Delights of December Day 28 ~ Making little boxes from Christmas cards

 

Most people have probably seen those little boxes made from Christmas cards. These are the easiest directions I have ever found. Most of the instructions I've seen involve a lot of folding and drawing of complicated lines, etc. These are actually easy!

The boxes can obviously be made from any greeting card, not just Christmas ones. These make great little gift boxes or can be used to hold office or craft supplies like paper clips, tacks, push pins, beads, etc. Christmas ones can be hung on the tree or piled beneath a miniature tree, where they look adorable.  One creative person used them to decorate a wreath, as I saw in an old magazine, but obviously this would need to be an indoor wreath to protect the boxes from dampness.

As you look over your stash of old cards, it will quickly become clear to you that not every card will work for this.  It needs to be either an allover design or perhaps something floral, like the poinsettia and mistletoe cards I chose.  (If you don't have any suitable cards and want to try this anyway, then simply use any cards you like and then wrap the finished boxes in wrapping paper.)

Here's what you do:

1. Cut apart a greeting card along the fold, separating the front from the back.

2. Start with the back part of the card. Using a ruler, draw lines from corner to corner on the unprinted side of the card to form an X. The center is where the two lines of the X meet.

3. Fold up each of the four sides of the card to meet the center of the X. Crease the folds well.

4. Open the card back up to reveal the creases you've made. Now, holding the card vertically, carefully cut on the two vertical crease lines at the top and bottom of the card, just to the point where they intersect with the nearest horizontal crease.

5. Fold in the tabs you just created by following step 4. You can now see how this is going to form a box. Tape the tabs inside the box. (You may find that each end of the box -- the part between the tabs -- stands up a bit higher than the rest of the box. If this happens, it is not a problem. You can simply fold the excess down inside, over the tabs, and tape it in place. Or, if you prefer, you can simply trim off the excess card before taping.) You have just made the bottom of the box!

6. Now, repeat steps 2 through 5 with the front part of the card, which will make the top of your box.

7. Obviously, this produces a box top and bottom which are exactly the same size, which sometimes means that the cover doesn't go on too easily. Usually, if you just squeeze the sides of the box gently, the cover will go on just fine.

These directions look far more complicated than the process actually is. I've made loads of these boxes with kids over the years, and it really is easy enough for even a 5-year-old to do with some guidance and maybe a bit of help with the creasing. So have fun with these cute little boxes!

Delights of December Day 27 ~ Making gift tags out of used Christmas cards

One of the most obvious and easy ways to use your old Christmas cards is to make gift tags from them. There are a couple of ways to do this.

Sometimes you can use the entire front of a card as a tag, if it has enough blank space to write the to/from information. These are especially nice for family members -- for example, you might have a card front that says "Merry Christmas to a Dear Granddaughter." This is a natural to paste to the top of your granddaughter's Christmas present. These can add a real decorative element to a package wrapped in a solid color like red, green, blue, silver, etc.

The other way is to cut shapes from your old cards to make tags. You can make simple shapes like rectangles, squares or circles. Current, Inc. sells a set of tag templates which work very nicely and has quite an assortment of shapes. A book of children's Christmas stencils would also work well. Once you have cut your shapes you can punch a hole in each one and add some red, green or metallic string to make a hanging tag.  

 

What if your family doesn't receive a lot of cards but you'd still like to do this project?  Easy -- just let friends or relatives know you would be happy to take used cards off their hands.  I promise you will have all the cards you will ever need!

Some of my favorite tags from last year

This simple project is a fun way to keep your kids busy during Christmas break -- and I personally find that doing a project like this, even all by myself, is very relaxing and a great stress reliever.

Have fun with this idea!

Delights of December Day 26 ~ Some ideas for using Christmas cards

Each year I like to display the cards we receive in our front hallway as they arrive. Once I've sent a card in return, I roll up masking tape and tape the cards around the frame of the doorway to the living room. I also tape them to the adjacent wall of the hallway. They pretty much take up the space available and make a very festive display. I keep them up until a couple of weeks after Christmas.

