display your holiday cards

In order to celebrate the season the best way I know how, I'll be posting the 12 Days of DIY December here. Check back every day for something new to make, bake, or create to get ready for Christmas!

Yesterday we talked about making holiday cards, so now it's time to hit the flipside - how are you going to show off the cards that you receive?

There are plenty of inventive DIY options for displaying holiday cards. You can, of course, set them up on a mantel or windowsill for simple admiration. Just sit back and bask in the glow (or, more likely, spend your time doing some other holiday task!)

Or, you can mix it up a bit! Last year, I kept it very simple...simple enough that I feel a little silly calling it a "project," but hey. It's my blog!

I bought a set of Christmas ribbons at Michaels and created a little card garland to hang on the wall. I used one pattern for the length of the garland and used another pattern to create two little bows to hang on each end. Then we hung the cards up with binder clips. If I do this again this year, I would pick wider ribbon for more dramatic effect (and to sustain the weight of the cards - oof!), and I would love to get more Christmassy clips; perhaps red binder clips or red & green paper clips would do the trick! This option was, as I said, ridiculously easy, but also made sense since (being the first Christmas my roommate and I spent in our apartment) I had no idea how many cards we would get! It turned out to be more than I expected! I had planned the length of the garland to not dwarf the few cards I was planning to get, but it was great to be able to add more and more.

Another easy way to display holiday cards is on the fridge; you might have seasonal magnets already, but if not, why not DIY some adorable ornament magnets like these from Young House Love?

One of my favorite card display options is the classic clothespin wreath.



We have one of these at my parents' house, and you get to display your cards AND have another wreath in your house at the same time! What's not to love? I'm not sure if I'll have time to make one this year, but it's much easier to make than I would have expected! Plus it's one of those things that you'll use year after year once you've made it.