Christmas Card Garland

Hope you haven't tossed the Holiday cards you received this year, 'cuz check out this really cute idea to reuse them - make a garland for next year!

It's easy and came together really quick (best kind of crafts!). Punch out circles (I used my 2 1/2" Stampin'up circle punch) from used cards*, some from the fronts and some from inside - my absolute favorite thing about this was when I saw all the handwriting and thought if I incorporate some it'll make this like a memory garland - love! Oh, and I thought about including circles from photo cards but I didn't have the heart to chop those up yet - maybe by next year I'll be ready! Before just punching out circles I thought about how best to get a whole picture (for instance, all of a snowman or a bird) or word (for example, all of "believe" or "merry"), in addition to punching out the handwritten greetings and notes in a way that included as much as I liked. Makes sense?

You need 4 circles for each bundle (is it a bundle? A grouping? A ball?) that will get attached to bakers twine to form the garland. I cut out 44 circles for a total of 11 bundles.

After punching out the circles I laid them all out on my craft table, then matched them up into pairs. Fold each circle in half and glue half of the circle to half of its paired up circle - I used Elmers glue stick and it stuck great. At this point you'll have 22 pairs joined together on one side.

This next step is optional but I have these felt pompoms on hand and decided to put one in between each grouping. Before I started gluing the circles onto the twine, I threaded one end of twine thru a big-eye embroidery needles and threaded on 12 small pompoms - note I didn't cut the twine from it's spool yet, just thread the pompoms on and push them down out of the way.

Take the needle off the twine. Put one pompom about 12" from the free end and the second pompom 6" away. Make a small mark at the halfway point between the two pompoms (at 3") just so you can keep the paper circle bundles centered between the poms. Put glue over the flat base of one of the circle pairs, set the twine in the groove between the 2 with the mark you made in the center of the circle, then top with another circle pair. Repeat with the next pompom on the twine (put it 6" from the previous one, make a mark 3" in between the 2 pompoms, add two circle pairs). Repeat until you have a pompom, a paper bundle, a pompom, a paper bundle, a pompom, etc. for as long as you want your garland to be.

I'm afraid I am making this sound way harder than it is! To summarize and simplify - you are just gluing 4 paper circles together over twine, as many of those bundles as you want, for as long as you want the garland to be. I took lots of pictures, hopefully they help make sense of my instructions!

*if you don't have any old cards to recycle you could do this same thing with a package of new cards, that way you can choose your colors and designs - and right now you should still find clearance ones super cheap!

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