I've been wanting a holiday card holder for years! You know the really cute one you see at Pottery Barn. Well this year with coupon in hand I was determined that it would be the only holiday decor purchase I'd make.
After checking and double checking for it online (because I guess the stores don't carry the holiday card holder...randomly) I realized my coupon didn't work online...Dang!!!
So I decided to sleep on the idea of the purchase for a few days.
While I was flipping through my Taste of Home's 2009 Holiday Cookbook last night and randomly thinking about my holiday decor, thanks to to the tips the book offers, my eye drifted to the empty space on the wall that was calling to be filled with the elusive card holder.
And I had a thought..."Could I make my own?"...
After doing a little re-searching online to get a visual I decided to try and make my own.
This morning I headed outside and this is what I came up with.
About three, three foot long, Aspen branches. Each very young in tree maturity with short but yet twiggy sub-branches. The twiggier the better I didn't want the branches to have a uniformed look. I just wanted them to be full but not too unmanageable.
After cleaning the branches up a bit by removing any dead leaves or bugs I grabbed some green floral wire and some red ribbon. I bunched the branches together like a bouquet and secured them with the wire which was then covered by a very simple square knot made from the red ribbon. You can see the camouflaged wire in the pic below.
I mounted the branch bouquet on the wall with two small black hooks, which I had on hand in our random hodgepodge of hardware in the basement, that simply screw into the sheet rock. You could use anything really to adhere the piece to the wall...just use your imagination.
Voila!!! I have a Holiday Card holder and it cost me NOTHING and took about 8 minutes to make! Plus this one is a little better suited for my pinecone/birchwood holiday decor theme anyway! As you can see I can do one of the two things (or both);
I can nestle my cards and photos that I receive amongst the branches or I can hole-punch the cards and add a little ribbon to make each card into an ornament looking piece. Over the course of the next few weeks I may trim up the branches a bit if they become to overwhelming and I also may spruce up the ribbon. But for now I'm very pleased with result and can't wait for the Christmas cards to start arriving (no pressure :) )!






