With all the various ways folks have for displaying their Christmas cards, I decided that I'd better get into the act. I usually just put my cards in a big basket on the hearth but that's not very crafty so after looking through my favorite source of inspiration . . . the Christmas catalogs . . . I decided on a tree. Though I didn't see any that even slightly resembled what I ended up making it was the tree idea that inspired me. And as a bonus, after making it for holding and displaying cards I discovered that it worked just as well, if not better, as a Christmas decoration on it's own . . . complete with rubber-stamped ornaments.
Materials:
nine feet of wooden screen edging (figure A) cut in the following lengths:
- 36-inch length for tree trunk
- eight-inch, 16-inch, 21-inch and 25-inch lengths for branches
glue gun
foam board - optional
Magic leaf or gold leaf
green acrylic paint or stain
Note: The tree can be taller with more branches if desired. After the first two branches, all of mine were each five inches longer than the one before. Screen edging is available at lumberyards and many hardware stores.
Steps:
1. Paint or stain screen edging lengths as desired then glue them together to form the tree (figure B). Our eight-inch branch is near the top of the tree, followed progressively down the "trunk" by the 16-inch, the 21-inch and the 25-inch lengths.
2. Cut a star and flower pot from foam board and cover with Magic Leaf or ordinary gold leaf. Magic Leaf is a patterned gold leaf material and many different patterns are available.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
