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!

Repurposed Picture Frames

I love going to the beach, which is why we have this post today.  But first, this candle.

We took my craft table out of our spare room.  It had become a catch-all, and I do my crafts elsewhere.  Besides, we needed the space and the table.  So, I had to clean it off.  While cleaning, I found (again) six votive candles that had melted together at the bottoms.  They were made of soft wax that wipes clean, so I stuck them in a bowl and lit them.  I felt kind of wasteful at first, as it was SIX candles all at once, but I have had them for over 10 years in a closet, and I wasn't doing anything else with them...  I loved the effect that it gave.  Once the candles melted down, it looked like I just had a candle with six wicks.  I thought I would share it with you.  You could use a bowl from a thrift store or yard sale.  Next time, (when my candles aren't melted together) I think I will try arranging them in a circle.  

Now, for today's idea.

As I said, I love going to the beach.  I don't really like swimming, though.  I prefer walking and picking up shells.  The only problem then, is that I have hundreds of shells and I have to figure out what to do with them.  I found some of them when I was cleaning my craft table area.  I also found some sharks' teeth and ray dental plates that Tommy and I found in a local creek.  They don't belong in a bag, they belong on display.  I have been reading some great craft blogs lately, and one of them is Simple Simon & Co.  I saw this and this and decided to create the displays you see below.  I wanted to create a small showcase for some of my items.  I tried one idea, and it was a disaster.  I actually tried it twice before figuring out a better way.  You get to benefit from my trial and error! 

You will need an old picture frame.  Mine are 4X6 and something smaller.

You will also need some paper (you could use fabric for a background, too) and large craft punches, or a ruler/compass and scissors.

I used 4X6 matting paper, but I still had to trim it down to fit inside the frame.  My first error was not realizing the way my frame fit together, and by tracing the back piece, the paper was still too big.

This is my first disastrous attempt.  I measured and drew guidelines and punched--and didn't realize my paper wasn't going to fit in the frame, and trimmed, and had crooked squares that had too much space in the middle... It was awful.

So I tried again.  I tried using the frame already over the background and laid my square templates over that to trace it, and then cut the squares with an X-acto knife, because my punch wouldn't fit over the square I had drawn.  It wasn't much of an improvement, as my sister will tell you that I cannot cut in a straight line.  I decided it was "good enough" because I didn't think I could do any better with the cutting.  Ick.

I moved on to the second frame, which I decided to make with circle displays.  Unfortunately, my circle punch wouldn't fit over the circles I traced, either.  Faced with using the X-acto knife again, I had an inspiration.

After you have finished laughing/gawking at the awfulness, here are the directions that work:

1.  Choose a background (solid or print), and cut it to fit inside your frame.

 2. Reassemble the frame with your background piece in front of the glass, and put the back on the frame.  My frame was designed with room for the glass, and so I had to put it in to keep my paper from wiggling around.

This is a view of the BACK of my project.  The paper goes in first, then the glass.

3.  Once the frame is reassembled, turn it over.  

4.  Use craft punches (or scissors) to cut out the shape of your display area.  This should be done on solid color paper (or something like parchment) to minimize distractions.

5.  Put photo splits or glue on your display shapes to make them sticky.

6.  Lay out your display pieces the way you would like them on the background in the frame, and stick them on.  (You could put more than 2 areas and they don't have to be the same.  You could mix and match... The possibilities are endless.)

These are the two frames I ended up with.

7.  Use a glue gun or other glue to attach your little objects for display.

These are what I had when I finished.

I hope I have inspired you to try something new.  It's okay to make mistakes.  I hope you enjoyed seeing mine, and I hope you benefit from what I learned.   And Mom, thanks for lending me the craft punches.  You didn't really want them back, did you????     (Just kidding.)

What types of things would you display?  Any other ideas for me to try?  Leave a comment!