Christmas Card Holder! Pin.004

I was looking forward to doing this pin, as one of my favourite parts of Christmas is decorating the flat and making it Christmassy! We don't have a tree because we haven't got the space (and I dread to think what would happen to it if our kitty Pandora got her paws on it!)... So we decorate in other ways!

Mrs Dinner Therapy gave me my first Christmas card last week (yes she is eager!) but what to do with it? I know I'll make a Christmas card holder!

I pinned this about 6 weeks ago, thinking 'I bet that's easy to do'. When it came to doing the pin I clicked on the link and it took me to 'The Anderson Crew' which featured a picture of the card holder. Charming blog but shock horror! Where is the tutorial for this pin?! There was none!

So yes.. consider this post a tutorial for 'Make your own Christmas Card Holder', or rather.. 'How not to do it!' I made it up as I went along (as I do with most things!). I did it from scratch, but feel free to find a nice Christmas sign and use that instead!

You will need:
Wood/sturdy cardboard
Sandpaper (if using wood)
Patterned paper
Clear varnish/PVA glue
Pritt Stick or similar
LaserJet or InkJet Printer
Good quality ribbon (2-3m)
Superglue
Pegs

I decided to use another leftover piece of wood as I thought it would be more durable than cardboard. I sanded down the wood first so it was smooth:

And I bought some red spray paint and thought I'd try stenciling on the letters for 'Merry Christmas':

But it came out all blurry like this:

The paint bled into the wood.. I don't know if I should have primed it or something first? Needless to say it didn't look good :-( I sprayed it all over with the red paint, but it also didn't look good! Plus the red paint was reeeeally messy! It also looked a little too much like blood which freaked me out!

I tried stencilling the letters onto silver card, which I would then stick on the wood...

But as you can see this didn't work out either! So I tried painting on the previously painted red wood...

This didn't look good either... so I started again. I used a different piece of wood and I used a template from 'Today's Fabulous Finds' and used the method from one of my previous posts: Paint Stirrer Signs.

I printed on patterned paper, put it in the fridge for about 20 mins or so to dry. I then stuck it onto the wood, and varnished it. The printed ink blurred a little, probably because I didn't let it dry long enough. It looked much better than my previous attempt though!

UPDATE...

Okay so I left it overnight for the varnish to dry and today I added the ribbon...

My original plan was to use my hot glue gun but I found that the glue didn't attach to the ribbon very well, and would peel off if you put too much pressure on the ribbon. So I used superglue instead. I left the ribbon really long, so that I can cut as much off as I need to when it's hung up.

I'm planning on attaching a hook so that I can hang it on the wall, but I need to pop to B&Q to get some. So for now it is sitting on my bookcase. I'm hoping that it will still be there tomorrow morning after Pandora has had free reign of the lounge!

This was tricky... especially if you try do it the way it looks in the picture. Using spray paint and stencils is really time consuming and messy as you have to wait for each letter to dry before you move on. It worked much better printing the image and sticking it onto the wood.. OR even better.. BUY a Christmas sign and attach the ribbon!

It was okay, it didn't help that there was no tutorial, and I really didn't know what I was doing! I think I will attempt stencilling again when I've done a bit of research! I'm fairly happy with it though, and looking forward to hanging it up, and filling it with Christmas cards!

UPDATE... It took a while but here it is hanging proudly on the door, I love it!

Click on the image below to see Pin. 005 'Oh Sew Simple Gift Tags!'. Simple but cute gift tags, suitable for Christmas or Birthdays or whatever!