Whether or not or not the sentiment is embossed, decked in ribbon, or expressed by means of a prized {{photograph}}, making a handmade trip card is correctly properly definitely worth the effort. Quiet evenings spent snipping ribbons and dusting paper with excellent glitter will ease you into the busy trip season, and your notes will definitely develop into objects in themselves, treasured prolonged after the store-bought enjoying playing cards have come and gone.
The art work of DIY Christmas enjoying playing cards is a treasure for the creator and recipient alike. This season, try your hand at one in every of our many ideas, which embrace button snowmen, accordion-folded pictures, distinctive gildings, and glitter. They are a current in and of themselves.
Glittered {{Photograph}} Card
{Photograph} enjoying playing cards are good for family updates, nevertheless they will actually really feel like a mass mailer. For a non-public pop, print them in black-and-white on card stock, or get them organized with a matte finish (for distinction). Then, strategically dot on craft glue, sprinkle with glitter, faucet off the excess, and let dry. Fill a sky with stars or snowflakes, bedeck a tree, or encrust a pet’s collar—and lend a handmade actually really feel, fast.
Enjoying playing cards with Dresden Gildings
Take an online web page from the Victorian interval handbook and costume up straightforward cardstock with Dresdens, cut back paper photos that had been as quickly as collected by children and adults alike and added to scrapbooks, current packages, and additional. They’d been historically used as trip décor, too (they’d been pasted onto ornaments and festive notes!), which makes making use of them to your annual greeting enjoying playing cards that relatively extra acceptable.
Springerle-Mildew Enjoying playing cards
The devices it is worthwhile to craft these cameo-like enjoying playing cards come from the kitchen: They’re typical European springerle-cookie molds. We stuffed them with pulp constructed from cotton-linter paper instead of dough, then glued the textured medallions onto enjoying playing cards. You may moreover use air-dry clay. The finished objects make swish ornaments, as correctly: Trim the paper, leaving a border merely intensive enough to punch a spot in, and thread ribbon or wire by means of for hanging.
Decoupaged Illustration Card
Ship snail mail with a delight inside: Cut back a little bit of paper so it’s sized to line an envelope, from base to tip. Then, trim the very best flap by an inch so the adhesive strip reveals. Slide the liner in, elevate it as a lot as brush glue onto the envelope, and lay it in place. Stick a coordinating cutout on the discover for a dapper provide.
3-D Christmas Tree Card
As this card opens, a tree constructed from pleated paper rectangles pops out like a small current. Although it might be glued into any dimension greeting, it is notably participating in a tall, slender card that mimics a pine tree’s pure dimensions.
Accordion-Fold {Photograph} Card
A 3-part card delivers a pair of favorite pictures, plus a straightforward greeting. For best outcomes, use shade photocopies or computer-paper printouts, which may make for a thinner stack than exact photos.
To create yours, cut back medium- to heavyweight art work paper to the desired dimension, and fold, accordion-style, into three equal sections. Trim printouts or shade photocopies of photos so a 1/4-inch border of art work paper reveals spherical each. Use a thin layer of craft glue to attach pictures throughout the first two sections and a printed message throughout the third.
Yarn Enjoying playing cards
Luckily for yarn-card lovers, the winter holidays provide a great deal of symbols to play with: wreaths, snowmen, fir bushes, snowflakes, mittens, candy canes, and additional. Experiment with yarn in quite a few colors, weights, and textures—even on the equivalent card. A Christmas ornament requires solely a couple of curves, and a variety of different graduated lengths of yarn render a tree.
When creating your particular person designs, observe on scratch paper, if desired. Flippantly pencil your sketch onto a clear card or piece of card stock. Trace the drawing with craft glue in a bottle with a fine-tip applicator. Rigorously place yarn on the glue. Let dry; snip away additional yarn.
Embossed Trip Enjoying playing cards
Any daring, seasonal line drawing is likely to be became a stamp for embossing enjoying playing cards. These are two examples of enjoying playing cards Martha created to ship out all through a present trip season.
