Creative Ways to Display Christmas Cards

When you get those beautiful Christmas cards in the mail from family and friends this year, consider making them part of your holiday decor.  You can make a simple card display that can be easily sized to accommodate any number of cards. I've included some ideas to create a display as well as ideas for how to "upcycle" your cards once the holidays are over.

Ribbon & Clothespin Card Holder

For this super-simple project all you need is clothespins (the clip kind), something to color the pins with, liquid adhesive, ribbon and the embellishments of your choice (around 3" in diameter works best).

The first step is to pick out or create the embellishments you want to use. You need one embellishment for each clothespin. The more clips you make, the more cards your design will hold. You can make all the embellishments the same, as I did here, or you can vary them for a unique look. I made these embellishments using the Snow Angel cartridge for the Cricut Imagine, and then added Waterfall Stickles for some shine. I used pop dots on the embellishment centers.

Some other ideas for embellishments would be using a 3-inch scalloped circle punch and placing round embellishments on top or using large flowers. You could also use a holiday stamped image. Use your imagination and design embellishments that go with your holiday decor.

Once you've chosen a color scheme, the next step is coloring the clothespins to coordinate with your embellishments. In this example I just colored them with a permanent marker. You could paint them, ink them, spray them with Glimmer Mist or even cover them with holiday-themed patterned paper.

Once your embellishments are assembled and your clothespins are dry, attach the embellishment to the clothespins using a strong liquid adhesive.

Cut your ribbon to the desired length. You can always add more on later (just tie the knots so they can't be seen behind the attached cards). Attach the clips to the ribbon using a strong liquid adhesive.

You can hang your holder over a door frame, or if you want to hang it by itself on a wall you may want to add a large embellishment to the top to hang the ribbon from. I chose a larger version of the same embellishment for my topper. You may want to choose something wide enough to allow you to add additional ribbons and clips as you get more cards.

Here are some other examples and ideas for creative ways to display your cards.

From the Scrapjazz Gallery:

Gift Card Holder by Aconant44 - This would be a fabulous way to display cards on a desk or counter.

Holiday Card Holder by From the Heart - This is similar to the example above but doesn't require the step of coloring and embellishing the clothespins. It's fast and easy!

Hybrid altered box for Christmas Card display by Scrappycath is another easy idea that will keep your cards more compactly on a flat surface if you don't want a large wall display.

Other Ideas:

• Wrap tinsel or garland around a banister and attach the cards to that. Use colored clothespins or punch a hole in the top of each card and attach with ribbon.
• String ribbon or yarn across the front of a mirror or frame and attach the ends to the back. Display the cards by clipping them on or attaching the cards directly with glue dots.

So what to do with those beautiful cards after the holidays are over? Here are a few options:

• Make them into their own mini-album. Using a Cinch or other binding system, add a binding to them and make them into a book. Add a cover with the year.
• Take the cards with photos on them and crop them to create a scrapbook layout. Be sure to record the names and the year!
• If you don't want to keep your cards, consider how you could repurpose them into scrapbook embellishments. For example, you could use a punch and punch out pretty accents to use on your layouts or even for your own Christmas cards next year.