STOP!
Don’t mail those boring store-bought Christmas cards, make your own! Friends and family will appreciate the effort and it’ll keep the kids busy (for about an hour, but STILL!)
Here are a few of my favorites from Family Fun:
Package five or 10 cards with envelopes, and you’ve got a great gift for doting grandparents and other relatives.
Materials
* Ruler and pencil
* Card stock or construction paper
* Scissors
* Glue stick
* Artwork
Instructions
1. The following directions are for a 4 1/4-by-6-inch card (which fits nicely into a store-bought envelope), but obviously you can adjust the dimensions to any size you like. Using the ruler and pencil, trace a 12 3/4-by-6-inch rectangle onto your card stock or paper and cut it out.
2. Fold the rectangle in thirds, accordion style. From the top third, cut out a window that will fit your artwork, leaving at least a 1/2-inch border around the edges.
3. Slip the artwork behind the window so that it’s centered. Now, glue the back of the artwork and the frame around the artwork to the paper behind them. Place the finished card under a book for about an hour to set.
Tips:
If you don’t want to part with your child’s original artwork or want to use a very large piece of artwork, you can make reduced copies with a color copier.
Let the folks on your list have some fun with this greeting that moonlights as a DIY ornament. And don’t worry, your friends and family don’t need to be craft experts to assemble it!
Materials
* 8 1/2- by 11-inch sheet of card stock or heavy paper
* Craft knife and scissors
* Glue stick
* Card stock in white, black, and orange
* 7- by 1/2-inch piece of red felt
* 6-inch piece of embroidery floss or string
* 6 large black seed beads
* Snack-size ziplock bag
* Clear tape
* A9 or 6- by 9-inch envelope
Instructions
1. Fold the 8 1/2- by 11-inch sheet of card stock in half width wise. Open the card and use a craft knife to cut a 6- by 3-inch rectangle from the front of the card (leaving a 1 1/4-inch border). If you like, glue the cutout inside the card, opposite the window, as we did below.
2. Cut 3 white circles, a hat (ours is 1 1/2 inches wide at the brim), and a 3/4-inch-long carrot from the card stock. (For easier cutting, use our templates.) Fringe the ends of the red felt strip and tie the floss or string into a loop.
3. Place all these parts plus the beads into the ziplock bag, seal it, and tape it behind the window. Finally, add a message letting recipients know that a little glue is all it takes to put together their ornament.
These art cards make extra-special holiday greetings for a relative or friend.
Be sure to check out our other festive ideas for homemade holiday cards.
Materials
* Tacky glue
* Fine sandpaper
* Plain notecards or card stock
* Scissors
* Green paper
* Dimensional paint or colored marker
* Colored sticker dots
* Star sticker
Instructions
1. Glue a piece of sandpaper to the face of each notecard. Cut out a green paper cactus and glue it to the sandpaper. Squeeze lines of dimensional paint or draw marker lines in a zigzag fashion across the cactus to resemble strands of holiday lights.
2. Once the paint dries, add sticker-dot lights and a sticker-star topper.
What could be homier than a pair of mittens drying on a clothesline? This card idea, from the Mollette family of Uniontown, Ohio, was modeled after a card that had been given to a coworker.
Materials
* 8 1/2- by 11-inch natural-colored paper
* Rubber cement
* Fabric remnants
* String
* Cardboard
* Pencil or pen
* Scissors
* Hot-glue gun
* Mini clothespins
* White glue
* Tissue paper
Instructions
1. Start with a piece of 8 1/2- by 11-inch natural-colored paper. Cut each sheet in half to make two cards, and cut to fit another, lighter-colored sheet, rubber-cemented to the paper as the background for the mittens.
2. Draw a mitten pattern on cardboard and cut out multiple mittens from fabric remnants. Using a hot-glue gun, attach each end of the string to the background sheet, then clip the mittens to the string with mini clothespins (available at craft stores). Use white glue to attach small squares of white tissue paper.
Tips:
This card can be a terrific gift when given in sets, and can also be customized for special occasions, replacing the mittens with, say, diapers as a baby announcement.
Holiday decorations help you spell out your season’s greetings loud and clear.
Be sure to check out our other festive ideas for homemade holiday cards.
Materials
* Plain notecards or card stock
* Colored markers
* Metal-rim key tag
* Scissors
* Black scrap paper
* Glue dots
* Star sticker
* Candy cane stickers
Instructions
1. For each card, first create a mini ornament that will also serve as the letter “o.” Use markers to draw a snowman’s face on a key tag. Then cut out a black paper top hat and stick it in place with a glue dot. Drape the key tag string over the top of the notecard and secure it to the back with a star sticker.
2. Now finish spelling the word joy by adding candy cane stickers: one turned upside down to serve as a “j” and the other cut in two and reassembled to create a “y,” as shown.
You can find more homemade Christmas card ideas here, or here.
Christmas song #3 Blue Christmas by Sheryl Crow
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