DIY Romantic and Elegant Christmas Cards: Make it Easy with Free Digital Scrapbooking Pages

Preface: I received the charge to come up with some ideas for romantic, do-it-yourself Christmas cards. Some people like the word "romantic" when it comes to making Christmas cards, although, I'm really not one of them. There's just something about that word that grosses me out. (And yes, I also think boys have cooties.) I'll just use a different adjective, and you can read into it whatever you want. How about elegant? It suits me better, and if you happen to make an "elegant" card for someone you're "romantic" with, I don't actually need to know the details.

If you're making your own Christmas cards this year, you obviously have the option of using real-life papers and embellishments, scissors and glue--but digital creations are much more my style. I really struggle trying to keep the ribbon straight as I glue it to the paper and then realizing my card doesn't actually fit into my envelope anyway, and on and on. But digitally, my layers are kept separate until I'm completely satisfied. Even when I do mess up big, I just click on undo and I'm good to go. Plus, with all the fun, free digital scrapbooking resources out there, the only part that's costing me for the card itself is the printing. Here are a few sites that I find extremely valuable when creating my own cards for the holidays.

DIY Red & Green Festive Merry Christmas Cards

You obviously can say whatever you want in Christmas cards you make yourself, but it helps to convey your message with the right papers, embellishments, and fonts. For the card I made (which accompanies this article), I actually just made the red and green papers myself in the free editing program GIMP. For the bell outline, I downloaded and used the free symbol font KR Pick a Holiday 2. And for the background swirls that border the image I used another beautiful free symbol font named Nymphette.

But, if you don't have the time or interest to do the papers and embellishments yourself, you can easily download pretty and free digital scrapbooking supplies from sites like ShabbyPrincess.com. You can find some fun red and green papers and embellishments in the Seasonal Sampler kit and the Holiday Magic kit. Downloading free kits with coordinating papers, ribbons and buttons can simplify the whole card-making process and give you fantastic results.

And while you're already downloading, you may want to pick a few new elegant fonts too, like the free one I used in the sample named Scriptina. Pair your (romantic) text with everything arranged as desired, and you're ready for printing.

DIY Blue & Silver Elegant Winter Cards

Of course, not everyone celebrates Christmas, and sometimes even the people who do celebrate still think red and green can get old. The Seasonal Sampler kit also has some winter pages, and Shabby Princess also has a variety of everyday kits to choose from like Moody Blues and Urban Kiwi. Pick pages end elements that suit your personality.

One of the many great things about digitally creating your own Christmas cards is that you can create one design perfect to give to your siblings, another design to give to your in-laws, and yet another design to give to whomever you want to be a little more personal (or romantic) with. The whole process can be fast, cheap, and extremely easy. Have fun!

Sources:

"1001Fonts.com - Free Fonts." 1001Fonts.com.

"DaFont.com - Free Fonts." DaFont.com.

"Shabby Princess: Free DigiScrap Digital Scrapbooking Downloads." ShabbyPrincess.com.

"What is GIMP: Looking at the Free, Public-Domain Version of Adobe Photoshop." Associated Content.