Holiday Cards, Christmas

 Hello again,

My cute little arts tote- thanks again Debbie!

     I’m back again, this time to show one of my favorite crafts- homemade cards! This hobby is something I picked up a long time ago and though I don’t remember how or why I got started, cards are something I love to make for other people. I think part of my fascination comes from the written word as well as getting a hand-written card from someone else (still so much better than an e-mail in my opinion).  I used to spend hours making just a few, but as time has gone on I have tried to simplify and make cleaner, more professional looking cards in less time.

Material List:

·      An assortment of stickers

·      An assortment of paper

·      Scissors and/or Paper cutter

·      Glue, double-sided tape, glue dots, or other adhesive

·      Blank card sets with envelopes

·      (Optional) yarn, hole-punch, aluminum foil

 So Ho Ho Ho, here we go (“present” style card):

Finished Card

Step 1: Assemble all your supplies. For this project, I used a paper cutter, two different kinds of paper, adhesive roll-on glue dots, stickers, scissors, and a blank card set.

Step 2: First, I lined up the left side and bottom with my red construction paper and then cut the excess away from the card. This forms your base or background layer.

Step 3: The next step was cutting the fancy green paper into strips to make “ribbons.” In my card, you need three strips (2 of equal size and a third a bit thicker), but a more traditional package would need only two to form a “+” shape.

Some assembly required- Adding the "naughty" tag to the card

Step 4: To add another dimension without adding a lot of time to make this card, I decided to put a “naughty” tag on the present (using off colored paper, a pen, a hole punch, scissors, and grey yarn). Cut a small length of yarn and tie a loop through the tag.

Step 5: After you have your loop, glue down 2 out of the three strips, one horizontal and one vertical (my vertical are slightly off center because I thought it looked better with two stripes).  Slip the tag through the third strip and place about the center of the card, then glue this “ribbon” down as well.

Step 6: Secure the  “naughty” tag with a bit of glue to keep in place and you are done with this card.

Oh Christmas Tree  (the triangle tree card)”

Finished product

 Step 1: Assemble all your supplies. For this project, I used multiple scraps of paper, a saying sticker, adhesive roll-on glue dots, aluminum foil, scissors, and a blank card set.

Step 2: First, I lined up the left side and bottom with my red construction paper and then cut the excess away from the card. This forms your base or background layer.

Step 3: The next step was cutting triangles in different papers (in shades of green) to make the tiers of the tree.  I also cut a brown “stump” from the top of a brown paper bag.

Mid assembly of the tree. Egads, the coloring on this picture is awful.

Step 4: I placed the “celebrate” sticker at the bottom of the card and started the tree on top, placing first the stump, then triangle by triangle, getting smaller and smaller until I got to the top of the tree.

Step 5:  Lastly, I cut a small circle out of aluminum foil and put it as the tree topper (though another good idea is a gold star sticker or a yellow flower jewel sticker). Tada, your tree is done – if only it was that easy to put up the tree in real life.