Make-Your-Own Christmas and Greeting Cards

I’m not a crafty person. Well, I’m wily… 🙂 – but not crafty.

If it’s outside the realm of baking or cooking, I can’t do a single craft. I’m not even a half-decent cookie or cake decorator.

One thing I really love is making things pretty. I’m not crafty enough to make a lot of things from scratch, so I’m more the ‘buy a mug and stick pretty things on it’ rather than the ‘go to a pottery class and spin and bake my own mug’ kind of girl. Mine would come out looking a bit misshapen, to say the least (trust me, we did this in Grade 4 and I have never forgotten what a complete failure my ‘creation’ was).

One thing I do enjoy doing though, if I’m home one night with nothing to do and there’s no decent book for me to delve into, I get out my craft box, which consists of blank greeting cards and envelopes and a whole bunch of decorations, stamps and other pretty things :).

A trip to Michael’s is definitely called for though (or a dollar store would probably do for a lot of what you’ll need).

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My kit now consists of:

• a pack of blank white greeting cards and envelopes
• a pad of card stock in different colours
• ribbons, flowers, adornments of various shapes, sizes and colours (I scour the sale bins pretty well – the best place to find random pretty things at a bargain price :))
• stamps and ink pads
• Elmer’s liquid glue (clear)
• scissors
• ruler

I made my friend Tara a baby card as it was her baby shower this past Friday (the pink and blue flower I chose before I knew the gender – it had both colours in, so it worked!):

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In the past I’ve made thank you cards and birthday cards, and lately I sat down to get some Christmas cards done up:

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There’s no real way for me to give you ‘directions’ because these are all about being creative and going with your own theme. But here are a few tips and recommendations!

• Buy individual letter stamps. It’s cheaper than buying endless stamps that have just one message, and gives a really cute traditional typewriter-type feel to the card
• Because I’m using individual letters, I stamp along a ruler to keep them all in one line. I also limit my message to short words, as it eliminates the risk of a long line that’s more likely to slope down or up or have irregular spacing between the letters. Plus having short words only gives a minimalist feel to the cards – I did this especially on my holiday cards (“peace”, “joy” and “noel” are examples) and with my friend’s baby shower card (“baby” says it all I think!)
• I’m a big fan of layering squares or rectangles of card stock in different colours, and angling them differently to create a splash, standout effect
• Run strips of ribbon or pretty coloured, shiny, reflective or glittery card along the top of your greeting card to act as a partial border. It looks different and chic compared to a regular border, and there’s less risk of spacing issues
• Choose one splashy adornment for each card, whether it’s a stamp, flower or butterfly (as examples) and let it dictate your colour scheme for the card. You can always put a message and stamp words inside the card, so don’t feel like the front has to contain everything
• Remember that there’s an advantage to making your own cards – you can customize the card to fit who you are giving it to! So if your best friend’s favourite colour is green, give her a card with green detailing on for her birthday. For my friend’s baby shower, because I know she’s having a boy I stuck with a primarily blue colour scheme

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Those are my tips. I KNOW there are way craftier people out there so feel free to leave your tips and tricks in the comments section.

The only way I can enjoy making these cards is to not worry too much about the finished product. I’m not trying to make a Hallmark card, all perfect edges and lines – they exist, and they do a great job of them! I’m just trying to make something that I enjoy making for someone who hopefully will appreciate the effort I put into making them a handmade card. So if it looks imperfect, I shake it off. This is not the time to be a perfectionist, not unless you’re trying to sell them and go into business against Hallmark!

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If you sit down to get crafty, send me pics of your handmade cards!

I partied it up this week – if you want more crafty ideas for the holiday season, check out the links here:

• CraftoManiac‘s Craftomaniac Monday 
• Singing Three Little Birds‘ Inspire Me Monday
• C.R.A.F.T.‘s Making Monday Marvelous
• Marvelously Messy‘s A Marvelous Mess party
• The Gunny Sack‘s What’s in the Gunny Sack? party
• So Very Creative’s So Creative Party Time
• You’re Talking Too Much‘s Meet Me Monday
• DIY Home Sweet Home‘s More the Merrier Monday
• Ask Anna‘s Weekend Warrior link party
• Dittle Dattle‘s Amaze Me Monday