Card Display Garland

  Last year as I was taking down my Christmas card holder (just a wire form in the shape of an angel) I felt that there had to be a better way to display the hand stamped cards that I had received throughout Christmas.  They were all tucked into the wire angel with the other greeting & photo cards and no one could see them well enough to appreciated the time and talent that went into making them.  They kind of got lost in the Christmas greeting mess that is my card holder.  Since I send out a good number of hand stamped cards every Christmas I know that it takes time to design, stamp, write out and mail all those cards.  I wanted a way to showcase those little works of art that stamping friends have taken the time to make and mail to me.  So last January I ordered a roll of the wide striped Old Olive grosgrain ribbon and a pack of the library clips (they retired in July but you can still buy them from the Clearance Rack) to see what I could come up with for a better card display.  They have been sitting in my stamp room waiting to be called into action ever since.

 

  I finally found time this afternoon to put my plan into action!  This old leaded glass frame is in my front entry way above an old church pew.  See the Decor Element behind it?  Anyway I decided to make a card display garland so all the beautiful hand stamped cards are on display for all to enjoy.  It is also up high enough that I think my grubby handed little boys won't mess with it.  Aren't these cards great?  I've got great stamping friends!  I get a big smile on my face every time I walk through the entry way to get to the stairs!

  All I did was use thumbtacks to hold my ribbon in place and draped it across the frame.  I have a tack on each corner and then one in the middle.  Then I got out my EZ bow maker (non-Stampin' Up) to make the bow in the center.  I used floral wire to hold the bow together and to wrap around the center tack to keep it in place.

  So now onto to the clips to hold the cards on the garland.  I pulled out all the white clips (I still have a lot of Old Olive & Chocolate Chip clips if I end up needing more) and my Cherry Cobbler seam binding.  I thought some cute little fork bows would do the trick.  See my Fork Bow tutorial for a how to!  It took no time at all to make 8 bows.

  Now I had to adhere the the bow to the clip.  This is where I ran into a little bump....At first I thought a glue dot would do the trick...Nope.  The glue dot would not stick to the clip.  Then I decided to try a little piece of Sticky Strip....Nope.  The Sticky Strip wouldn't stick either.  Huh.  Sticky Strip always sticks to everything, even things you don't want it to stick to. 

  On to the big guns...Glue Gun that is!  That didn't work either if you can believe it!  I finally decided that the clips had such a smooth finish the adhesives had nothing to grip to.  Out to the garage for some sandpaper.  I roughed up the finish a little and the glue gun worked perfectly after that.

  All in all, even with the adhesive problems this project only took me about 30 minuted to complete.  I'm thinking that this would look really cute around a wide doorway (if you didn't have grubby handed little boys like me!)--maybe someday I can shoot for that!

  Thanks for looking!  Happy Decorating!

Supplies: Old Olive 1 1/4" Striped Grosgrain ribbon,  1/2" Library Clips (still available on the Clearance Rack!), Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon, glue gun, thumb tacks