by Kristine Munda

Created on: January 22, 2009

Giving away Christmas cards is a wonderful holiday tradition. This is a great opportunity to let our family and friends (both old and new) know that we are thinking about them during the holiday season.

There are many different ways to make Christmas cards.

The easiest trick to make cards for the holidays is by using card stock and embellishments in Christmas colors. The best ones to use are red, white, green, blue, gold or silver.

Once you've picked out your cardstock and envelope, you can decorate it in different ways.

Stamped cards- Pick a white cardstock and stamp an image on it. Color in the image to bring it to life. Trim and mount it on a contrasting card stock. Adhere it onto the notecard and embellish with ribbons. You can even stamp a matching image onto your envelope to give it a more customized look.

Holiday Phrases- These are some of the simplest cards to make. Print Holiday Phrases such as Merry Christmas or Season's Greetings on the bottom right of the card. Then, measure a decorative paper to fit the top half of the paper. Cut the paper and glue onto your card.

Cut Paper Words- Print Christmas words such as NOEL or JOY on a piece of scrapbook or decorative paper. Cut and mount them on contrasting card stock and cut around the letters. Adhere onto the notecard and embellish with brads or buttons.

Holiday Images- You can draw, paint, or cut holiday images onto the card. Examples include a snowman, a Christmas stocking, wreath or the traditional Christmas tree. Pick a card stock to work with and decorate with the image of your choice. Then, line the inside of your card with paper contrasting the color of the card.

Make a mosaic- Pick small embellishments to use for the card. You can use brads, small gems, buttons, small flowers, small tiles, sequins, glitter, etc. Draw or print a holiday shape like a Christmas tree or a star on the card. Fill the image with glue or adhesive. Then ahdere your small embelishments nicely on the shape.

Use punches- There are many Holiday shaped punches available from candy canes to reindeers and even to snowflakes.

There are two simple ways to use a shaped puncher, One is to pick a contrasting color of cardstock to cut your shape on from the color of card you want to use. Then punch a shape from the cardstock and use a mounting tape to adhere it onto your card. The mounting tape has foam in between giving it a more 3 dimensional look.

Another way is to punch a shape directly on your card, ultimately making a window. To make the card look classy, measure and cut a contrasting color paper to fold inside the card.

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