When you want to personalize a Christmas card for someone special or just make one-of-a-kind holiday greetings, you definitely should design and create your own Christmas cards. A homemade Christmas card is a very unique way to give a great gift to a loved one. It will be something that no one will receive.
You probably have everything you already need to make your card. Some supplies you should gather, if you don't already have them are: card stock (heavy paper), scissors, glue, construction paper, magazine clippings, wallpaper scraps, holiday wrapping paper, Christmas cards from previous years, photographs, printed clip art, markers, stamps and ink, seasonal punches, and colored pencils. You may want to purchase blank cards since they come with envelopes, but you can always create your own cards and envelopes. Use card stock for your cards and wallpaper or wrapping paper to create your envelopes.
Make your own personalized envelope for your card. Carefully tear apart an old envelope and lay flat. Use this as a pattern for tracing an envelope onto construction paper, wrapping paper, wallpaper, or a magazine. Trace the pattern lightly with a pencil onto the backside of the desired paper. Once you place the card in the center of the envelope, fold the four sides and tape to the center. You can also use a decorative sticker to hold the envelope together. This is a great way to recycle old wrapping paper or to send a seasonal surprise in someone's mail. Depending on the colors and designs of the envelopes, you may need to use white mailing stickers to have a blank space to write addresses.
Get started crafting your card. Look through Christmas cards that you received from past years. You may be able to cut out images of Santa Claus, Nativity scenes, trees, or words that you can use for your new card. When cutting the old cards, leave about an eighth of an inch of space around the image. This gives the image a more professional look and more space on the backing to spread glue. Collect the images, scenes, and words you find salvageable and set these aside for later.
Use magazine clippings for decorations. When cutting, leave an eighth of an inch around the image by not cutting so close to the actual image and set aside. When you decide to glue a magazine clipping to your card, use a very thin layer of glue. I like to dab Elmer's glue onto my fingertip and rub the back of the image, spreading the glue from the center to the edges. Press the image firmly onto the card with a clean finger and smooth out any wrinkles, bumps, or air bubbles that usually appear. Since this kind of paper is slick and glossy, you can reinforce the magazine image with another thin layer of Elmer's glue. Since the glue dries clear, you can dab the glue on the edges of the image once it is glued to the card, keeping the edges from curling outward.
Wallpaper gives a beautiful texture to a scenic background. You can experiment cutting out trees for a winter background from shades of brown paper. Use gray, blue, or white wallpaper for a snow scene. If you have enough wallpaper supplies, you can create an entire village by cutting out the shapes of houses, trees, and animals using only wallpaper. The different colors and varieties of paper will bring the card to life.
Use wrapping paper to cut out shapes or use it to decorate the cover of the card as if it is an actual gift. Cut wrapping paper to fit the card front. Then drop a dab of glue in each corner and spread evenly. Carefully place the wrapping paper on the card and press firmly. Glue thin ribbons in the shape of a cross onto the paper. This mimics the ribbons that wrap the sides of gifts.
Make a miniature bow to go on your card. It doesn't have to be a fancy bow like you find on most gifts because this is going into an envelope and must be flat. You can make two loops with ribbon, like you do when you're tying your shoes, and glue the part that you're holding with your thumbs to the paper. You can make more loops and lay them evenly on the card to make a flat bow. Before you glue them on, arrange them so they are symmetrical and almost flower-like. Place this "bow" at the intersection of the two ribbons you glued on first. Add a mock gift tag or a real one, personalize it, and you're done!
It's not that difficult to create your own photo cards just like they make at the store. You'll need to purchase some photo paper and have plenty of color ink in your printer and you're ready! Open up a Word type program and create a new document. Click insert shape and select the rectangle option. Create a rectangle that takes up about one third of the page, but about an inch from the top and sides of the page. Click insert picture, select a photo from your computer, and place it on the document where you would like it. You may need to right click the rectangle you made and select order, then click on "move to back". The rectangle is only there for printing purposes. When you print this out, you will know where to cut. Next, add a text box to write words like "Merry Christmas" in a font and size of your choice. Copy the entire rectangle and paste two more times on the document. You instantly have three photo cards that you can print out on one sheet of photo paper.
Now you have all your photos, clip art, magazine clippings, and images from old cards. What do you do with them? Before you just start haphazardly gluing bits on to a card, lay out the pieces on the card to see how it looks. Decide first if you want to create a snow scene by placing colored wallpaper and trees on the card. Maybe you want to use a child's photo as the centerpiece of the card and stamp holiday dcor around the border. You can design a simple, yet elegant card with a single large snowflake on the front and the words "Merry Christmas." You can also search on the internet for other Christmas card designs and develop ideas for what you want to use in your cards. The possibilities are endless for Christmas card design.
One neat little idea is to put your own logo on the back of the card, just like the big boys do it. You can design an image in a paint program and print it out on your cards before you start decorating or even print it out on sticker paper, cut it out, and place on the back of the card. Design something simple, such as the first letter of your last name and beneath type in smaller font "(Your last name here) Publishing." You can also find a simple image of your favorite animal and use an inventive name for your "company." This is all for fun and of course, doesn't have to be used, but when your family and friends receive your card made with love, they will know how much time you put into making it just for them.
Now that you've spent all this time on the cover and the back of the card, what should you put inside? Everyone likes money, but if that's not your intentions, a simple "Merry Christmas," "Happy Holidays," or "Season's Greetings" will be perfect. If you want to write a little note, you may want to do that before you glue on the cover. Depending on your decorations, it may be difficult to write on the inside flap.