Christmas Card Holder

So every year, I struggle with where to put my Christmas cards. I don't know why, but I have this weird thing about not liking clutter on the front of my fridge (or anywhere else for that matter), so as the cards start to flow in every year, I begrudingly break out the scotch tape and being to mount them onto my fridge in as organized a fashion a possible, until a day or two after Christmas when it's safe to start taking them down without hurting anyones feelings.

This year, however, is quite different. I found this adorable greeting card (or anything else you could think of) holder in the Pottery Bard catologue and fell in love.

However, I was not about to spend the $199 they were asking (it has since gone on sale for $149) for something that I knew I could very easily make myself for SO much less! Plus, I love projects so I was looking forward to seeing how I could make this work!

I started out with some old frames I had lying around in the garge, left over from Amanda's old salon that shut down. (Hey, she left 'em there long enough, I decided I could take one as my storage fee). Besides, they have been just glaring at me over the last 3 months, begging me to do something with them.

I spray painted the frame with this gold spray paint I picked up at Wal-Mart. I picked one that said I didn't have to prime or sand, becuase I really didn't feel like messing with that. Plus, this one said it gave a "hammered" look, so I thought that might help it look a little more vintage.

I used a picture framing kit (also from WalMart) to screw 8 of these eye hooks onto the back of the frame, evenly spaced, 4 on each side. I then strung picture hanging wire (which was included in the kit) across the hooks and attached them like so.

Finally, I decided my frame needed a little something extra so I used to more eye hooks on the top of the frame to attach red ribbon, then tied the ribbon in a bow for hanging the frame. Here's the (almost) finished project complete with our first Christmas card of the year (I ran out of wire, so I still need to run to the store and pick some more of that up)

And now our dining room FINALLY has something on that huge empty wall! Don't ya love it?!? And my total cost was only: (paint) $6 + (pic. hanging kit) $2 + (red ribbon) $1 + (clips for cards) $6= $15. Thats a 90% savings of the SALE price of the Pottery Barn version...and i personally think mine with the ribbon is a litte cuter too!