Display Your Greeting Cards

Wow.  It has been too long.  I didn't forget about you!

I was excited to have a huge order for my business, Redding Creative Arts!  It was a really unusual assignment.  A man passed away at 38.  On the website from the funeral home, friends could leave messages to the family.  This particular man had over hundred messages of tribute left.  A friend of his mother decided to make a scrapbook for the family with all of the messages--and she asked me to make it.   I ended up making 46 pages!  It was a big job, but I am so thankful for the opportunity.  I had beautiful paper to work with, from The Paper Studio.  I picked their Affinity patterns, and they are beautiful.  I used chalks and glaze pens to enhance them.  I also learned about quilling.  That took up about three weeks.  I hope my business continues to pull in customers.

Last Sunday was my husband's birthday, and I was going to make him a quilt for our bed as his gift (he wanted one).  I learned that fabric is very expensive, and I didn't give myself enough time to finish the project by his birthday.  So instead, he got a quilt top for his birthday, and I am going to give him the back for Christmas.  I did take some pictures for you, and soon, I am going to have a post showing what I did to make the pattern.

For today's post, I have a quick idea and a tip!

I hate to discard cards that people send me.  My husband likes to put all of the cards he gets (mostly from me) up on the wall by his dresser.  I was using tape to stick them to the wall, and they kept falling off.  I started using sticky-tac to put them on the wall.  That was not the best idea.  One day, my husband and I decided to switch bedrooms.  It was a huge job, but we did it.  When I took the cards with the sticky-tac down, it ripped the top layer of the wall-board off.  It was really important to my husband to have the cards up in our new room, so I did this:

By the way, the ribbon goes behind the Gator picture.  It is not holding the picture up.

My friend Jennifer used this idea in her condo when she was in college:

She just used twine and clothespins.  I copied the idea when I first moved in here, but I wanted to update the idea for Tommy.

All I did was take some blue ribbon and cut four very long pieces.  They go from the ceiling to just past the top of his dresser.  Then, I used blue thumbtacks to stick them to the wall near the ceiling.  I didn't even secure the bottoms.

Then, I used mini-clothespins to stick the cards to the ribbons.

I have more clothespins somewhere, but I "put them away" during our move, and now I can't find them.  In the meantime, I used some of those clips for papers in an office, and I don't like them as well, but they are getting the job done.  Unfortunately, they kind of make the ribbon move to the side instead of hanging straight down.  The clothespins don't seem to do that.

Now, sticky-tac is not destroying my walls, and I have a nice way to display all of Tommy's cards!  This is so easy--you can make one, too.

My other tip--I am not a huge fan of stain-removers for clothes.  I have not had good results.  As in, the stains are still there.  Most of the time, my spots are grease from food.  (Yes, I am messy.)  Since my clothes were ruined anyway, I figured I had nothing to lose, so I tried something known to remove grease.  Dish soap.  Straight from the bottle onto the spot, and then washed with everything else.  Is it a total cure all?  Maybe not.  But I have rescued several shirts this way.

Do you have any laundry tips?

Soon I'll start posting my Christmas ideas I have been saving up for you!

Leave a comment and let me know what you want to see next!