My mother used to collect vintage and antique postcards. She gave me a box full of them about five years ago. Most of the dates on them are from the early 1900's. I always figured I would use them on some craft project eventually, I just didn't know what or when. This week I decided to finally craft with them. I came up with the idea for these adorable antique postcard Christmas trees. After a little trial and error, I figured out how to make them and they were actually quite simple to do! The best part is that they didn't cost me a cent... I used items I already had around the house :) I started by creating cones with some scrap-booking paper and packaging tape. I used two pieces of 12" x 12" paper and put them into a cone shape and then taped the edges. I wanted the cones to be taller than a single piece of paper would make, so I shaped the first piece and taped it, and then put the second piece inside and shaped it to the first giving it extra height. Then I added a cut piece to the open area that remained. I cut the bottom level and then I made a second cone that was slightly shorter. My cones aren't very pretty, in fact not at all, but they are just for the base so it didn't much matter what they looked like. I ended up taping the entire exterior of each cone to give them extra strength. I cut each of the old postcards into strips and then curled them around a pen to give them a curved look. As I cut the cards I tried to keep stamps and postal markings in tact so they could be read when looking at the trees. After they were curled I started from the bottom up, one row at a time... I used packaging tape to tape each piece to the cone. Below is the first tree as I finished it. Notice how you can see the stamps and postal marks. There are dates from as early as 1905 to about 1915 on this tree. All of the stamps were one cent back then. The second tree I decided to give a different look. I folded each of the cut strips in half and stapled them. This gave them some thickness. Again I made sure to show the stamps and postal markings. Row by row I attached them with the packaging tape. I used packaging tape because it is much stronger and stickier than Scotch tape! This second tree was the easiest to make. It didn't need near as many rows to I made it in about 15 minutes. In the next picture you can read some of the writing on the cards, and see the stamps up close and postal dates. The stars on top I cut out of postcards too. I cut two sides for each and I glued them to the top of each tree. I love how they both turned out. I am not sure where I am going to display them in the house yet. I'm thinking maybe the coffee table is best. There is so much history on the 100 year old post cards that they make for a great conversation piece! Until next time, Happy Decorating! Diana
Don't toss those old Christmas cards. Instead, turn them into gift tags for next year. Find out how on www.drugstoredivas.net.
My inspiration today came from Cottage & Bungalows Magazine
A sleek and beautiful new collection of 5 winter seamless patterns inspired by the frosty designs that decorate our windows at Christmas. A light, simple pattern with cones, branches and twigs - very delicate and slightly vintage. The collection contains 5 different color combinations - bright red, green, blue and calm gray. And of course gold! This pattern is suitable for decorating any of your products, not only of the Christmas theme, but also for products with a winter mood. DOWNLOAD FILES INCLUDE 5 EPS files with vector floral patterns 5 JPEG patterns (4000x4000 pixels, 300dpi) 5 PNG files with transparent background Enjoy it and thanks for choosing my works! Tag @maria_galybina on Instagram or link back to the shop - I love seeing and sharing your work :) LICENSE INFORMATION Please be advised of important CM’s license details! Creative Market License Agreement - Commercial limitation of 5,000 Combined total Physical End Products and Digital End Products. Use in website, application, or video game is prohibited. Important note: Any use of a Licensed Asset for Commercial use must: be significantly different than the original Licensed Asset, require time, effort, and skill to produce and not derive its primary value from the Licensed Asset itself. https://creativemarket.com/licenses/terms/general#commercial Creative Market License Agreement - Extended Commercial 250,000 Combined total Physical End Products and Digital End Products. Use in single website, application, or video game is permitted. Any resale/sublicense of the Licensed Asset in source file form or otherwise competitive with the Licensed Asset is prohibited. Important note: End product may use original pattern without any changes. https://creativemarket.com/licenses/terms/general#extended-commercial Thanks and have a great day)
Knitted Christmas and New Year pattern
