Clothespins

Well, I did it.  I actually made the Christmas card wreath!  Well sort of.  I guess it's not a wreath at all.  So I guess I should say that I didn't make the wreath, but I did make something to hold my Christmas cards!  There was only a week left until Christmas, so I figured it was a little too late for the wreath.  Instead I decided to make something that would last year round.  It will mostly collect bills and coupons I want to save, but hey-that's alright!  Drum roll please...

And without the cards...

 It's basically some wire and clothespins.  Those are bottle caps with scrapbook paper filled with resin.  There's a big fat magnet glued to the back too.  I made those months ago, and I just rummaged around for other things to jazz up my bare wire. 

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So anyway, that's what became of my wreath.  But the real focus of all this are the clothespins.  I'm not about to take the credit, although I wish it were my idea.  But I got the idea from here.  Etsy.com is an awesome website.  I keep telling myself that maybe one day I will try to sell something.  Today is not that day.  None the less, while these are probably selling like hot cakes, naturally I made my own.  You can buy a bag of 100 clothespins at the Dollar General.  The paper I already had.  I didn't bother with mod podging them on there (although that probably would have been best).  I just used a glue stick and that's suits me just fine.  I love these!  I have them hanging from the ceiling of my kids' school room to display their art.  It'd also be easy to hot glue a magnet to the back and stick them on the fridge.  Fancy chip clips?  Clip a card to a gift bag?  Wear them in your hair?  ...well that may be pushing it.  My point is, how is it that just a plain ole clothespin could be so stinkin cute?  

Christmas Wreath

This year we have started a new tradition of letting the kids have their own tree.  They went with their papa and chopped it down.  It's a fat little tree just their size.  We've been making ornaments every day.  All of the decorations will be entirely homemade, by them.  Needless to say, they are loving it!  So far they've made the star (just glitter and cardstock), salt dough cookie cutter ornaments and pipe cleaner candy canes.  There must be a limit to this madness, so I think I'll narrow it down to a 12 days of Christmas type deal.  Anyway, so I was wondering what to do tomorrow and I came across this little wreath.  They like stringing beads, why not buttons?  

So as usual I got side tracked.  They get to have all the fun, how come I can't make anything?  So this entire post will just be Christmas wreaths.  I never considered myself a wreath person, but this year I may give it a whirl.

Now I liked this, except it seemed a little plain.  Needs a little jazzin' up.

Now isn't that snazzy.  Next...

 Well I think I just found my wreath.  Love this idea!  I'm using clothes pins in the kids' playroom to hang their artwork, so I'm very drawn to this, maybe it's just me.  I found another a little less complicated.  Oh Martha, you sure know how to simplify...

And last, but not least.  Pine cones.  Simple yet earthy.  I like it.  I'm not so in love with their lack of effort on the ribbon however.  That wouldn't be hard to fix.   

 Will update on the kid's tree and my wreath.  I will make time for this!