Christmas cards and gift tags no more…

I'm cheap and didn’t want to buy thank you cards for the Christmas presents we received this year. I also don’t like throwing things away. So I had a solution for both of those problems. Turn the Christmas tags and cards I had gotten into thank you cards! I began with a pack of plain white cards and envelopes. I already had these, but if you don’t, you can buy 50 of them for under $10 on amazon.com.

What started as a "Season's Greetings" card with an adorable snowman on it, ended up as a simple thank you card. I used my paper cutter to cut the snowman off from the front of the card, and double-sided tape to stick it onto my blank white card. 

Pretty gift tags are the easiest to work with because usually the writing is on the back of the tag. I had a few tags from last Christmas that worked perfectly.

 



One card I left almost as is, just cutting out the front and putting it on a blank card.

I used the back of the card and a small piece of wrapping paper to make a second card as well.

A Charlie Brown card fit perfectly on a blank card once I cut off the greeting.

I used two cards to make the next one - the front of one and the back of a second.

 

This would work well with wrapping paper or ribbon as well. Be creative!

DIY Indoor Christmas Wreaths

While reading the December issue of Martha Stewart Living, I saw a picture of five homemade wreaths made of greenery and red ribbon hanging inside in a window. I thought this would be the perfect solution for my wall of mirrors in the dining room. I had some twiggy garland that I hadn’t used for any decorations and decided to cut it up into five pieces to form my wreaths. I used rubber bands to make each piece of garland into a circle. They were all a little bit different sizes, which I wanted. I didn't want it to look too perfect.

Following Martha’s instructions (although she used embroidery hoops as her base), I used a hot glue gun to glue cedar branches that I had collected from my parents’ house onto the wreath. Using a hot glue gun turned out to work very well and it was so easy. Each wreath took about 5-10 minutes and cost me nothing, as I had all the supplies already! I had red velvet ribbon that I knew would be perfect for hanging the wreaths. I cut the ribbon to the desired lengths (this took some adjusting, as the first time it looked too symmetric). Then, I nailed the ribbon at the top in the corner where the wall meets the ceiling with small wire nails.

I love how the mirrored wall is no longer the focus, but instead the natural, beautiful wreaths are. I just need to think of a way to use this idea for other times of year…

Brown Paper Packages Tied up With String...

Ok, I really don’t like that song, but as I was wrapping presents I couldn’t get it out of my head. I decided to wrap my Christmas presents in brown paper this year. I hate not having wrapping paper for the other times of year because all I have is Christmas paper, so this year, I decided to buy a roll of brown paper, and that could serve as my everything paper – birthdays, Christmas, and whatever else I happened to want to wrap. You can buy brown paper from Target or any other store that selling wrapping paper or mailing supplies. I love how thick it is compared to some of the thin cheap wrapping paper out there. I think this idea would be beautiful with white paper as well.

Not only is it economical, but I think it looks beautiful to have such simple presents under the tree.  I love the look of all the paper looking the same so the beautiful ribbon can stand out. And saving money on wrapping paper allowed me to spend money on ribbon. I bought various types of ribbon that I have mixed and matched. My favorites are the red and white raffia and the scalloped felt ribbon from World Market. These are a few of my favorite things...

Merry Christmas!