I read this interesting article/blog on either Facebook or via Pintrest and I thought it was a wonderful idea and it got me thinking...
The article or blog post was about creating an accomplishment jar and writing down your accomplishments on a piece of paper and placing them in the jar. You start on January 1 and on New Years Eve you read them all back and reflect on your year. What a great idea as we all get so busy we often forget what we've done and how far we've come. My twist on this would be to start at Thanksgiving. Each family would go home with their jar to write down things that they are thankful for or accomplishments like my niece just started Kindergarten and she's learning to read already - what a great accomplishment! Or the fact that my husbands GRANDPARENTS are still alive and have moved to be near us, what a great thing to be thankful for. So each family would collect their items in their jars all year long and the next Thanksgiving we'd read them all out loud at the table and have the opportunity to relish each others accomplishments and to be grateful for another year together. What a great tradition to start.
Thanksgiving really starts the Christmas push in retail stores and for us bloggers. However, I blog in real time. Nope I don't have my tree up yet but I have purchased things for making crafts and some decorations for the holiday like a new tree for our basement family room. I got a flocked tree this year and I've decided to decorate it in black, red and white and use burlap for a more rustic lodge feel. I am looking forward to the challenge of a more traditional color for a tree. Our big upstairs tree is done in all blues, white and silver as is the entire house so this will be a big departure for me and I'm really excited about it. I bought some dollar store ornaments that I am going to paint with black chalkboard paint and write on them. I think they'll look great on the tree.
In thinking about decorating this tree I wanted it to look more handmade and be unique as well as inexpensive. I mean ornaments can get pricey and when you think about what they really are the cost doesn't always seem justified. I am a BIG believer is shopping off season to save money but sometimes you just can't. I was at Hobby Lobby the other day and found a really cute ornament; it was a set of wooden ski's that were about 6 inches long. They were $12.99! YIKES! I mean I could make them out of leftover pieces of wood cheaper than that! So this got me to thinking about how I could decorate this little downstairs tree cheaply. Like I said I got the dollar store ornaments and I'm going to paint them with blackboard paint. I may take some and wrap them in a buffalo check material if I can find some really cheap. I was in Michael's looking around and found some cards in the dollar spot and got really inspired. Look what I made!
I made a banner out of dollar cards!
You could do this with any card but I chose these as they fit my theme exactly - heck they were the inspiration for it!
You can do this easy craft.
You will need:
1. Cards - I got mine from the dollar spot at Michael's but you could use any kind of card you want.
2. Craft glue
3. Cardstock paper - I chose red. Now you could use the envelopes that come with the cards but I felt they were a bit flimsy.
4. Scissors or a paper cutter
5. Ribbon or twine or something to hook the cards together.
6. Hole punch
Let's begin.
Step 1 - cut your cardstock to the appropriate size you want using the paper cutter or your scissors.
Step 2 - Cut the card - I cut the back off my cards.
I've got another idea for the backs of the cards so I saved mine.
Step 3 - Glue - using your craft glue, glue the card to the backing.
Step 4 - Using your hole punch - punch a hole in each side of the card. Now if you want to use these as ornaments punch your holes in the top. I am making a banner as I think the cards are a bit big for my tree as an ornament so I punched in the sides.
Step 5 - Slide your ribbon or twine through each hole to connect your banner together. You can do this two ways. Cut a long length of ribbon or twine longer than the cards laid out and starting at one end wind your way through so all the cards are connected.
If you are making ornaments you would cut a length or twine or ribbon and slip it through one hole then knot it. Decide how long you want your loop for hanging and cut the ribbon/twine and slip it through the other hole and knot it to make a loop.
I cut a longer length of ribbon for each end and shorter ones for each center and tied a simple knot to hook the cards together because I liked the look.
That is it! Now you can display your banner or ornaments on your tree!
I promise to show you mine on the tree once I get it up. I had 2 packs of 6 cards each. I made a smaller banner with 5 of the cards and a longer one with the rest of the cards. For the size of my cards I got 4 on one sheet of cardstock.
You could do this with any kind of card - I'm on the lookout for black and white cards of snow, mountains and or trees to make ornaments. If I find some of trees I can cut them out and using the backs of these cards as a background make either ornaments or another banner.
You can also use pictures off the internet that aren't under copy write or don't have a restriction attached to them.
This would also look great with family pictures. I would make copies of the family pictures first but imagine an entire tree decorated with pictures of the family! How cute.
Heck these turned out so good you could hang them off your mantle or buffet or china cabinet! The possibilities are endless.
Well that is it for today. I hope I've inspired you and got you thinking about decorating with things other than the traditional ornaments.
I'll be back next week with another Christmas craft and ideas galore! Until then, Stay Safe!
Victoria
Thanks so much for reading, I really appreciate you stopping by and your support. If you like what you've read please let me know. I'd love to see how you are all decorating and what you are crafting for Christmas!
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