EASY and Creative Idea for All Your Holiday Cards and Invitations!

The subtext of this article, however, is How-to Make Everyone in your Office Jealous :) Let me start from the beginning … Once upon a time, my coworker, Melissa, came into the office everyday with a story of a cool craft she did the night before. Wanting to show her up at her own game, I decided to put my creative mind to good use. While looking around my house for inspiration, I stumbled upon six holiday cards and invitations stuffed into two magnet clips on my fridge. “Gee,” I thought, “wouldn't it be great if I could display all of my holiday cards and invitations in a creative way that doesn't look tacky?” And then, the idea came to me … my latest creation and a surefire way to show up Melissa … I call it, “Lauren’s Holiday Card and Invitation Collaboration stemmed from some Competitive Motivation.” OK … probably need to work on shortening the title.

What you’ll need:
• 10(ish) Holiday Cards and/or Invitations … some with designs on the back if possible!
• One-hole punch
• Tape
• Small LED lights (I found mine at Michaels)
• Large piece of cardboard

Step 1:

MOVING ON. Step 1 is to gather all of your Holiday cards and/or invitations. Pick out your favorites or the most colorful/interesting ones to look at. For this project, I used some 123Print Holiday Cards and Invitations from my own collection. If any of your cards have cool designs on the back like mine did, you can use those for an added kick of color! I recommend using 10 cards of different sizes and styles.

Step 2:

Step 2 will take some trial and error. You’ll need to arrange the cards so that they fit together nicely in a rectangle. Note that your cards can overlap a little bit. (Just make sure if you are using invitations for upcoming parties, you don’t cover up the addresses!) Make sure to take a picture of your final formation so you know how to lay them out again after Step 3!

Step 3:

For Step 3 you will need to use a single-hole punch. I like a more “industrial” look for my crafts, so I decided to punch holes around all four edges of all 10 cards/invitations. For a cleaner look, you can punch holes only around the outside edges of the entire montage.

Step 4:

For Step 4, you will need to flip your entire arrangement upside-down. PLEASE NOTE that to look like how you intended, you need to imagine flipping it like how you would a page in a book … it’s not as simple as flipping the pieces over where they are, you need to cleverly flip the cards so when you turn the montage as a whole right-side up, the cards are in the same position as before.

I suggest cutting a cereal box apart (or some other handy piece of cardboard). Carefully slide one side of the cereal box under the arranged cards and the other side on the top of the arrangement, press the two pieces of cardboard together and flip the whole thing over. Then remove the top piece of cereal box cardboard.

Carefully lay small pieces of tape over the lines where two or more cards meet, so that your montage becomes one giant card.

Step 5:

Step 5 is where it gets tricky. You’ll need to first count how many LED lights are on your strand, then figure out how to evenly distribute them along the border of your montage. My strand had 20, so I did 5 lights along the shorter sides and 7 lights along the longer sides. (The corner lights count for both the shorter side and the longer side)

Begin to poke the LED lights through the holes you created, spacing them evenly.

Step 6:

For Step 6, you will once again flip the entire montage over (though this time it will be easier because it is one piece!) and tape up the excess cord from the LED lights.

Step 7:

Now you’re done! Flip your creation over and hang it where you please! And don’t forget to bring it to the office to make your coworkers green with envy (cough cough Melissa).