Card Holder Wreath {Finished Friday} come link up your projects

I first saw the idea of a Christmas Card Holder Wreath in December, but knew I wouldn’t have time to make it before Christmas. At the time I thought I’d simply pack the idea away until next Christmas.

But then I noticed that we tend to get a lot of greeting cards all year long. In fact, right now we have about a dozen birthday cards, anniversary cards and thank you cards. I love seeing the cards and being reminded of people we love both near and far away, but our small home doesn’t afford any space for displaying these cards…or does it?

I decided that I could easily adapt the Christmas Card Holder Wreath to be a year-round card holder wreath simply by changing the colors.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 metal clothes hanger (I was tempted to use craft wire, 20 gauge, but it wasn’t strong enough to hold the wreath’s circular shape)

package of wooden clothes pins (I used almost a whole pack of 50)

Rit dye in what ever color you want your clothes pins to be (so much quicker and easier than painting them)

pony beads or medium sized wooden beads (just make sure the metal clothes hanger fits through the hole)

wire snips

needle nose pliers

ribbon to hang (optional)

First, I dyed my clothes pins black. I filled a stainless steel bowl with very hot water and dissolved 1 pack of Black Rit dye in the water. Next, I added my clothes pins and let them sit for about 45 minutes.

Then I drained the water and rinsed the clothes pins with cold water until the water ran clear. To dry the clothes pins I ran a piece of string across our patio and hung the clothes pins to dry in the sun. (I clipped the clothes pins to the string, not around it, so that they wouldn’t slide together.)

That evening, after the clothes pins were dry, I undid the metal hanger and snipped of the hook end. I bent the hanger into a circle and began threading on the clothes pins and the beads in a one to one ratio.  (You want the hanger wire to go through the spring part of the clothes pins.)

Once the wreath was as large as I wanted, I used the pliers to make a loop on one end of the hanger wire. Then I pushed the clothes pins and beads toward that end as much as I could and used the pliers to make a hook on the other end of the wire right next to the last bead. Make sure you have a clothes pin on the beginning of the wire and a bead on the end.

Finally I reshaped the wreath into a circle and forced the hooked end of the hanger through the opposite looped end. (This seemed like a much better idea than trying to hot glue the wire ends together.)

I simply hung the wreath on a nail because I couldn’t decide what color ribbon would look best (and I was anxious to get those cards displayed). I think a bow at the top with the ribbon ends hanging down into the middle of the wreath might help fill that empty space. What do you think?

Now I have a card holder wreath that I can keep up all year long.

Today's Questions: What color ribbon do you think would look best on our card holder wreath? How do you display greeting cards at your house? 

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
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