DIY Christmas Cards

One thing I've never been very fond of, or more to the truthful point, very good at is sending out Christmas cards.  Oh, I have wonderful lofty idea's and plans to send out scads of cards each year.  I buy them, address them, and set them aside waiting to be stamped.   However, once they have been set aside there they stay. 

The same lofty idea entered my mind a couple of weeks ago and off my thoughts wandered to all the people I would need to send them to.  Fortunately, this is one of those times when being tight financially came in handy - it stopped me from buying a whole stack of more cards that may very likely end up in a waiting to be mailed pile again.

Instead, I went to my craft cupboard in my laundry room and took out a box I know I had put previous Christmas cards into.  Imagine my embarrassment to see cards dated as far back as 2008 that were waiting to be sent.

So, being the imaginative and crafty type of person I am I set out on a new adventure in Christmas cards.  DIY projects.  My thought process was two fold:
1. I really don't have the money to spend on another stack of cards that will become another one of my good intentions. 
2. If I make my own cards for friends and family I can personalize them to their specific tastes AND I'll be more likely to get them out due to all the work put into them.  Smart eh?

I also had a bunch of old cards that I have received over the years that I have since taken the pictures off of, or kept the sayings of the ones I liked to use for crafts that the kids might like. 

I went one step further and found my bags of gift bags that have been sitting around for far too long that I just can't seem to part with.  Some of those came in handy to cut and use as well.

This combined with my scrapbooking papers and any other craft materials I had on hand, my adventure in DIY Christmas Cards began.

Below is a sampling of 2 that I have started.  Two completely different styles, but both very effective and specific.  I already have in mind who they will be for.  (I've also included the inside of the more country styled one.)

The top one is a combination of old cards, card stock paper and scrapbooking paper.  Each piece of the "quilt" is different pieces of the scrapbooking paper.  The "seam" is actually one of those pages too, I just cut that out of the rest of the paper.

The bottom one is a combination of the frame of a wedding card actually, card stock, ribbon and the bell is taken off of one of the gift bags.  I'm thinking of adding another one to the opposite corner.

 

 

It might seem like a lot of work, but that's ok.  That's the beauty of it.  You may not have a lot of money to do all those things you might normally wish to do for gifts.  Personalize a card, put your heart in it and it's amazing what will turn out.

 

I'd love to see any card or other craft idea's you have for Christmas.  I'm always looking for new idea's, especially ones I can do with the kids.  These I will be showing to my older daycare kids tomorrow who, will most likely want to start doing one of their own right away.