Last year I doodled my cards, for these ones I traced circles and filled them with different designs. Then I added hangers to make them look like ornaments
This is another doodle, I cut out the empty space between the ‘flowers’ and glued a shiny paper behind the design, I also added bead stickers in the flower centres.
Cards made from recycled paper: tearing up old magazines and junk mail.
For these cards, I tore colorful pieces of paper out of old magazines and other junk mail.
I glued strips of similar colors onto pieces of printing paper, using paper glue.
Then I cut out shapes (christmas trees). I glued those shapes onto another piece of printing paper and cut the shape out a second time, this time leaving a small white border around the original shape. This way it stands out nicely against the background.
I’ve used this technique for all kinds of cards and art, not just holiday cards.
It works nice for silhouette types of shapes.
If you use sturdy white paper for the second layer (the one that gives you the white border), you can use your shapes stand alone, for instance as ornaments.
Enjoy!
More christmas trees cards, this time from free wallpaper samples:
You could of course use other shapes (like baubles or reindeer or snowflakes).
Tip: build up a collection of recycled cardboard templates to be reused again and again for your cards.
Enjoy!
One year I made Swedish Heart cards, that doubled as ornaments.
I found a pattern online (Swedish Hearts are folklore and have been made for hundreds of years, so no worries about copyrights).
I made them out of sturdy white and red crafting paper and I used paper glue for securing the ends of the woven strips.
I then glued another layer of the white paper on the back, so I could write on them.
Then I punched a small hole in the top and attached a cotton thread loop.
Enjoy!
I used to make all our holiday cards by hand. But we always send out a lot of cards an my hands hurt too much for that nowadays.
These were the last holidays cards I made by hand in a large amount:
As you can see, they had a simple design.
I had a lot of very pretty sturdy crafting paper and I made these cards in six different color combinations.
I made two templates out of recycled cardboard for two sizes of baubles, including the hanging part. I also made two tiny templates for the hanging parts.
I used those to make the baubles en glued the little part on top of them.
Then I glued the baubles onto white crafting paper and cut them out again, leaving a small white border around them.
I used a Pritt paper glue stick.
I also cut a rectangular template for the backgrounds, cut out the backgrounds, glued them onto white crafting paper and cut them out again, this time leaving a small white border.
I glued them onto the cards first.
I then stuck baking twine to the back of the baubles with adhesive tape.
Then I used those little foam squares for 3D-cards, that are sticky on both sided, to glue the baubles to the cards. And I cut off the pieces of bakers twine and stuck them to the back with adhesive tape.
I completed the cards by sticking on a store bought ‘Happy New Year’ sticker.
Enjoy!
All these ideas are very inspirational! I’m not really a natural papercrafter, but I’m trying to improve because papercraft can look so good, and there’s such a variety of ideas that can be tried.
We’ll probably have lots of wallpaper left over from our DIY project, so I’ll save those scraps. I’m sure I should be able to cut simple shapes from them and glue them to card blanks.
@madebyBeaG those gold-coloured stickers remind me of my grandma! I inherited them from her, she bought them in bulk so more than 20 years after her death I still have some left. She wasn’t an easy person to get along with and not a particularly nice grandma, but her Christmas cards were amazing. She cross-stitched more than 100 Christmas cards every year. I still have a few of them.
When I was no longer able to make this many cards by hand, I decided to each year take a picture of something I made and then have my cards printed (by a third party).
Since I had lots of pictures of holiday items I made in the past, I picked a picture from my stash for several years.
Felt ornaments:
Little heart onrnaments:
‘Santa Mouse’ (from my family of retired computer mice, on a green felt background):
And crocheted snowballs:
Maybe you too have pictures of things you created for the holidays in the past, that would make for a nice holiday card.
Enjoy!
Just a little reminder as we head into the holidays: please don’t forget LC this year! We enjoy this place for all the fun swaps, inspirational craftalongs, and incredible inspirations. We have formed some lasting and amazing friendships. And we have done it cost-free. Please think about giving to show your support and love for this great community! Let’s keep Craftalongs going for years to come!
Another idea: take a picture to use as your background and add text digitally.
With cut off remnants of cotton yarn I made several projects.
In one of them I used the yarn as kind of a loose border. I tried several backgrounds, but liked grey crafting paper the best.
The first card I made this way was pandemic-themed:
(It has its own thread, if you’re looking for the translation.)
And this was another option:
Of course you could make borders with different materials too.
And your texts don’t have to be limited to holiday wishes.
Enjoy!
FYI - the Christmas card swap just opened!
Last year I made a doodle drawing (with fine liner markers) and had that printed by a third party:
Cards on that site (RedBubble) are 10 x15 cm (4 x 6 inch), so I took those measurements into account when I made my drawing.
I added a white border around the drawing, to avoid part of the drawing being accidentally cut off at the printer’s (I’ve had that happen in the past).
Enjoy!
What a great idea to photograph and print out professionally!
As I was scrolling past, my brain interpretted this section as “crocheted mouse balls” which made me scroll back! WHAT!? 
I did these in 2017. Stamped jar and snowflakes on vellum, then fussy cut. Stamped trees and fussy cut. Attached to scrapbook paper that was glued to card blanks. Sentiment cobbled together with various cling stamps. Mostly accomplished sitting in front of the TV over a few nights.
“Assembly line” shot:
2014 was my riff on “think snow”: used copyright-free animal images to print on scrapbook paper with home printer, fussy cut. Stamped speech balloon, fussy cut. Punched out snowflakes. Scrapbook paper on card blanks that were run through the printer for the black sentiment with an added stamped sentiment.
Both these and the jar ones were before I had any fancy paper crafting equipment or a stamping platform. So, these were also made over a few nights in front of the TV and if I remember correctly, while TheMisterT was out of town for work.
How did I lose track of this thread?
Wowza! All these amazing cards! You’re all crafting geniuses, and your cards are fabulous.
I used to make cards every year when I was young and single and had lots of free time. But I’m not sure I have pictures or copies of them any more.
Before there were die-cutting machines and embossing folders, I embossed my Christmas cards one year by cutting a snowflake shape (and a corresponding snowflake-shaped hole) out of matboard. Then took pieces of damp paper and c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y squeezed them between the matboard layers. Took forever, often tore through the paper, and the embossing was… subtle at best!
Another time, I made green handmade paper (with lots of glittery inclusions) and formed it into triangle-tree shapes. Then took red cards and cut horizontal slats (smaller at the top and larger at the bottom, like the tree shape) and wove the tree shapes into the slats.
Another year, metallic pop-up letters that spelled NOEL. The outside was patterned Christmas paper, and the whole inside was metallic paper with the pop-up letters.
Another year, a rebus using funny magazine collage elements. The solution ended up being the first verse of Deck the Halls. (“Deck” was a deck of cards, “halls” was a group of famous people with the last name Hall, etc.)
One year was a minimalist-style line drawing of an angel in flight.
Haven’t been sending homemade cards for years, but hope to again this year. (Block-printed reindeer, if my hands allow it.)
For many years, in the back of my mind I’ve been toying with the idea of a card that comes with 3D glasses. You’d have to wear the glasses to get some hidden message or special effect.
Aw, too bad you don’t have pictures!
They all sound like a lot of fun.
Super cool card this year, Bea! So pleased I received one.
Here’s a sample of this year’s cards (watercolor and gold pen):
And cards from past years:
In our last zoom meeting I learned about using sticker paper for cards…either printed or painted onto directly. I have to remember this for next year!
