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!
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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!
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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!
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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!? 
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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:
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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.
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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.
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Aw, too bad you don’t have pictures!
They all sound like a lot of fun.
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Super cool card this year, Bea! So pleased I received one.
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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!
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Those tree cards are so cool, @Abbeeroad! As well as the ones from previous years.
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I’m reviving this thread for LC members that are looking for ideas for hand crafting or designing their own Holidays cards this year!
If you hand made or designed cards in the past that are not in this thread yet, and you have no problem with others being inspired by your creations, then please feel free to add them to this thread. Thanks!
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Thank you for the timely bump. I had forgotten about this genius tip!
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I was going to make cards last year using a picture of my cat in a santa costume, but didn’t get around to it in time, so I just printed a few pictures for parents/grandparents and tucked them into cards I already had. 
(I loved that they all put them up on fridges or on walls with the grandkid pictures.
)
~
This year, I got a cute snowman stamp in the STS swap, so I’ll have to think about how to use it with my christmas scrapbooking papers. 
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Aw, your cat looks so cute in that Santa costume!
Grandchild Santa Cat…
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Oh, I had grand plans for making about a dozen handmade holiday cards for the close family and friends - I do it most years, after all. I even had started sorting supplies into stacks for each recipient as they would all be make specifically for each. HA! We adopted a rescue puppy a week ago and… yeah. 12 totally different cards is not going to happen. I finished the first today, which I started before the puppy, but most of the rest will all be variations on the theme and I am going to start addressing the envelopes for the store bought cards in the next few days while watching TV in the evenings.
The puppy, Vivienne Maureen, has a holiday sweater though, so at least there is that.
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