Christmas Cards
Christmas Cards and Verses
Below you will find information on how to make various Christmas cards, tips and ideas and also video tutorials for you to follow.
Fun Homemade Christmas Card Ideas For You to Send a Very Personal Greeting to Loved Ones
Do you remember why the Grinch stole Christmas? He did it because he was tired of all the commercialism. I can sympathize. 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. 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 using Christmas card templates and stencils. Of course, you can use Christmas stencils the usual way and paint the image onto a card, but there are many other ways to use stencils. I took a few stencils from my collections and explored just how many ideas I could come up with using them to decorate Christmas cards.
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 because 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 (construction paper) down to a 6×8 inch rectangle. Fold in half to create a 4×6 inch card.
Have you found a Christmas stencil that you like? If not, you’ll find many options at your local arts and crafts supply store or on-line. They come as plastic pre-cut stencils ready for painting or printable stencils that you can find on the internet or in book format. Each type has advantages and disadvantages. The pre-cut stencils are ready to go but you need to either go shopping and pick one up or wait for it to come in the mail. They are also more expensive. The printable stencils need to be cut out and that means extra work. However, they are less expensive (or free) and since they are printable you don’t have to shop or wait. Plus printable stencils can be resized to fit your project area with a copy machine or on your computer.
The most basic way to use a stencil in card making is with paint. Just place your stencil on the front of the card. You can tape down the stencil or hold in place. Use a stippling technique or up and down motion with a stencil brush or foam brush to apply paint in the stencil openings. The stippling technique is done to keep paint from seeping under the edges of the stencil openings like a normal back and forth brushing motion does.
However, besides painting, there is another great way to use stencils as Christmas card templates. Trace the openings of the stencil onto colored paper, cut out and glue to the front of the card. No paint to mess with and you can really capture clean lines and color contrast with the paper.
If you found a nice printable stencil, you can eliminate the steps of cutting out the stencil openings and tracing the design onto the paper. Just place the paper with the stencil on top of the colored paper and cut along the lines with a craft knife. Press down firmly to cut through both pieces of paper. Also, make sure that the two pages stay together as you cut. If you are having trouble with this, trim around the stencil and tape it to the colored paper. Glue the image to the front of the card. That’s it! Easy, right?
Well, here are some great ideas for adding creative touches to your card making project:
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. I found that using a light gray instead of black makes a nice background and doesn’t distract from the main image.
If you use a craft knife to cut out a stencil image traced onto the color paper, you not only end up with the pieces needed to glue to the card, the left over paper is also now another stencil. You can use this one to apply paint to a second card.
Be creative and use these stencils in the negative. There are many ways to do this. For example, let’s say you cut out a Christmas Tree stencil 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.
Don’t forget that stencil patterns can be flipped to face in a different direction. For example, a reindeer can face to the left on one card and to the right on another.
If you use a stencil to trace an image onto your paper, your cut out image will have trace marks on them. Gently erase the marks or turn the paper over and glue with the clean side facing up.
Use other items to decorate 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. These make great Christmas ornaments on a tree.
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.
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!
Hi! I’m Penny Vedrenne and I’m on a mission to get you excited about Christmas again. Sounds corny, doesn’t it? Well, if you are a crafter or artist you already know how thrilling it is to create. If you aren’t a crafter or artist, stick around because you may be amazed at what creating for Christmas can do for you and how easy it is.
From this article you learned that there are many easy ways to use stencils to create personalized greeting cards. Well, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Think about making some nice gifts for friends. Plan a gathering with friends to create and share ideas. Get the kids involved. You’ll also save money. But don’t feel guilty about that because you are giving from the heart and that’s what Christmas is all about anyway. Not to mention, you’ll have a great time designing your own Christmas and most likely find the true spirit of the Season!
