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DIY Christmas Card Holder

This post and shop for this DIY Christmas Card Holder has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. 
#MerryAndBright #CollectiveBias

Yay! It's almost Christmastime, y'all. I broke allllll of my usual traditions and decorated the house before Thanksgiving...and I'm kind of loving it. This DIY Christmas Card Holder is one of my new Christmas items this year...put together by the husband and painted by me. See the complete tutorial for it below.
DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
This wall off the kitchen area and family room had been empty since we moved in last March. It's not a high traffic area, so I kind of wasn't sure what to do with it. I thought about a floor to ceiling chalkboard (I miss the one from our old house), but this area gets very little natural light and would probably seem cave-ish. So, we built this DIY Christmas Card Holder to hang here during the holiday season...and I'm even thinking after the holidays it can double as the "stuff I don't want magnetted to the refrigerator" holder. It's in the perfect spot for "family stuff"! And Christmas cards definitely fall under that category. See how this came together below.


DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
Before I share the DIY Christmas Card Holder tutorial, I want to share some Christmas card finds...and thoughts on the Christmas card tradition, in general.

Y'all, I'm a little sad to admit it, but for the last two years I had given up on sending out traditional Christmas cards. Between my book deal and work and kids, things got busy. I had this fun idea of doing new year's cards instead...and then new years came and went and well...you see where I'm going, here. 

And then I received a card from a friend last year who genuinely told me how much she missed our card. Her family had a special tradition with all of their cards and she was sad that there was a hole where our card had always been in their life. As her family received cards every day during the holidays, they would pray over the senders of the card that evening at dinner. It touched me so much. I've decided to dive back into Christmas card sending...and can't wait to fill my DIY Christmas Card holder with all of the cards that come our way, as well.

My mother has always had a wonderful Christmas card display...this card holder of mine is my version of a tradition she always upheld...displaying the well wishes from others in our life.


DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
This year, I'm using American Greetings cards from Walmart. They have such a beautiful selection...even fun stickers to seal my envelopes (my sister-in-law uses stickers on the outside and confetti on the inside...she gets me every time).

Besides greeting cards, American Greetings also has an incredible selection of gift wrap, tissue paper, and bags to help all of us celebrate and connect with family, friends, neighbors and co-workers this holiday season.


Click here for a fabulous Ibotta deal on American Greetings products.



DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
They even have packaged sets if you're sending out quite a few cards. 

DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
You can also grab this Tinsel the Bear for $3.47 with the purchase of 3 American Greetings cards. 


DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
I also grabbed a small American Greetings gift bag and some Fun Size M&Ms to package up and surprise our mail lady with...she's always so kind! I want to be sure to gift her some sweets this holiday season (nothing says "You're awesome" like a bag full of delicious chocolate...amiright?). 

This type of package would also be fun to ELF someone with, too! American Greetings has a fun, free Elfing printable for you to include in your Elf bag with instructions, a poem, and small sign for people to hang on their door after they’ve been “Elfed”. Click here to grab it.

DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
Click below for the:
American Greetings #MerryAndBright Sweepstakes

DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
Here are my directions for the DIY Christmas Card Holder:

Supplies:
  • prefinished moulding for the frame (use your own dimensions that fit best in your space)
  • flat "L" brackets (4-8)
  • screws that are short enough to not pierce through your moulding
  • short staples for a staple gun
  • wire mesh to fit within the size of frame you're planning to make
  • not pictured: wood glue, wood filler 

DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
Our outer size of our frame is 3'x5' (which was also the exact dimensions of the wire mesh we purchased). I will be going off of our sizes for this tutorial, but feel free to customize this to whatever size works best for you.

We cut two moulding pieces to three foot widths and two to five foot widths. We made 45-degree cuts on our moulding board ends to create the corners of our frame. The longest side of each board matches our final dimensions of our frame.


DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
We used wood glue to connect the corners and then the L brackets on the backside.
After attaching these, let them dry overnight. If your frame feels wobbly or unstable, you can use two L brackets in each corner.


DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
After the glue was dry, I liberally rubbed my wax puck over the white pre-finish of the moulding. This is to allow the paint to easily sand off and this white layer to show through. If you don't have a wax puck, you can use the side of a taper candle in this same manner.

DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
I also filled my corners with wood filler. 
Then I painted the entire piece with red chalk-style paint.


DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
After the paint dried, I sanded the entire piece with a course-grit sandpaper.
This weathered nicely thanks to the wax puck layer from earlier.


DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
Then, my husband stapled the mesh all around the frame.
We probably used 100+ staples to make sure that thing was on there!


DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
We actually hung this frame through the wire mesh holes! ;)
And I used mini clothespins to attach all of our cards.
I thought my Buon Natale (Merry Christmas in Italian) sign was perfect with this piece.


DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
I can't wait until the Christmas season is in full swing and this DIY Christmas Card Holder is filled up!


DIY Christmas Card Holder | Put together this oversized holiday card display with moulding and L brackets (and mesh!). Check out the entire tutorial.
Check out more holiday fun here.





14 comments:

  1. HAHA you are braver than I am. I have 11 people at my house for Thanksgiving (over half coming up from my home state of Florida) and I am still in denial it's next week, let alone Christmas is just over a month away ACK! On that note LOL, I'm always looking for unique ways to hold my Xmas cards. I love this - thanks for the idea and step-by-step. I'll show this to my hubs! Project!

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  2. I love this idea so much! I usually just tape the card we get to a windowsill, but I think this is a much better idea. It looks so pretty, and it's so much better and more worthy of the cards that people take the time to send. Love it!

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  3. What a great idea. It looks so cute. Very fun for Christmas.

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  4. I love this!! I usually decorate before Thanksgiving, but since I just had surgery I am waiting until after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas. I love your friends idea about praying over cards they receive. Thanks for the great idea and tutorial!!

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  5. Look how crafty and handy you are! I never know where to place my cards from the holidays. I usually just end up shuffling them from o counter to another to a table. This is a great to-do for my husband, now just to find a place to hang this. I don't have a lot of wall space in my home - because we have so many windows!

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  6. I always try to display our holiday cards but they end up just looking like a mess. This would look perfect in our foyer and would be a simple but lovely way to keep the cards neatly on display.

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  7. That sounds like a great craft project and a space saver as well. No more trying to find a place to display all your beautiful Christmas cards bc you can put them all in one centralized place that doesn't take up a whole lot of space. Very cool!!!

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  8. This turned out great. I am sure you are going to get a ton of use out of that this year and will keep you so organized. I need to start figuring out what we are doing this year on the cards we send - great reminder to get on that - thanks! ;)

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  9. I need one of these to hang in my office! I never know where to hang my Christmas cards. I like the mesh frame idea much better than sticking the cards directly to the wall.

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  10. First of all I have to tell you that I am a sticker lover! They make me so excited! Reminds me of the days in Junior High and Lisa Frank! :) And...the Christmas Card Holder?! Gorgeous and practical. Love it!

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  11. I love this idea. I am going to convince my husband to help me make one this weekend. It would be so pretty for Christmas and it is a great way to be able to see all of the cards you receive. Great idea!

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  12. I like this DIY. Every card holder I've purchased from a store has failed me. Either they are super flimsy or they don't hold all the cards we receive. This'll be a perfect solution.

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  13. I used to hang cards in our old house but when we moved last year, come Christmas I didn't really have anywhere suitable for them so they were just on all the windowsills getting blown over when people opened doors! I love this idea, if I get time I'll try soemthing similar for our cards this year.
    I'm loving your story from your friend and how they use the cards they receive - so lovely.

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  14. Love framed chicken wire to hold objects and your frame rocks! Very cute!

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