How to Make Three Unique Christmas Cards

Anyone can go and buy a box of Christmas cards and sit one day, writing messages and then posting them off into the mail. If you'd like to create a more personal card here are three simple, easy and special ideas to try this year.

The Christmas Cardinal of Happiness

The Christmas bird or red northern cardinal is perfect for a layered paper Christmas card that brings its cheery hint of red combined with a foil folk art branch and a Christmas wish that fits those secular friends of yours.

Materials needed:

Almost every community has a paper shop these days where you can find a huge variety of papers for card making or scrap booking. If you watch for sale specials you can often find special card making paper on sale and reasonable. On a recent trip to my local Hobby Lobby store I found advance Christmas papers for $.25 cents a sheet! I can make two cards from that one sheet combined with accent papers from others.

Heavy weight red or green copy paper or lightweight cardstock for my card base.

White handmade looking parchment paper.

Scraps of Christmas foil gift wrap in red, green, gold, silver and blue

Christmas green fine tip marker

Black fine tip marker

Exacto knife or rotary cutter to cut cardstock

Ruler to make straight lines

Good quality glue stick (don't use Elmer's school glue sticks!)

Simple outline pattern for a folk art looking redbird (I found one in a Mary Engelbreit book, Crafts to Decorate Your Home. It was for a place mat design and it was a blue bird, but I liked the folk art look of the bird and the flower and decided to adapt it for Christmas.) You can find simple cardinal designs in coloring books, online free patterns or even trace one from a previous Christmas card. You can download this free cardinal and dove pattern from Better Homes and Garden to use for this project also.

Method to make card:

Step one: Fold the red or green paper in half horizontally and cut into two pieces.

Fold one of the pieces in half horizontally to make your base card. It should measure 4 ¼ by 5 ½ inches and will fit in a 4x 6 envelope. If you want a larger design don't cut the paper into two pieces and you'll have a 8 ½ by 5 ½ card.

Step two: Out of the white parchment paper, measure ½ inch smaller rectangle than your card size and after marking the line, tear the paper. You can use a special tearing tool that can be purchased or lay a ruler along the line and gentle tear, holding the ruler tightly in place.

Step three: With a glue stick like Scotch Brand, glue the white torn paper to the front of your red or green card. I like to give it a snowier look, so before I glue it on, I give a light dusting of spray adhesive, (very light!) and then dust with crystal glitter. Let dry and shake off excess before continuing.

Step four: Using the red card paper trace around your folk art bird pattern. The one I used has three pieces, the bird body and two smaller wing sections. I put the bird together on the front of my white card section by first gluing down the bird body, then adding the two wing sections. With a black fine tip marker, I mark wing feather lines and tail feather lines and a black dot for the eye. Out of a small piece of gold foil, I cut a tiny beak and glue it to the card design. I place the bird off center slightly to the right side so I have room to add my Christmas folk art floral border to the left.

Step five: With a green fine tip marker I draw a curving green line straight up the right side of the white paper. At three points along the green stem, I free form draw on three easy little triangle green leaves. I then cut out some free form circles and ovals from the Christmas foil papers, along with three shiny green leaves. I make three sets of folk art floral circles and ovals, overlapping a large oval with a smaller oval and a circle on top. They look like folk art little flowers when you're finished.

Step six: I glue on my flowers and leaves along the stem.

Step seven: Inside the card I either type up a favorite quote that matches the season and print it out on the white parchment paper. Cut and tear around the message and glue inside the card. I add one more simple green line with two leaves and one more folk art flower from the foil papers as an accent along the bottom or side of my message.

Final step: I then add a handful of bird seed to the card glued inside a handmade sheer silk packet for good luck in the coming year. I make the silk sheer packet by cutting out 2 1 inch by 1 ½ inch pieces of sheer material like organiza. I sew the two pieces together on my sewing machine but you can also glue around the edges and trim with a pinking shears. Insert your bird seed and glue the top edge shut or sew. Inside I often say something like Spread a little Christmas cheer to our fine-feathered friends this year!

Make a card a gift with a Ribbon Stamp Bookmark

The Post Office has a wide variety of beautifully designed artwork for can be purchased for the price of a stamp! Why not use some of those great artworks to create a stamp of love Christmas card that's alos a ribbon bookmark gift! If you want to make your own stamps out of an old holiday cards from last year or a ink stamp that you like, or any other small design you can substitute those for the stamp.

Materials needed for Ribbon Stamp Bookmark Christmas Card

Two Christmas stamps of your choice. You can even use used stamps that have the postage mark on them for this vintage looking card idea.

Pieces of colored cardstock that match your stamp colors

12 inch length of 3/8 inch satin ribbon in color to match your stamp colors

Two colored beads with hole large enough to run the ribbon through to knot on the end.

Gold leaf gel pen or fine tip marker to write message

Method:

Step one: Stick your stamp onto a piece of colored cardstock. Using a ruler and a craft knife, trim the cardstock leaving a 1/8 inch border around the stamp.

Step two: Glue this piece with stamp onto a contrasting color of cardstock, using a good quality glue stick. Again trim around the edge.

Step three: Repeat the process for the second stamp.

Step four: Trace around each of the stamped and colored card stock sections and cut out a matching piece of cardstock to be the backing of your design. Set it aside for a moment.

Step five: Cover the stamps with a thin layer of clear dimensional adhesive. I use Modge Podge to give a it a slight antique look. Let dry.

Step six: With a gold gel pen, write your Christmas message or wishes on the back of one of the reserved pieces of cardstock.

Step seven: Thread a large hole bead onto one end of the ribbon and knot the ribbon to secure the bead. Repeat with the remaining ribbon. Trim the ends into even points.

Step eight: Apply a layer of glue from the glue stick onto the back of an assembled stamp piece and to the back of the cardstock message piece and sandwich them together with the end of the beaded ribbons. The beads will be below the cardstock pieces.

I enclose the Ribbon Bookmark Card inside a pretty envelope and when the recipient receives it, they have a gift and a greeting all in one.

Recipe Christmas Cards

One of the easiest and quickest but personal cards you can send is this easy Christmas Recipe Card. It's especially great if you are including this card with a gift of food at Christmas, like special cookies or homemade bread. But even if you're simply sending sweet thoughts, the card still works great. Everyone loves to share a new favorite recipe.

You can either buy recipe cards that are pre-printed with a holiday design or print your own online at BellyBytes.

To make this simple card. I start with my basic card stock shape of 4x6 card dimension. I then print out the recipe card printable or use one I've purchased. I cut out the printable and write in my best handwriting the recipe I'm sharing. You can use the back of the card to finish, because this card is just going to be inserted inside the Christmas card, so they can take it out and use it!

I then cut out another recipe card to be glued to the front of my card stock, again matching colors to your recipe card design. I love to use gingerbread designs for this card. I often will purchase a gingerbread sticker packet at the card shoppe to accent these cards, adhering them inside to add design value. I glue in my white card stock interior to put my message on it. You can either type it and print it out or hand write with gel pens or markers.
Insert your recipe card and you're giving a gift of love!