So, now you’re ready to start looking for ideas. No problem! It’s my job to come up with as many ways as possible to be creative with stencils and then give you the complete how to information! Visit me at Designs From Penny (http://www.designsfrompenny.com) for some of my great stencil designs. The Blogs are full of ideas and information. Plus you’ll find a book of stencils designed as Christmas Cards with a pattern for a matching envelope to decorate.
I hope I inspired you to explore the many ways that you can be an artist with stencils. For more information on stenciling, visit All-About-Stencils (http://www.all-about-stencils.com). You’ll find complete instructions starting at the beginning plus a full section on the Holidays.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Penny_Vedrenne
Simple Christmas Card
A Quick Christmas Card
Christmas Cards
Make Your Own Christmas Cards
By Ian White
Are you tired of sending the same old Christmas cards depicting boring baubles and dreary bells year in and year out? Have you ever thought that you could design better Christmas cards yourself? Why not have a go this year?
The best time to begin collecting material for making Christmas cards is during the previous year’s yuletide season. Collect as many seasonal clippings, ribbons, bows and small decorations as possible from magazines, wrapping paper, gift tags, Christmas cards, advent calendars…the list is endless – you won’t have to look far for inspiration during the Christmas period.
Once you have amassed all of your material, store it in a special craft chest. You may wish to divide your material into different themes and put it into individual drawers in your craft chest.
You can then decide when to begin making cards for next Christmas. This will depend on how much time you have throughout the year and how many cards you wish to make – do you want to make a card for everyone on your Christmas card list or just a few for close friends and family?
Before starting to make the cards, you will need to buy either some card for cutting, folding and making your own card blanks or some ready-made card blanks with envelopes – this is the quickest and easiest way. Look in the crafts-paper crafts-card making section of eBay for good value packs of card blanks and matching envelopes or try your local craft store.
White or cream is a good background color as it enables you to use a variety of colors on top but you don’t have to restrict yourself to this color, you can be as creative as you like. Red and green also make good background colors for Christmas cards.
You may also wish to buy peel-offs, which are stickers with such greetings as ‘Happy Christmas,’ ‘Season’s Greetings,’ etc. They are useful for giving your cards the finishing touch but are not essential, as you could write a greeting using a silver gel pen, for example, or not include a greeting on the front of the card at all.
Sticky pads are another useful addition to your Christmas card craft making kit. These small foam pads with adhesive on both sides give certain images a slightly raised effect, allowing them to stand out from card slightly. They are excellent for giving more prominence to centerpieces.
You could also buy other materials like handmade or mulberry paper but these are not necessary if you have amassed a lot of your own Christmas material.
Alternatively, if you do not have any materials for making the cards, you could buy a Christmas card making kit. This will include several card blanks as well as many bits and pieces that you can use to design and make cards. It may even have suggested designs and instructions, which are great if you lack a little inspiration.
As far as tools are concerned, the only essential tools are a pair of scissors, a ruler and some glue. A glue pen is very useful as it allows you to apply glue very finely to small decorations.
Now the fun begins…just sit down and let you imagination run wild. Try out different designs on the cards without sticking them down. If one design doesn’t work, discard it and begin again but don’t be too judgmental – the idea is to have fun. Some designs will be better than others but you won’t develop your own style if you don’t give your creativity full rein.
As a finishing touch, you could add a little sticker on the back saying ‘handmade by…’ These stickers are available to buy or you could print them yourself from your computer. If people like your cards, you could have orders coming in for next year’s cards and before you know it, you will have set up your own card making business. You could even sell your surplus cards to friends, at local groups and fairs or even on the Internet. eBay is a good place to start selling hand-crafted items online.
If you do begin selling your cards, bear in mind that you can only sell your original designs. If you have copied someone else’s design either from a book, magazine, website or another source, you cannot sell it as it would be a violation of copyright, unless it is explicitly stated that it is a copyright-free design.
So, sit down, relax and enjoy a creative pursuit in the run-up to Christmas. The rewards could be greater than you expect.
