Christmas card collection...

As the holiday cards began to fill the mailbox, I wanted to find a new way to display them.  Placing them all on the half wall between our breakfast nook and the family room just wasn't going to cut it (especially with the large number of cards that are a single pice of cardstock, and not a traditional folded card).
I have been following a blog Under the Sycamore and find Ashley's use of items on hand and thrift store treasures very inspiring; and so I began my hunt around the house for my card display.  I decided that the open wall space next to our television would work perfectly for the space needed (especially since it would keep the cards high enough to be out of reach of our overly curious, and potentially destructive malamute, Drakko).

The scavenger hunt resulted in a variety of ribbons, a picture hook, an old metal coat hanger, left-over spray paint from a summer project, and reserve paint from painting the wall color (saved in case it would be needed for touch-ups). 

The steps:

1. Spray the metal hanger with the speckled brown  paint, and let dry.  (Fortunately we've had a pretty warm November and December!).  Note I only painted one side of the metal hanger since it would be laying flat against the wall.
2. Hang the picture hook as desired on the wall - I waited until the paint had dried, so I could use the metal hanger as a guide. 
3. Paint the silver picture hook with some of the reserve wall color paint to help it blend in, and let dry.
4. Cut various lengths of blue and brown ribbon, and tie them to the metal hanger.  (I hung the metal hanger on the wall and guaged ribbon lengths from there to make sure they would be high enough, then took it down to tie on the ribbons.)
5. Hang the metal hanger and wait for the cards to come in!

Of course as I'm working on the project my husband is watching and giving me weird looks.  Finally, I can't take the quizzical look on his face any longer and ask "What??!!".  His reply:  "You're hanging a coat hanger on the wall as decoration?"  I rolled my eyes and smiled,  "Yes, just wait and see..."

I have to admit that with only one or two cards on my creation it looked a little bare and out of place, but the abundance of cards on there now makes me wonder if I'll need to add more (or longer) ribbons soon.

Thanks for visiting~
~Kathy