12 Days of Dhristmas 2014 - Day Six

Day 6 is a timely project. I haven't even made my Christmas cards yet, but I know that many of you have and are receiving some of your own, so today's project is a card holder swag. It's very, very simple and takes very little time, but looks really cute. I bought a roll of this burlap ribbon with red sparkly snowflakes on it. I had no idea what I was going to use it for, but I knew I would. It was $1.98 at Wal*Mart for 15 feet, which was exactly what I needed!. I happened to have a part of a package of clothespins left from last year, and the paper came from my stash! I used 22 clothespins because I put 1 in between the Merry and the Christmas and 4 extras at each end. You might want more than that, or maybe less, that's up to you. It turned out to be about 7 feet long, but that's okay because I have this big, long wall to put it on! It can be shortened just by moving the clothespins closer.

You start by covering one side of the clothespins with a small print or solid color paper. I used an off-white background with little red polka dots. (I love polka dots!) I used two punches to make my circles....a 2" flower punch, which you've seen me use before, and a circle punch that is 1 1/2". Glue the smaller circle to the larger one and then get out your alphabets.

Choose your letters to spell Merry Christmas. You can see that I used both upper and lower case letters, mixing them up. That was partly because I like it that way and partly because I didn't have enough of either one to do the whole thing!  lol   Glue your letters to your circles and then glue the circles to the clothespins.

I tied 2 bows and fastened them to the ends of the swag so that it looked more finished. Clip your clothespins to your ribbon and that's it! You have a fantastic looking card holder swag!!

I've never really had much of a system for displaying my cards. I usually just taped them to a wall or around a door frame, but now they have a place of honor!

I leave you today with this thought: Christmas isn't toys or presents or even a tree with decorations. It's a celebration of life. The life of Christ in particular. If the world would remember that more and worry about the other stuff less, we wouldn't have so many wars and so much crime.  It would definitely be a better place to raise the future generations!

Here's a quote that I really like. "They err who think that Sants Claus comes down through the chimney; he really enters through the heart."                                              Mrs. Paul M. Ell

Have a nice Saturday and I'll see you tomorrow.