A festive doorway

When the cards come down, they go into a pretty wooden basket. They will reside there until the next year's cards take their place. We like to pull out a card a day and pray for the family or person who sent the card. Ideally, we keep rotating through them. We don't always stick with this, but every year we aim at it!

I should hasten to add that this year, for the first time in a very long time, the card display didn't happen.  The cards never got taped up.  I was so consumed with some handcrafted gifts I was making that I just didn't find time.  I sort of liked the less cluttered look, just for a change, but I'm sure next year I will be back to taping them up.  But for this year, the cards will be going directly into the prayer basket.

So what do we do with the previous year's cards when the present year's cards replace them? Well, we don't throw them all away! Some are so beautiful that I save them to display at future Christmases. For the others, I have several projects for which I like to use old Christmas cards -- gift tags, little boxes, and even what we call in our family a "kissing ball". In the next few days, I'll be sharing instructions for these projects, so stay tuned!

Delights of December Day 25 ~ Red Satin Ribbon

I grew up in the 1950s, and I find myself growing ever more nostalgic for the Christmases of those days gone by. One thing that just seems to say "old-fashioned Christmas" to me is red satin ribbon. It seemed to be used so often in those days to lend a festive holiday touch. I inherited many of my grandmother's Christmas wrappings, so I've been able to use some of her old ribbon.

Some of the vintage cards in my collection are embellished with real satin ribbon!

 Imagine my delight when I discovered that this beautiful ribbon is still available, for a reasonable price. (I purchase mine through Home-Sew, a mail-order and online sewing supply catalog.) The one-half inch or three-quarter inch sizes are most versatile. I use them to wrap packages, to tie bows on the handles of gift bags, to trim crafts, tie up bunches of greenery, and for decorating in many other ways. Using luxurious, vintage-looking satin ribbons to decorate my home and gifts is one way of helping to re-create those happy Christmases of my childhood.

On my Gram's tree, these white reindeer were hung by red satin ribbons.  I used red string on this one.

Merry Christmas!

Mr. T and I hope that all of you have had a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful time of celebrating our Savior's birth!

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."  ~ John 1:14

Our day has been busy but good, and I hope that you have all had a nice day with family, friends and church family too!

Delights of December Day 24 ~ an icicle and snowflake garland

I have a gorgeous evergreen garland (which I got for free) with attached pinecones and berries. I have woven a string of white lights into the garland. I keep it above my multi-paned picture window and change its decor with the seasons. For Christmas, I trim it with glittery iridescent snowflakes and icicles, both plastic. The snowflakes are glitter-coated as well. The lights glimmering against the snowflakes and icicles give a truly magical effect. The nicest thing is that I can keep these trims in place all winter!

Delights of December Day 23 ~ Mulled Cider Mixes

Mulled Cider Mix

It's fun and easy to make little packets of mulling spices for gifts. They produce some very yummy cider and make wonderful small gifts. I often include them in gift baskets for our neighbors or in care packages to faraway family and friends. Here's what you'll need to make these:

* Cinnamon sticks

* Whole cloves

* Allspice berries

* Coffee filters

* Plain white string

Break the cinnamon sticks in 1-inch pieces. For each packet of spices, place 1 tsp. of cinnamon sticks, 1 tsp. of whole cloves and 1 tsp. of allspice berries in the center of a coffee filter. Gather the filter up into a little bundle and tie securely with string.

To package these, I use an idea I found in a Gooseberry Patch book -- Place each bundle of spices in a small brown paper bag. Fold the top of the bag down securely. Make a tag on card stock or half of a file card with these instructions: "Mulled Cider Mix. Place spice bag in large saucepan with 1 quart to 1 gallon of cider. Heat through and enjoy." Then position the tag at the top of the bag and use your sewing machine, threaded with red thread, to sew the tag to the bag, sewing the bag closed in the process. These look so cute and festive!