Crafting Lifestyle


Today's Crafting is more for the Soul than for survival!



christmas card ideas





Designing Your Personal Christmas Greeting



Here are a few Christmas card ideas that will help you personalize your holidays and make everyone feel very special! I know the season is busy but slow down, have a cup of hot cocoa and enjoy the feeling of an old fashion Holiday!





So, the Grinch stole Christmas! He did it because he was tired of all the commercialism. I understand. I long for the times when Christmas was more about spending time with loved ones and less about stressing over finding the perfect gift when little handmade mementos were more valuable than a department store gift card (no matter the amount). Just call me sentimental, but my favorite part of Christmas is getting together with friends to make cookies, spending time with the kids coloring Santa Claus pictures and conjuring up any Christmas crafts that I can think up.

That being said, I have come up with some great Christmas card ideas. First, I designed a few stencils (of course you can find them right here) and then I set about exploring the variety of card making techniques that I could apply to these designs. And even I was impressed.


Free Christmas Tree Stencil



So, now I want to share my Christmas card making ideas with you because I know when you take the time to relax and immerse yourself into a fulfilling project like this you will not only get into the spirit of the season you will also make someone feel very special that you took the time to make something special for them!





Let’s start with the basics of card making and then move on to the creative ideas, alright? Cut a sheet of colored paper down to a 6×8 inch rectangle. Fold in half to create a 4×6 inch card. Put this on the side for later.


Print the stencil and cut out design. Then place it on top of another sheet of colored paper and trace the pattern. Cut along the lines with a craft knife. Press down firmly to cut through both pieces of paper. Glue the image to the front of the card. That’s it! Easy, right?



A Few Choice Words...



Well, here are some great ideas for adding a creative touch:

Words are powerful. How about putting some traditional holiday greetings on the card behind your stencil image? It’s easy. Just type your message (Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas) on a Word Processor. Set the margins so that the message will print on your 4×6 inch cover and print on the card stock. Experiment with different fonts and colors for your card.





Don’t forget that even though these stencils are created to be cut outs, you can also apply paint through them. In fact, once you've cut out the image from the construction paper, you now have a stencil for painting more cards.


Be creative and use these stencils in the negative. There are many ways to do this. For example, let’s say you cut out the tree for one card and now you have a piece of colored paper that has an image of a tree cut out of it. Cut that piece into a 4×6 inch rectangle with the tree in the middle and glue it to the front of another card of a different color. Or you could trim around the tree and create just an outline.



Handmade is a Sign of Love



You know what would be great with these personal touch Christmas Cards? A wonderful gift made by you too! Get some great ideas about these kind of Christmas Crafts.





Don’t forget that these stencils can be flipped to face in a different direction. For example, the reindeer can face to the left on one card and to the right on another.


After you have used your stencil to cut out the first image (as described above) you will have a traditional stencil with an opening which can be used to trace the image onto other sheets of colored paper for multiple cards. Of course, these images will have trace marks on them, so gently erase the marks or turn the paper over and glue with the clean side facing up.


Find other ways to decorate the cards. Glue a festive ribbon along the bottom or use some spray glitter to give it a glamorous look.


Use a hole punch tool to make cute circles from the construction paper and glue randomly over the card as snow or just decoration.



As Unique As A Snowflake



Click here to see how to Make A Snowflake Gift Tag like these cuties and ...





...you'll find another Free Christmas Stencil.


Also, paper tends to get rippled when glued, so after the glue has dried, place the cards in a heavy book to flatten them back out.


Reduce the size of any image on a copy machine. Cut out the image to decorate the envelope and match the card.



Match the Card and the Gift Bag


Use the same stencil patterns from the card to decorate a plain white bag for the gift! How cute is that?





Now, I know you can come up with many other creative Christmas Card Ideas. After all, it’s that personal touch that you are shooting for, right? And don’t forget that even in the end the Grinch found out that Christmas was something that comes from the heart!


Merry Christmas and Happy Stenciling!

Penny


So, you've seen how to use stencils to for Christmas card ideas and then with personalized gift, what about some unique gift bags? Read on at Christmas Craft Ideas.





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