Copyright © 2006, Ian White Access 2000 Pty Ltd
Author Ian White is founder of pet-sitters.biz Pet owners list pet-sitting requirements and find those who meet their specific needs. Fast, easy, membership! Dog walkers, pet day cares also welcome! Find a Pet Sitter, Find Pet Sitting Clients The pet friendly alternative to Boarding Kennels.
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I personally like to save all the cellophane and foil sweet wrappers and save any embellishments that are attached to Christmas crackers (once they have been pulled of course) and I re-use parts from gift tags and the greetings from christmas cards that I’ve received to use on my cards for next year. Also any bows and ribbons that my presents were wrapped in.
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Pop up Christmas Card
Make a Christmas Tree
Making Christmas Cards from Scratch
Making Homemade Christmas Cards
Making Christmas cards from scratch is one of the best ways to show the holiday spirit. They take time, energy, care, and show the people whom you may not spend a lot of time with throughout the year that you are thinking of them, wishing them well and that they are important to you.
There are a few things that you need when it comes to card making. If you are new to scrapbooking or card making then the best way to go is to look at supply kits. These include everything that you need in order to make the cards that you want. Some of these even include instructions on how to make various types of designs.
While making everything from scratch is great, it does require an extensive amount of equipment or a very good pair of scissors and a good ruler. The best is to get simply blank cards that have been precut, then simply do whatever type of designs that you wish to have on the cards and sayings. You can either write this yourself or get pre made statements.
For the sake of easy card, making you will need the following materials
* Pre cut card stock and envelopes – This takes the guesswork out of cutting and making sure that everything fits.
* Stickers – These are a great way to take care of a lot of the work that goes into card making, everything from the sayings to the colorful borders and designs can be done with stickers.
* Stamps and Ink – Stamps are great ways to place a variety of different designs on your cards. They can also be used as outlines for coloring.
* Pen – These can gel pens, they work the best, or regular ball pens. Gel pens work the best because they usually do not leave impressions in the cards
* Photo tape – This is small sized double-sided tape, that can be used to adhere photos, or even smaller designs in paper
* Glitter – it is usually best to get the glue type or gel type rather than loose. It makes less of a mess.
These are just the basic supplies. More advanced crafters may want to include a variety of different mediums including ribbons, raised stickers or designs or paper cutting.
The first step is to lay out everything that you want to do and place it where you want on the card in order to get an idea of where everything will go and how it will look when it is done.
It is best to do the outside of the card first in order to allow it to dry before doing the inside if you are adding anything other than writing to the inside.
Once you have allowed the outside to dry and you have added to the inside anything that you wish to add it is time to add whatever messages you would like to add. These messages can be done with stickers that have pre- written messages on if you want to do a signature or you can use the Gel pen to write out a message. Address the envelope before placing the card in side then after making sure that everything on the card is dry simply slide it in and you are all set to send out home made Christmas cards.
Shellie Gardner is the owner of Christmas Light source, a great place to find Christmas Lights. Christmas Light Source is a one stop shopping source for Christmas lighting needs. From hardware to lights and everything in between, they have everything for holiday lighting decor as well as tips, tricks and do it yourself projects.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shellie_Gardner
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Children’s Pop up Christmas Card
Snowflake card
Christmas Verses for you to Use in your Christmas Cards
Christmas Poems: Use Rhyming Christmas Greetings to Make Your Christmas Card or E-Card Special
By Joanna Fuchs
Even though it’s hard to find a rhyming poem in card stores, and rhyme is out of fashion with contemporary poets and poetry critics, people still love them. On the Internet, hundreds of thousands of people searched on the term “Christmas poem” in the month of December alone, in 2004. That doesn’t include searches on Christmas poetry, Christmas rhyme, Christmas verse and Christmas greeting.
Here are some Christmas verses for your cards and e-cards:
The Gift of Knowing You
The Christmas season fills our hearts with joy;
Bright, happy days bring special kinds of pleasure.
