmas cards for granted? I sure don't! I just love them!! I get all excited when we receive them. Will it have a wonderful pastoral scene? Or better yet, glitter? Oh, I do love the glitter ones. Or maybe something funny? Or whimsy? Or some adorable woodland animals? They are just so much fun to get! Of course, the fact that they come from loved ones and family and friends... well, that's nice, too! But can you imagine what a cool thing it would be to get these colorful little creations say, 100 years ago? What a treasure! I do have a problem with them, though. I can't bear to part with them. Just throw them away? Oh, say it never comes to that!! This is just one of the uses we have found for cards around our house. We make garlands out of them. Isn't it just too festive and fun? We crop them down to a nice size- I love the cropper- it has done for scrapbooking what rotary cutters have done for quilting. Sometimes, we even get 2-3 peices from a card. We punch holes in the upper corners and string them on satin ribbon- I get a whole roll for 50 cents. Ivory usually looks best, I think, but blue would be pretty as well as traditional green or red. I go under the card with my ribbon so that it doesn't cover any of the picture. They look great over the mantle- if you have one, or across a window sill or sash. I have ours hanging on the wainscoting. We also make gift tags from them and even hang them on the tree- very pretty. But the one most people rave over is the garland. It makes a really wonderful, homemade, thoughtful gift- at no expense! It is kind of victorian and just charming. And it saves a beautiful peice of paper from being thrown away. So it's "green", too. Cool.
8 comments:
I love this--I tape all our cards to the doorways in the house, and love walking through the decorations--I will use your idea at the end of the season and save them for next year.
What a great idea. We used to put ours up on the wall opposite the front door, in the shape of a Christmas tree. I saved them every year to use in classroom crafts the following year. I like the gift tag idea, too.
Your card garland is a wonderful idea. It would certainly make them reuseable, and would prevent tape marks on the paint. I usually tape my cards up around a coat closet door, right across from the front door, and sometimes it is the only decorations we get. I'm not so good at regularly sending cards, so sometimes they are sparse, but I save those from previous years as well.
I like the Christmas card garland - great idea.
Great idea. I would never have thought of this.
That IS a charming idea!!! Have I ever told you that you're genius?!
Hugs to you, my "green" friend!
It is GREAT! One year I did some temp work at a big company and after Christmas someone was gathering up all the cards to toss - I asked for them and did ALL kinds of stuff with them!!! Over 500 cards!!! I love your garland idea!!!
Cheers!
Evelyn
Great idea about the ribbon and hole puncher! I've just been using tape but will do differnt next year.
I do want to share with you an idea though... nearly 30 years ago, well maybe not that long b/c I'm 33 adn I remember it.. so maybe I was 5 or 6.. anyway - my Momma Newt made us all Christmas Tree Skirts for our trees. One for each family and b/c I was the youngest grandkid and she knew I had my own tree in my room (a small 3 foot one) she made a smaller size for my tree.
The tree skirts were made from felt and the she decorated them with cutouts from all the many Christmas cards she had received over the years. She even decorated aroudn them adding sequins, beads, glitter... each skirt unique and special! When she was done decorating them she used a netting to cover over top and good thing too b/c now nearly 30 years later I don't think there woudl have remained many sequins had the netting not been there.
Oh and she also used a fancy trim along the edge... which was probably for her the most expensive part of the project.
A few years ago, a friend I worked with at the time was helping me decorate my tree b/c my husband was out of town.. and she laughed her head off at my "ugly" tree skirt. She said it was hiddious. I let her say everything then after she was done explained to her the specialness of it and what it meant to me. I love it. It is better than anything you can buy at the store.
I just wonder of the 20+ tree skirts that Momma Newt made for all of us, how many of my cousins are still using theirs? or have they replaced them with more modern ones...
Maybe this could be a craft for you and your children to make some year... and maybe take turns putting a different one out each year and then one day when they move out and are on their own they woudl have their tree skirt to take with them... ;)
Merry Christmas from Texas! ~Bonnie
PS - I love reading all about the Birthday feasts and have shared your idea with several other moms. ;)
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