Christmas Cards

My husband and I were at a thrift store a few months before Christmas and they had card sets with Stampin' Up paper, envelopes, and stickers in them for 50 cents. I bought two of them. They also had Stampin' Up rub-ons that are about time for the same price, which I bought one of. There was a lady behind me that got the remaining sets (or at least most of them). I probably should have picked up a few more of the cards sets, but I think I then would have been overwhelmed. Here are the cards I made. I also used ribbon from my stash and some stamps. Some of the cards I used Stampin' Up stamping wheels on them. The sticker set came with a bird sticker, a sticker with a house on it that says "Tis the Season" and the oval one has trees on it and says "To You and Yours." I liked the way these turned out. I used the Versamark stamping pad for the wheels to make it a subtle background. The sticker set came with red and green cards, cream, red and green cardstock rectangles to put on the cards, and green and blue grosgrain ribbon. There was also blue gingham ribbon included. The border stickers around the patterned paper on the cards also came in the package. The card on the right in the first picture has a stamp that says "Wishing you sparkle, wishing you cheer, for a bright Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" that is also Stampin' Up. I do love the ornament stamp on that card also. Our Christmas card list is longer than the cards I was able to make with these kits, so some people got homemade cards and some people got foil cards we bought at Target last year.

Ribbon organization

Last summer I participated in a craft fair with my mom. Before I went to the fair, I wandered around Home Depot for a while, trying to figure out a good way to display my cards. A very nice and helpful employee took interest and helped me make a card display unit from two shelving brackets and a few dowels. I ended up using it a little differently than we made it in the store (see it here), but it worked to display some of my favorite cards. It's been sitting in my craft closet since then, just taking up space. About a month and a half ago, I put it back together, using the dowels to connect the two shelf brackets. I then stapled all of my ribbon that was longer than 12 inches around the dowel. I hung it on my wall, but some of the ribbon was so long it pooled at the floor, even though the display was hanging at about 5 feet 10 inches or so off the ground. So on the really long ribbon pieces, I folded them around my fingers and then held the resulting "ball" to the ribbon trailing from the dowel with a clothes pin. I think it looks very pretty hanging on my wall, and now that I can see my ribbon, instead of it being hidden away in baggies in a basket on my bookshelf, I'm actually using it more often. I still have a few bits and pieces of ribbon in the baggies, so it'll be hard to remember to use them. As I type this, I just thought that maybe I should hang the baggie rings on the dowels also, so that I have all of my ribbon and fibers in one place.

As I look at this pictures, I realize I need to maybe get a shelf to go on top of the brackets. It'll provide some more storage space in my room, and will make it look a little more finished. I also need to paint the brackets and maybe the dowels. But that would mean taking it all apart, so it'll probably not happen for a while.

Danielle