You might want to use store-bought enjoying playing cards, or make your particular person from card stock. To begin, press a rubber stamp onto an embossing pad. Place the stamp over the cardboard; apply company, even stress to modify the design. Clear the stamp with a paper towel, then a stamp-cleaning pad.
Place the cardboard on a paper plate; sprinkle embossing powder over the stamped design. Faucet the cardboard to remove additional powder, and reapply as needed to coat design. If there’s stray powder on the cardboard, very gently spray compressed air from a can fitted with an extension wand.
Working in sections, preserve a heat gun 2 inches from the design and switch the nozzle in a spherical motion. The powder-covered areas will soften, making a shiny finish. Proceed until the entire design has melted. Gently wave the cardboard three or 4 events to set the design. If the paper begins to curve, heat the once more of the cardboard, and fan it as soon as extra.
Lastly, place the cardboard beneath a heavy e-book for five to 10 minutes (this isn’t going to smudge the design).
Button Snowman Enjoying playing cards
The cheerful varieties of uncommon buttons lend themselves to cute trip greetings. Proper right here, tiny knots and stitches of embroidery floss ship shirt-button snowmen to life.
Use embroidery floss to sew different-size white shirt buttons to a colored discover card. Inexperienced French knots make buttons and eyes; a single sew in purple between two holes creates a mouth. Slide just a little bit of thin silk ribbon behind the very best two buttons, then knot it right into a scarf; trim the ends. Secure with craft glue.
Slide a second, barely greater clear discover card inside the first. Align as desired, then punch two holes alongside the folded edge using a micro-hole punch. String a ribbon by means of the holes; tie to secure.
Rickrack Enjoying playing cards
Rickrack—wavy cotton trim—is properly manipulated into seasonal symbols. Glue rickrack designs to wash enjoying playing cards, and use them as trip greetings: Cut back and paste strips of inexperienced for a Christmas tree, or trim segments of white for a snowflake. For striped designs, twist collectively two strands of equal width. The strands’ shapes will protect them from unraveling.
Evergreen Enjoying playing cards
Up to date sprigs of winter greens create intelligent silhouettes on handmade trip enjoying playing cards. A light-weight layer of white spray paint highlights the shapes of the branches in the direction of colored paper. With dots of craft glue and touches of excellent glitter, you probably can add glowing lifelike berries.
First, cut back rectangles of colored art work or constructing paper. For skinny paper, mount it to a card cut back from heavier paper—apply a thin layer of spray mount; press papers collectively until dry. Choose a small, flat evergreen division. (Arborvitae is in fact flat; spruce or one different fuller form must be pressed first. Place the division between heavy books, and go away in a dry place for a few week.)
Spray a thin layer of spray mount onto division to operate a quick adhesive, then press it onto paper. Cowl the entire card’s flooring with white spray paint, pull the division off, and let paint dry. For a glittery card, realign division; apply spray mount to complete card flooring, then sprinkle with glitter. In order so as to add “berries” or a written greeting, make excellent particulars with a fine-tip glue applicator, and sprinkle with glitter. Let dry completely.
Holly Card
A sprig of holly springs to life from atop a store-bought plain discover card. This problem wouldn’t fare correctly throughout the mail, so reserve it for greetings you might be planning to ship by hand.
Draw a holly leaf on cardboard to make a template; cut back out. Trace template onto card stock in quite a few shades of inexperienced to make eight leaves; cut back out with a craft knife. Using a ruler and a bone folder, score each leaf down its coronary heart, as confirmed; frivolously fold sides upward alongside the scored line.
Bend the very best of each leaf away from its stem. Punch berries from purple card stock using a spot punch. Cut back a division from brown card stock. Affix division to a store-bought discover card with craft glue; let dry. Add leaves, gluing solely on the stems. Prime with berries alongside division.