A Crafty Christmas

Guess who actually had a successful crafting project for once?  Yep, it's yours truly! I rarely blog about crafting becuase (a) I hardly ever do it and (b) my project usually ends up looking like a kindergartner made it. I'm the person who would rather spend the extra money to buy something already made than save some money but spend my time working on something that, in all honestly, ends up looking homemade. So many crafters out there make things that  could be sold in stores, but I was not born with that gene. But alas, from time to time, I do try.

Last week our mom's group had a Pinterest party, which is pretty ironic that I went considering my thoughts on Pinterest. But more than anything, it was just a fun reason to get together. Since I don't Pinterest, I surfed some blogs and saw a bulletin board covered in fabric and ribbon, used to display Christmas cards, and thought it looked easy enough (seen here). Plus, I love looking at all of our cards and have absolutely no good place to put them up in this house.

I went a bit rogue once I got to JoAnn's (probably due to a curious 1-year-old running amok in the store... who knew Lilly would find crafting supplies so exciting!) and ended up purchasing a thick piece of rectangular styrafoam, 1 1/2 yards of fabric, a spool of ribbon, buttons, thread, and a needle. All told, I probably spent around $25, mainly due to the fabric.

The actual Pinterest party was a blast... this is the second time we've had one. Basically, everyone picks a craft and makes two of the same thing, or if they run out of time, they make one and have all of the supplies in a bundle along with instructions to make a second. We hang out, eat, make our crafts, and at the end we either exchange one of the finished crafts or the project bundle for someone to make at home. This party was Christmas-themed, so we had our holiday tunes blaring, hot coffee, and plenty of festive snacks... it felt so festive and really got me in the holiday spirit, which has been difficult to do this year for some reason. And after some debate, I ended up fabric gluing the cloth to the styrofoam and literally sewed the buttons on through it. I chickened out on the snowflak pattern and ended up with this:

 

I must say, I was quite impressed with myself, and since it didn't take too terribly long I decided to give it away in our exchange and make the one for my own house at home. As a sidenote, I took home a jar of homemade brown sugar body scrub that smells delicious and leaves my hands and feet so silky smooth! I would share how to make it, but I forgot to grab the directions. But back to this...

 

At home I got a little bit braver with the design and thought a Christmas tree pattern would be simple enough. Here is how it turned out:

The ribbon is literally sewn on through the styrofoam backing. It was kind of hard to find the button holes and I poked myself a lot, but it worked:

 

I'm sure I could've used hot glue and it would've been fine, but I could not find my hot glue gun. I added the cards, sliding some through the ribbon and used a couple of thumb tacks for the others, especially the heavier ones. Anyway, I still need to add a piece of ribbon to be the "trunk," but all in all I think it dresses up a blank wall in our dining room and I love how it looks with the cards:

And I bet some of my blogging friends can spot themselves on display:

I have to say that this has reinstilled my faith in my crafting ability... there is hope! I probably won't attempt anything more this season, but next year I have my eye on this wreath that was made at our party, and was surprisingly super simple (and under $20) to make! (sorry for the picture discoloration)

 

But for now, I think I'll just quit while I'm ahead. How do you display your cards each year?