Monday, December 06, 2010

Frame Christmas Card Holder

When I got my Pottery Barn and Ballard Design Christmas catalogs in the mail, I immediately started scouring them for knock-off ideas.  I got a bunch of great ideas from both that you will see more of, but one was this awesome Frame Card Holder.  The best part, it was only $199.00! (gasp, choke, cough)

Gilt Frame Card Holder

All it is is a frame with some wire strung across it, good grief! I love having a place to display all the cute cards we get each year (and actually keep all my old cards) so I knew this would be the perfect knock-off.  And guess what, mine was FREE!  (you saw a sneak peek when I showed off my mantle display)

Pretty cute!  Now, I did change things up from how pottery barn did theirs but that just makes it all the better right?!?

Here's what I did.  It all started with this picture I got for free at an antique store. A girl friend and I were scouting for frames for another project (more on that later) and the shop owner gave us two of these bad boys for free. Ahhh, love nice people!



Ain't she a beauty! 

All I did was remove the picture and paint the frame.  I did a red base coat, then a coat of white, then sanded that down to expose a bunch of the red.  Lived with it for a day and decided I hated it. (tell me you guys do that too!) So I decided to crackle it.  I painted a layer of Elmer's Glue on it, let that sit up till it was tacky, but not all the way dry, and then did a coat of blue.  Once everything dried I ended up with this lovely finish.  Love it!


I then took that same lovely picture I removed, turned it over and painted the back side a dark brown.  Once that was dry, I took some yarn and wrapped the board, taping it on the back to secure like so....


Then just pop it back in the frame, and there you have it!  You can either slide the cards between the strings like I did, or you could get little clips.  Either way its a super cute and fun way to display those Christmas cards!


These are actually cards form last year.  That's my adorable little nephew.  I can't believe how much he has grown from last year!

Well, there you have it! A frame Christmas card holder.


Take that Pottery Barn!

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