vintage christmas card display tutorial

last year, right before christmas, i came across a 1950s stationer's stock of christmas card samples at an estate sale. i think i picked up just over 50 cards for around $5.00, which is a great deal considering how amazing the designs and colors are - i would have gladly paid more.

i wanted to display the cards around the house this year and i briefly considered a garland across the door; this idea was quickly nixed, however, as i've been a bit garland-mad of late (the holidays will do that to you). instead, i came up with a minimalistic display incorporating one of my favorite vintage accessories - wooden hangers!

to make a christmas card display, you'll need:
1. vintage wooden hangers.
2. a drill and drill bit. make sure the drill bit corresponds to the thickness of your string.
3. string/twine; scissors; miniature clothespins; a tape measure; a marker or pen.
4. your choice of christmas cards, new or old.

to make the display:

5. arrange your selection of cards to see how many you can get across the width of your hanger. i could get about three cards across without crowding them.

6. measure your hanger and mark off where you'd like your holes to be. my hanger measured almost 16" - i made marks at 2", 8" and 14".

7. drill holes where you've made your marks. safety first!

8. cut lengths of your string. hold your hanger up and determine how long you'd like your display to be - i cut each string at approximately 36".

9. secure the string on the hanger by knotting a loop through each hole.

10. use the miniature clothespins to secure your cards to the string. hang your display and enjoy!

it takes a little bit of a balancing act to get each side level and i played around a bit with the arrangement before i was happy with the dispersion of color and orientation (portrait vs. landscape). all-in-all, though, it was a super easy, fast and inexpensive project (i had all of the materials on hand).  

i ended up making two displays for different areas of the house. i love being able to see all the cards during the season and i think it would make a great postcard or snapshot display for the rest of the year.

how do you display your cards?

(note: here's the non-christmas version of the display!)