One of my fondest memories of Christmas as a child was all the Christmas cards we received. We would get so many cards we started using them to decorate. My mother would hang them around the house and over the holidays I would lie on the couch looking at all the beautiful artwork, and be inspired to make my own. I have always loved homemade cards, so thought it would be fun to make some Christmas cards with my little creatives. These are perfect projects to give away to teachers, Godparents, and close family and friends. I find the best way to approach card making is to choose a few materials to make them with, but keep the materials limited so the creative thinking can be put towards how to use the materials, instead of which materials to use. The less we have to use, the more creative we have to be in our thinking. A good tip would be to have 1 main material and 1 or 2 accents. For example our main material was colored foam paper, and our accents were glitter paper and sequins. The other thing that helps, is coming up with a theme, our theme was a simple Christmas tree. I cut out the tree triangles, then let my creatives glue them down and decorate.
Some other ideas of simple yet meaningful symbols would be a wreath, a star in night sky, Chanukah candles, a dreidel or an ornament shape that they can decorate. For the older kids you could even try a nativity scene. Why not sit down with them and create a card too. I find creating with my little creatives always inspires me, and you’ll be sure to inspire them too!
Card Supplies:
This list contains affiliate links.
- Card Stock – To use as the base of your card. We went for a brown card stock paper that we had lying around the house, but any heavier weight paper or card will work, even poster board or water color paper.
- Paper – Use what you have, we found some gorgeous glitter paper, which we used for accents, and we also used some colorful foam ‘paper’, but you can use construction paper, or scrap book paper (patterns are always fun!)
- Scissors
- Glue
- Flourishes – Keep it simple with 1 or 2 flourishes (examples):
PARENT TIP: If your little creatives love using up all the glue, like mine do, give them a little dish with some glue and a plastic paint brush
Make It:
1. FOLD (and cut if needed), your card stock to the size card you’d like.
2. CUT out your background. Adding a background on your card helps give it a nice little boarder (for our tree above we used yellow).
3. DECORATE your card.
- CUT out the main shapes of your card.
- GLUE them down.
- ACCENT the card with your flourish materials.
DISCUSS:the symbol you have chosen to put on your card. What does it mean? Talk about the different ways you can use the same materials.
My Take Away:
Homemade cards have endless possibilities about what you can use to make them. I am very much like my daughter in the fact that I want to use ALL the materials, or have everything available ‘just in case’. However, when I limit myself and my children to only a few materials at a time, the more the cogs turn. The less we have to work with the more creative we have to be with what we’re given. So much of the time simple is better. (However, I will relish in those times it’s not!)
Do Tell: Leave a comment below
- What materials did you end up using?
- Did you keep it simple or go complex?
- What’s your best card making tip?
