12 Days of Christmas - Day 3 - Use up your old Christmas Cards.

Well I feel like I have invented the wheel with this one. I probably haven't. If I was brave enough there are probably hundreds of them on Pinterest but ignorance is bliss at the moment. I know there are many versions of this out there in craft cyber land but please leave me in a state of euphoria for just a little while.

Anyway back to the issue on hand. Old Christmas Cards. Do you keep your old Christmas Cards or do you throw them away? Not everyone can keep their cards or want to and that's fine. I find myself a bit sentimental or just a pure hoarder, I don't know which.

I always keep my Christmas Cards but I'm afraid it was getting out of hand and I had just far too many of them. My Little memory chest was no longer little and had become a bit of a joke to be honest. I looked like I had a problem but of course I couldn't throw them away.

The next question was - "What will I do with them?"

They were placed in a cardboard box in my craft room and to be honest were tossed from post to pillar for another 6 months and I only thought about them when I hoovered around them. Then one night it came to me. What if I cut Holly shapes out of them and made a wreath.

I realise you will see many paper wreaths out there with Holly paper shapes but hopefully there are none like this one.

You could cut them out by hand and if you are doing so make sure you use a template first. Find a holly shape on the net and trace it onto a piece of cardboard. This now will be your template and make it so much easier to cut all the holly the same size. I think

It looks so much better if the holly is all uniform.

I used my Sizzix machine to cut mine out and I had a Die Cut in the shape of Holly Leaves but I do realise that many of you don't have these but as I said you can do it by hand. It may take a little longer but it's something you could do in front of the TV over a few nights.

Next I got a metal round wreath surround which we stock here at Ennis Creative Arts Centre. The Holly shapes are then just placed into the metal. They slide into the ring and don't need to be glued or anything. This wreath costs €15 and the great thing about it is you could take the paper shapes out of it after Christmas if you like and use it for something else, like an Easter wreath or Halloween Wreath.

Next I used a few ribbons to finish if off and that's it really.

I really like it..

I would LOVE to see any ideas you have for using up old Christmas Cards?