the space between

upcycle, repurpose and reinvent your space

diy ornament made from a greeting card

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But, seriously, do you ever find yourself cleaning or organizing something when you really should be doing something else. Should be working out? Let me just make sure the kitchen is super duper clean, not sure I put everything in alpha order in the fridge last I checked. Need groceries that I should have gotten 3 days ago? I really NEED to just make sure the cabinet in that other room is all in order, and dusted, and labeled. See what I’m sayin’?

So it really is no shocker that when I was trying to come up with crafty little Christmas ornament ideas for the Mega Crafty Christmas Tree Challenge I got just a wee bit side tracked.

I thought, in order for me to really be able to be inspired I need to procrasti re-organize this cabinet we have with random stuff in it. It’s where I’ve been haphazardly stashing all my random crafty supplies and anything somewhat related to craftiness. But, also in this cabinet is a bag o’ stuff. You know the bag, the one where you throw random stuff you’re not quite sure what else to do with, or stuff you have an eventual plan for, just not a plan for executing the plan. Yeah, that bag. (Clearly this all went down at night.)

I haven’t looked in my bag since we moved to this little island which means I’ve been accumulating stuff for over 2 years. I really don’t know how it started, but next thing I knew I had a couch o’ stuff.

Just ignore the couch, really, there is no further discussion about it needed at this point. 🙂

Is that a handle for something? Yes it is. The plan for that is to go on one of our corn hole boards. Yes, of course the other one is already on. No, of course I don’t have a plan for executing this plan. The current approximate distance between the handle and the board needing the handle…less than 10 feet. The handle ended up back in the bag. Gotta love a spot you can organize disorganization.

Of much more importance, I came across all of our wedding memorabilia. Sigh and smile. We got married just a couple months before we moved to Curacao and I just tossed all the wedding stuff in this bag and forgot about it apparently. (The stuff, not the actual marriage part.)

Clearly the little challenge was on my mind because when I laid out all of these,

I remembered pinning this,

This inspiration pic is a cute little ornament made by Gifton over at Savvy by Design out of paint swatches. But I thought, why can’t I make the same kind of thing out of circles cut from cards we got at our wedding?

By golly I can. And I am in love with it. It’s a simple concept, but made out of meaningful things to us. An ornament that will remind us of a wonderful wedding day every year we bring it out to decorate the tree. 🙂

After I had all the cards out and idea in mind it took me a couple of hours, but really only about 30 minutes of work.

I picked out some of the cards that caught my eye and used the bottom of a glass jar we have as a circle template. Oh how I heart The Homestead.

I traced and cut out 8 circles of images and words I liked and I folded each circle in half.

It just so happened that 4 of the circles were colorful and 4 were more monochromatic (5 syllables, not bad) so I paired them up to alternate colorful then monochromatic. Using a glue stick I glued my pairs together.

I was doing some trimming every step of the way. Whenever new circles got glued together and didn’t line up just right I just snipped away.

Then glued one set of 2 to another so I had 2 sets of 4 folded and glued circles. Don’t forget to carry the 1, it will help the math make sense. 😉

I also scored with this beautiful ribbon that came from one of the cards. At the same time I glued the 2 sets of 4 together, creating the full sphere, I glued the ribbon into it so it could be used to hang the ornament.

Then, because the edges still looked a little unfinished and I have recently discovered the joy of glitter, I beglittered (kinda like bedazzling only different) all of the edges with some silver glitter. Then I hung her and admired her. She just makes me smile.

Everything up in these parts is fair game to get beglittered now. But the first to go down was this little wedding card Christmas tree ornament. I think it adds just the right amount of bling and covers up any cutting imperfections around the edges of the circles.

I just love her. 🙂

This circle says “{Two} hearts share, one promise, one life, one love – forever”. What a perfect marriage sentiment.

The ornament doesn’t scream Christmas, but to me it screams happiness, and that’s the best kind of ornament in my book.

What about you? Have you created any non-Christmasy ornaments that are sentimental to you for any reason? Any other crafty things I can do with the rest of our cards? Other wedding memorabilia ideas, or homemade Christmas ornament ideas? Let me have it.

I am sharing this project here, here, here and here. Check ém out!

Comments

  1. WOW- I love how these came out! Not only are they wonderfully special keepsakes but they are also a great upcycle for any kind of card (or maybe even a picture). I’ve been thinking about ways to reuse Holiday cards and this is a great one!

    P.S. I also procrasti-clean. But this week it’s been working the other way- I NEED to clean for Thanksgiving and I’ve been procrasti-crafting, procrasti-grocery shopping, you name it I’ve been doing it instead of cleaning. BUT it’s time to face the facts- I do need the the dining room table tomorrow, so I better get moving and get my crafts off it! But first I have to run out and pick up the turkey- lol only sort of procrastinating with that one… I really DO need the turkey too.

  2. This is a beautiful way to display cards. Thanks for the great idea!

  4. Now I know why I kept all those cards 🙂

    Lovely idea! Would really like you to join my Pin’Inspiration party with them. Hope to see you there.

  5. These are so darn charming! My daughter is getting married next year and I am bookmarking ideas for her. This is one I am bookmarking now! Thanks for sharing at Coffee & Conversation 🙂

  9. I really like your idea of using your special cards. I smile when I put meaningful ornaments on my tree year after year.

  11. Wow! What a great idea! I think we have our wedding cards somewhere, but I know where I have baby shower and first birthday cards for my little boy! WHat a great way to save them in a manner that will be appreciated for years to come. Thank you for passing on this idea!

  15. What a wonderful idea! Thanks for linking to my blog. I love this! I think I kept some of those wedding cards around. I can’t wait to try it!

  16. I love glitter, too! What a great idea. I just went through our “memorabilia” containers. It’s amazing what stuff I kept, and I have a whole box of wedding cards. I know what I’ll be doing with them next year! 🙂

  17. I am going to do this! I have our wedding cards in a bag in the basement somewhere… tomorrow I shall dig them out. This would also be a cute way to save other special occasion cards other than stuffing them in a box.

  19. I was happy to feature this on my blog tonight! Thought it was such a smart way to take those sentimental cards and display them in a great way!!! I’m getting married in 3 months and will definitely be keeping my cards! 🙂

  20. What a cute idea! Thanks for linking up for Friday Favorites! I’m featuring you this week. Come by and grab my featured button if you’d like one.

  21. Thanks so much ladies for the kind words! I love that others are going to do this, I agree, it would work great for any kind of greeting card, or maybe even event tickets if they were big enough. Race tickets maybe Sue???

    And a special thanks to Rebecca and Jerri for the features! Thank you, thank you!!

  26. These are beautiful and the sentiment behind them is amazing. I still have all my wedding cards somewhere in the house, although I no longer have my husband (someone else does) >.< But I do have a massive collection of old Christmas cards that I think would love to adorn my tree. I had been hanging onto them for years with the intent to make something with them but never actually getting around to it. I think I might just find a use for them now. Thank you for sharing. Merry Christmas 🙂

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