December 6th ~ Christmas Cards

Ah...the proverbial Christmas card. That is my Advent activity for the day. Not taking the picture nor writing them but crafting a fun Christmas card holder that you can use to festively display the beautiful cards that you receive at this time of year. One of my favorite activities of Christmas is picking out and then writing the Christmas cards. Before photo cards took over, I used to spend hours at various card stores to pick out the right combination of verse, design and overall feeling that the card conveyed. I still do that but it has changed somewhat with the stress of first taking the " perfect" family picture. Come on, admit it...Haven't we all yelled, "Smile!" through gritted teeth as Tommy engages Johny in a strangle hold for the tenth time? Dressed the kids up in matching outfits at least once to hear their wines and groans about why they had to look like this? That is for another blog.

Clothespins...love these little guys. They are totally functional but can be dressed up as well, if needed, to do the job.

To give them some glam with glitter, spread them out on a sheet of wax paper and line them up. 

Use a can of spray adhesive and spray it on 5 or 6 clothespins at a time. (It dries quickly)

Pour glitter of your choice on top of the clothespin and shake off excess onto wax paper. Repeat until they are all covered. Once finished with the whole batch, spray a sealer on top to set the glitter and you are all set. Clean up is easy using the wax paper. I take the clothespins off once dry and then pour the unused glitter back into the container. 

!Words of caution...whenever using glitter please check the face area before going out in public, it has its way of sticking there with the owner of said face unaware of its presence.)

Here I put the clothespins in these simple little muslin bags and topped them with a finished clip to alert you to what color was inside the bag. Now what does this have to do with the Christmas card you ask?

Tie a length of twine onto the bag and attach a stamped tag and you have a ready made Christmas Card hanging kit! They make cute little gifts and we have them here at the barn. Just string the twine across your doorway and you have a place to clip those beautiful," tons of effort used to produce those buggers"...Christmas cards on.

Joy to the World!

Meg