A Christmas Greeting

From our family to yours...

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Mantel 2011

I'm a little behind the game on posting about our Christmas mantel this year, so let's just pretend I'm fashionably late :)

This year I wanted to incorporate hints of red, yet keep it budget-friendly by using stuff I already had. So here is what I came up with...

I almost always have the mirrors and the shutters up on the mantel, so I just kept them up. 

The book page wreath is one I made a while back using a tutorial from Jones Design Co.  

The lanterns are from Ikea and were only $7.99 each. They were originally black, so I spray painted them cherry red and filled them with some extra ornaments and pinecones we already had.

All of the glass hurricanes were purchased from Ikea a few months back and I just added some red gingham ribbon to a couple of them using double stick tape.

And last, I made the red Christmas sign using a leftover board (from some other project) and some red and white paint.

I purchased all of the stockings last year. The embroidered ones on the ends are from Pottery Barn and the 3 smaller ones in the middle were from Target. To label them with the kids' initials, I made tags using round scrapbook tags, red scrapbook paper and some glitter and tied them on with some gold ribbon.

 

Cheap. Simple. Festive. My kind of mantel.

Linking up to:

Addicted 2 Decorating
Fingerprints on the Fridge 
Hooked on Houses Holiday House Tour 
The Inspired Room's Christmas Home Tour 
Ten June's Christmas Cheer Link Party 
The Corson Cottage Home for the Holidays Link Party 
Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Night Special 
Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up Party 
Be Different Act Normal Show and Tell Saturday

Displaying Christmas Cards

Every year I struggle with what to do with the Christmas cards we receive in the mail.

While we appreciate each one and love receiving them in the mail, 

they usually just end up in a pile on the kitchen counter 

and then {with lots of guilt} get recycled in the new year.

I especially hate getting rid of the photo cards and the handmade ones, 

but I also hate hoarding things that clutter up the house.

So this year I decided to figure out a solution to these problems - 

displaying Christmas cards in a pretty, uncluttered way

and

what to do with the Christmas cards that you hate to toss at the end of the year.

I did some searching to get inspiration for displaying our cards and 

holy moly, 

did I find some super cute ideas!!

 Pretty Handy Girl attaches her cards to shutters using little wooden clothespins.

So easy and cute!

Some great ideas for displaying Christmas cards can be found at BHG, 

like this Christmas Card memo board, 

where cards easily slip behind ribbon attached to a fabric covered cork board.

Centsational Girl also has a unique spin on the cork board turned card holder.

 BHG

How easy would it be to slip your cards into a pretty glass canister!?

This idea would look pretty cute on a kitchen shelf, don't ya think??

 BHG

A vintage painted ladder would be a unique and unexpected card display.

 BHG

To display cards on a wreath like this, simply wrap a straw wreath form with upholstery webbing , securing it in place with small sewing pins. Attach cards with small silver binder clips.

 Centsational Girl also cleverly used jingle bells to hang her cards on display.

 

 Apartment Therapy shows a pretty picture of a traditionally way to hang cards from an evergreen bough.

Country Living shows a cute way to use ribbon to hand cards from a door.

And leave it to Martha to come up with something spectacular!

I liked so many of these ideas, 

that I decided to combine a few elements of some of the above 

to create a card display in our house.

I started with a 15' cedar bough {from Lowe's} 

that I hung {using Command hooks} from our entertainment center in the family room.

Using some little jingle bells and red ribbon {from Michael's},

I tied the bells onto our greenery.

If your pinch the bells together, it makes the slit smaller 

so you can just stick your cards into the bells and they hang onto the cards like a clip would.

Now for what to do with the cards you want to save at the end of the season..

Last year I came across this idea/tutorial 

from For What it's Worth...or Not  

for making your cards into a Christmas keepsake book.

Isn't she clever!?

Why didn't I think of that!?

So here is the book I made last January that holds all of the cards that I couldn't part with. 

I'm looking forward to adding more to it this year!!

And I'm happy that our Christmas cards 

won't be cluttering up my kitchen counter this year :)