Christmas Card Holder

Meet my new Christmas card holder!

I bought this slat board over at The Wood Connection about 5 or 6 years ago. I never really knew what I wanted to do with it, so I put it in my craft closet and forgot about it.

 So yesterday, I decided to finally do something with it.

After I searched Pinterest for pallet board ideas, I came across this one from

Once Upon a Vinyl by Liv....a Christmas card holder. My old Christmas card holder broke, so I needed a new one!

I love the title Merry Mail and the rustic feel of it.

So I got my fuel ready...Diet Dr. Pepper from Sonic.

I was determined to use what I had on hand, #1 because I didn't want to get out in the sub Arctic temperatures, #2 my daughter is sick and I didn't want to be away from her for too long (me in a craft store can take a while, and #3, it's more of a challenge.

I had red acrylic paint, turquoise acrylic paint (only a little), mini-clothes pins and twine. So I started by giving both the board and pins 2 coats of paint.

I could have hand lettered the words Merry Mail or used vinyl letters but I wanted this to be quick (I have more crafts to do after all),so I'm going to show you a little trick I use in my art room to transfer your practice to the real paper. It's called chalk or graphite transfer. Any type of chalk or graphite will work. I wouldn't use anything waxy.

First, I printed Merry Mail on my inkjet printer in one of my favorite fonts, Pea Ellie Bellie (a free one).

Next, I found some chalk on our menu board in the kitchen and colored on the backside of the words.

I taped the paper in place and used a pencil to outline each letter.

Take off the paper and left behind is a chalk outline of each letter.

I used a white gel pen to outline each letter. Then I used the same pen to add some hatching inside each letter.

Let the ink dry. No really...let it dry overnight. Once dry, use a damp cloth to get rid of any extra chalk.

 Then I took the twine and used my staple gun to tack it in place on the back.

Add the clothespins.

Then add the Christmas cards.

It doesn't hold very many, but I'm going to trade the cards out as we get more.

Thanks for the inspiration, Once Upon a Vinyl by Liv

Recipe Boxes

I was trying to think of other ideas to add to my kitchen collections and when I saw several plain wooden boxes at Target, I knew exactly what I wanted to make....recipe boxes. Pair it with a set of my kitchen tea towels and they make the perfect wedding or housewarming gift.

 

So I just spray painted them (one blue and one brown). I used my E6000 glue to attach an old spoon and old fork to the front.

 

Then I made the recipe cards using a recipe card stamp and a journal stamp. The recipe cards are made from double sided scrapbook paper. I printed the stamps on solid papers that coordinated with the patterned papers and glued one side that has the recipe stamp and the other side has the journal paper for notes or extra space for the recipe.

Here's the brown box.

The blue one has already sold but if I find anymore of these boxes, I'll be making more.

My Final Organizational Area- My Closet

I still have a few small organizational projects but my last big one was my closet.

Here's the before pic.....

 

You may not think it looks too bad at first glance. But I needed to go through all of my clothes and shoes and purge what I no longer wear.

I've also had a really weird goal for a long time...matching hangers. I'm tired of having the department store hangers and different colored ones from the store. I've actually been working on that for about 2 years. I just bought a pack or 2 of hangers (I chose a classic white) every now and then.

 

And here is the after....I finally have my matching hangers.

I purged what I no longer want/need.

I am kinda nerdy when it comes to closet organization. I organize clothes by type and then by color. So for example, I have all of my dresses together in rainbow order (with neutrals at the end). I have all of my skirts together. Pants together.

Shirts together (teacher work shirts at the front).

Sweatshirts together. Then I have super casual/grungy/wear around the house shirts together.

Here are my shoes. Easily stackable, easy to see what pair of shoes is inside and the containers contain any odors. 

And that's it y'all! I'm finally organized for the upcoming school year! Yea!!!!!

 

 

Organization: The Hall Closet

I finally made time to tackle our hall closet. These are the before pics. The top of the closet isn't so bad, but the further down you go, you can see I've just been throwing stuff in there.  

 

 

And here are the after pics.

Yes, I know the green blankets are leaning (I didn't realize it until I looked at the pics on my computer). :)

 

So what I did was basically take everything out. Then I went through the boxes and sorted, purged and reorganized each box by season/Holiday.I put all the banners, lights, and décor into Ziploc bags so that they wouldn't get tangled up.

I have a box for Spring/Summer, Valentine's/St. Patrick's, and Fall/Winter.

I also have a box for party supplies which has party hats, goody bags, balloon weights etc.

The top of the closet holds my candles, Scentsy stuff and my punch bowl (which I'm considering getting rid of. I haven't used it in 7 years).

 

 

The next shelf holds all of seasonal/Holiday décor.

 

 

The next shelf holds our seasonal pillow covers and pillow cases, party extras and décor extras.

The next shelf holds all of our bedding. I just fold the sheet sets and put them in a pillow case to organize them. I'm sure Martha Stewart would cringe if she saw my linens but it works for me!

 

The bottom of the closet holds all of my extra family photos, European trip photos and my photos from all of my photography classes.

So glad it's over with...now the hard part....keeping it organized!