We’re wrapped in the excitement of it all,
The sights, the sounds, the smells, the tastes we treasure.
Yet when we have some quiet time to think
About our finest blessings all year through,
We focus on our family and our friends,
And appreciate the gift of knowing you!
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Rhyming poems are harder to write than free verse or prose poems (which modern poets favor), so they are fewer in number and harder to find.
Here’s another Christmas card poem, written especially for folks who spend Christmas in sunny, warm areas, such as Florida and Southern California:
A Sunny Christmas
Every year at Christmas time
There’s not a sign of snow.
Instead we spend our yuletide days
In the sun’s warm cheery glow.
We have the best of Christmas things,
The lights, the gifts, the bells,
(And “snowbirds” who arrive en masse
To fill our beach hotels.)
The glorious weather fits right in
With our happy Christmas mood,
And we can also walk and run
Without having to be snowshoed.
So don’t feel bad for your (location) friends
Who have no snow or ice.
We think our sunny Christmas here
Is a holiday paradise!
##
Start using rhyming poems to make all your greeting cards and occasions extra special. Greeting card poems provide a simple, easy way to make a good impression.
Copyright 2005 by Joanna Fuchs
You’ll find lots of rhyming poems (and a few in free verse) at http://www.poemsource.com Poems are offered in a wide variety of categories, such as anniversary, baby, birthday, Christian, Christmas, father, friendship, graduation, love, mother, New Year’s, teacher, Valentine and wedding. The poems are written by Joanna Fuchs. Contact her through any contact/feedback form at poemsource.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joanna_Fuchs
Cute Card
Acetate window sheet card
Using Christmas Quotes for your Christmas Cards
Christmas Quotes – Making Wonderful Homemade Greeting Cards This Christmas
Peg Bracken said it best when she said, “Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.” Making your own cards this holiday season containing quotes is a wonderful way to make your holiday merry!
Christmas quotes are a fantastic way to express the joy you feel this holiday season. If you are making your own Christmas cards this year, why not use a few wonderful quotes that will warm the heart of your card recipients?
If you are super creative, you can easily make cards for Christmas that are beautiful. Yet, you will still want meaningful words to convey your holiday wishes this year.
What happens when you are not particularly poetic or you have trouble coming up with the perfect words to share with another? The use of quotes can help you overcome creativity issues easily.
What kinds of Christmas quotes work well with cards? You will find that you can use a variety of different quotes for your cards: this means that every card you create can be meaningful and unique.
Quotes of love, inspiration, joy, and motivation are truly wonderful selections for your cards. Personalized Christmas cards that you make yourself with hand selected quotes prove more memorable, and many card recipients save cards each year and hang them out as decorations or store them in keepsake boxes and chests.
Your card recipients will be truly appreciative of the time you take to make the cards and to carefully select the quotations contained therein.
Christmas quotes from famous people or people throughout history are great selections for your greeting cards. You might want to convey the child-like joy that the holiday season conveys by using a quote by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Alternatively, you might want to use a quote that expresses the true meaning of the season.
Quotes can even teach people life lessons that they can carry with them every day of the year.
Sometimes the words chosen by other people aptly expresses how you feel and can stir inspiration in the hearts of others. If you are having trouble thinking of ways to express yourself in unique ways this holiday season, turn to quotes for some poetic inspiration! You will soon discover that the finely chosen words of another can say exactly what it is you have always wanted to say!
Send a unique and beautiful greeting card using these great Christmas Quotes and Christmas Sayings.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Julia_K._Walters
White Christmas card
This Video may give you some ideas and inspiration
And for a Great Window Card Why Not Try This One
Last of all a video for Christmas Decorations (paper handbags)
I hope that this has inspired you to start creating your own Christmas cards ready for next Christmas.
If you have any favorite Holiday Christmas cards that you have created and you would like to share them please Email me photos and details and I will put the best ones on this website.
