Tiny Prints Christmas Cards (And My Very First Giveaway!)

Yes, yes.  I know it's still October.  Perhaps I should be posting something Halloweeny.  (Soon enough, soon enough...)  I'm a planner, though.  I'm already thinking about this year's Christmas cards.  We did our family pictures a few weeks ago, so I'm all ready to go.

My favorite place for Christmas Cards is Tiny Prints.  Seriously, their cards are so cute.  I used them for my Christmas card last year.  Don't you love it?!

I'm having a hard time deciding which card to choose this year--they're all amazing!  Check out all these great Christmas card designs!  (And, of course, there are many, many more to choose from!  These are just a few of my favorites.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you decide to use Tiny Prints for your Christmas cards this year, they've got quite a few deals over on their Special Offers page.

And, you're in luck!  I'm hosting my VERY FIRST giveaway today!  (I'm pretty excited about that.  :)  )  You can win your very own adorable Tiny Prints Christmas Cards!

The great people at Tiny Prints are providing a promo code for $50 off your total order (not including shipping and cannot be combined with any other promos) for me to give away to one of my lucky readers!  To enter, just leave me a comment!  I'll announce the winner on October 29th.



Disclosure: I was given a set of holiday cards from Tiny Prints for this review. All opinions are my own.

Christmas Project Past

I made this wreath several years ago, for one of my very first Christmases as a mother. It's like the one we had when I was growing up. I'm pretty sure my mom got the pattern for it out of Good Housekeeping.

By the time I made it, I didn't have the pattern, just a little instruction from Mom and my memories of what hers looked like.

It's basically just a tube of fabric with a foam wreath form inside (you have to cut the foam to put the fabric on).  And then, I tacked the bow on to the front.

It's not an evergreen wreath or an ornament wreath.  It's not yarn wrapped.  It's not trendy at all.  But I love it.  I love the bright red bow and ric-rac.  I love the ruffles.  I love the cute Christmas tree fabric.  And, I love that it is like the one I grew up with.  It reminds me of coming home from school to find that my mom had decorated for Christmas because the wreath was on the door.

Do you have any decorations in your home that remind you of your childhood?

Tree Skirt (and a Mini-Tutorial)

I've never really liked my tree skirt. I bought it when I was a newly-wed and it was the cutest tree skirt in that particular store on that particular day. Plus, I like to think that my taste has improved with age.

It wasn't really bad exactly, just not really my style anymore.

So, this year, I decided to make a new one.  And, best of all, it's simple, fast, cheap, and easy.  Because, Christmastime is busy enough as it is, right?

I bought some inexpensive felt and laid my old tree skirt on top of it.  I basically just traced the old tree skirt, but with scallops.  I did the bowl trick again for the scallops, but this time I marked a spot on the bowl with tape so that all my scallops were the same size.

After doing the first layer, I shifted the tree skirt/makeshift pattern up and over to make the next smaller circle out of a different color of felt and did the same tracing thing again.  (In retrospect, I should have just done the pencil-on-a-string compass trick to make them all exact circles, but I didn't care enough for that kind of exactness on this particular afternoon.)

When I got all my scalloped circles done, I cut up one side of them all, with a hole in the middle.  I then laid them neatly around my tree.  The whole thing took me no more than a half-hour.

Perhaps before I put it away after Christmas I will sew all the layers together, but the felt layers stick nicely to each other with just friction, so I don't really need to.

I like my new tree skirt.  It's a little bit vintage and a little bit funky.  I like it's bright colors.  And it looks great with the eclectic ornaments on our tree.  And, to think, it only took me 30 minutes!

Poinsettia Headband

I went to a Christmas party on Friday night. And, I wanted something festive to wear. I wore a green sweater (because of course my clothing must color-coordinate with the Christmas theme!) and decided to make myself a festive poinsettia headpiece.  (Note:  I'm obviously not wearing a green sweater in the below picture. You think I had time to make a headband AND photograph it right before the party?)

And yes, I did make it right before the party.  Like, the babysitter is arriving and I'm still hot-gluing.

I pretty much made it up as I went, comparing it occasionally to the poinsettia plant my sweet friend gave me for my birthday.  I wanted the middle to be authentic (because that's how I roll) and have the tiny yellow flowers that real poinsettias have amongst their red and green leaves.  But, I didn't have any yellow beads.  So, dear readers, you know what I used?  I used a pair of pliers to cut the heads off of some of my sewing pins and then I hot glued them to the flower.  Yep.  I'm a little nuts.  But, hey, they look cute, right?  Mission accomplished.

How do you display your Christmas cards?

Growing up, my parents always sat the Christmas cards they'd received on top of our piano. My husband's parents taped theirs to the wall. I've seen card wreaths and garlands. There seem to be hundreds of ways to display your Christmas cards. This is mine.

I use 3M tape to attach three ribbons to our basement door and clip the cards to the ribbons as we receive them.

Years ago, I found a bunch of cute, Christmas-themed, tiny clothespins.  That's what I use to attach the cards.

The ribbons are fairly short because I still have a little guy around the house who would love to yank them down.  But, as my family grows, I may replace the ribbons with longer ones.

It doesn't really matter, though, because I can fit quite a few cards on those ribbons.  The early-birds get the best, and most visible, spots though.  :)

Speaking of Christmas cards, have you gotten yours ready to send out yet? If not, you may want to check out the adorable holiday cards at Tiny Prints. I used Tiny Prints for my youngest's baby announcement and I think their stuff is super-cute.

Aren't those cards cute?!  Check out more of their cards here.  

Disclosure: I was given a set of holiday cards from Tiny Prints for this review.  All opinions are my own.