diy: easy card holder

Is this a familiar sight for you?

Our fridge pretty much looked like this during our first Christmas in the house.  I loved having our cards displayed, but it got to be a pain when we were getting in and out of the fridge.  The dogs would knock cards off with their tails, the tape would rip and the card would fall to the floor... sometimes they were more of a hassle than anything.  So, I was determined to come up with a different solution for hanging them up.  I headed over to Pinterest to do some research and came up with a couple of ideas I liked.  My husband and I headed to the hardware store to figure out the rest.

What I really wanted to do was find an old shutter and use that... buttttt these days (thank you Pinterest) they are not that easy to come by, and usually have a hefty price on them because they have become so sought after.  So, we ditched that idea.  We were wandering the aisles and I came across the molding section.  I found rectangle shaped molding and thought that would be a good place to start.  My husband chimed in that we had left over chicken wire in the garage and suggested we staple it to the molding.  A quick coat of spray paint and I would be all set!

This project can easily be done for under $20.  The best part: you choose the size and shape of the frame, the color, the clothespins, etc.  You can personalize this as much as you want!  You could even stencil a design or paint a monogram onto the frame.  Ours is pretty simple which works well for us.  I also like that the size is not "unlimited", so when the frame gets full I know it is time to start recycling some old cards.

At Christmas we still have to use the fridge for a little bit of "overflow" space, but this card holder works great for us all year long!