Let's Make Our Own Christmas Cards

Sending out Christmas cards is a timeless tradition. Some families send them out throughout the month and others buy cards to pair with a gift. Sending out a Christmas card during this time of the year is a little thing you can do to show your friends and family members that you are thinking about them. Buying cards can be really expensive, yeah I'm looking at you Greeting Card company, but that shouldn't stop someone from sending a card to someone they care about.

You don't need to buy a fancy card to send out this holiday season, in fact you can always make them yourself! There are so many Instagram video tutorials, Pinterest tutorials and even some Blogmas posts from other bloggers showing off how to make a great card all by yourself. So this weekend, I went to work on making some of these DIY Christmas Cards and here's how they turned out!

I'm going to be completely honest with you, I could have done a lot better. I feel bad for my friends who are going to get the cards I didn't do the best on. But what really matters is that you always try your best and as long as it comes from the heart that's all that matters. Here are a few tips I have if you're going to attempt to make any of these cards.

The card with the flat ornaments is probably the easiest one you can make. For all my beginner crafters out there, this card is going to be your best friend. Pick the paper you want to use as the color for an ornament, and to get a perfect circle shape use a cup to trace the circle. And voila a perfect circle! Then when you want to create the ornament topper, cut out a mini trapezoid. Glue it all down, make a line from the ornament topper to the edge of the card and write down what you want your card to say. And then you're all done!

For the Starbucks Cup card, this one was also quite easy to make. Cut a tall Starbucks cup in half along the seam. To give it a pop of color, I hot glued the edges of the cup onto a piece of green paper and then glued the green paper on the card. Then write whatever you want it to say. Pro tip, get a slightly bigger envelope. The addition of the cup onto the card makes it a little bulky.

When it comes to the card with the Christmas tree and reindeer, this one was not my proudest crafting moment. The green paper I used for the tree was just too small. I was trying to upcycle some green scraps I have collected over the years. The scraps were too small to make the 3D tree, yeah that's supposed to be 3D. I ended up gluing it all down because I was ashamed at how funky it looked. So if you want to make it 3D like it is supposed to be, using bigger pieces of paper will be a lifesaver. As for my fingerprint reindeer, less is more. The lighter one was used with less marker, while the darker one had more. Make sure you leave just the right amount of room to connect the body to the head, otherwise it will just look wonky like mine.

For the card with the two Christmas tress on it, this was me trying to redeem myself from the ugly tree I made with the fingerprint reindeer. I chose some different shades of green paper to cut into different triangle shapes and glued them starting with the largest on bottom and smallest on top. This is craft is so easy and simple and it looks so cute!

The 3D ornament card was the first one I attempted to make, and with this one I bit off more than I could chew. Each ornament needs three circles, so use a cup to make the perfect shape. Then once you have them all cut out you fold them in half and glue one half to another half. This is where things got tricky, it turns out I can't cut a circle to save my life. Some were too big and others too small, but it wasn't that huge of an obstacle. When you have the circles lined up you can measure and cut them to make sure they are even. While I like the idea of the 3D ornaments, I think I'll stick with the flat ones since it is a lot easier.

My attempt to make Christmas cards shows you that you don't have to be a fancy artist or calligrapher to make a decent looking card. Making a card is a better option than buying a card. It will save you money, and it will really show the person you are sending it to how much you care. Take a look at what you have lying around your house, this is a great opportunity to take something old and make it into something new. Happy crafting and good luck! Until tomorrow.