Fortunately, though, other people do not suck. We get cards from Steve's coworkers and from some family members and friends. I feel awful that we don't reciprocate. Maybe one of these years. :)
I do save all of the cards with our Christmas decorations so we can look at them again years down the road. We're amassing quite a stack!
While all the cards are pretty and festive, every once in a great while we get one that I absolutely love. This year we got one that I didn't want to keep hidden away with the other cards, so I decided to turn it into a piece of art.
This is how the little wall in our entryway usually looks:
For Christmas, I removed two of these pictures and replaced them with seasonal art - a card that I framed ages ago and a framed poinsettia cross-stitch that Steve's mother found at a second-hand shop.
Steve and I went to the dollar store today and got a frame that would go great with our peach-colored wall. In case I couldn't remember what size the card was (my memory is really flaky lately), I took a quick picture of it with my phone with two rulers measuring two sides:
This picture really doesn't do this card justice. I don't know if any of them will.
Since it's an odd-sized card (5.5" x 8"), we bought an 8" x 10" frame, and I cut a piece of taupe cardstock to that size. I adhered the card on it and wrote on the inside some basic information - the full names of who the card is from, who it was given to (our full names), and the year. That way when it ends up at a second-hand store decades from now and someone decides to take it apart, there will be a little bit of history there. Call me sentimental.
Here's the finished result:
No, it really doesn't look as good in pictures. The birds and the ornaments on the trees are metallic and really pop. You'll just have to come see it in person.
And here's how that wall looks now:
You can see the peach a little better in this picture. I had to close the dining room curtains and turn on the entryway light because there was quite a glare in all three pictures.
Now that that's all done, I took everything down and put the frames in a bin. I should have framed the card sooner so I could have enjoyed it longer, but there's always next year.
I have one more picture to replace. That can wait until next Christmas, I think.
