Creative Crafting

It is never too early to start preparing for Christmas. One of the more traditional holiday customs is the sending of cards to friends and family.

With the current economic conditions the cost of buying the cards and then the postage to send them can equal the cost of two or three meals for the family. While we all can agree that sending a greeting card is a great way to liven someones holiday, it is not always the most cost effective.

I have had to do a lot of tightening of the belt in the past, and still do, so years ago I came up with the idea of having our children make the Christmas cards for family. The grandparents loved them and the kids had a great time making them.

Of course now they are older and purchase their cards, while I still make them. I enjoy it; and each card I make and send has a lot of love built right in.

This is the one I am making this year. I purchased a package of card stock for my printer for under $5.00, with it I will print out patterns, embellishments, letters all from free scrapbooking sites. I also purchased from my local office supply center a package of plain envelopes and will make the cards to fit the envelope. I have a couple of stamps with the words JOY, MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, so I will use them for some of the messages.

So here is the basic idea for making your own cards. You can use the pattern or use it as a pattern for your own colors, embellishments and words.

Materials and Tools

* White card stock cut to 11 x 5 inches, plus extra card stock
* Boldly patterned green and red paper
* Glue
* Metal snaps
* White embroidery floss
* Adhesive foam
* Eyelet word with appropriate sentiment (available in craft or scrapbooking stores)

Instructions

1. Fold the white card stock to make a 6-1/2-x-5-inch card.

2. Cut a narrow strip of the green paper and a larger strip of the red paper. Adhere to the front of the card with glue. Cut a narrow strip of card stock and glue it to the card, covering the seam between the colored papers.

3. Use glue to adhere five evenly spaced snaps to the white strip.

4. Cut a short length of the embroidery thread and use the adhesive foam to adhere the ends to the back of the eyelet word. Hang the eyelet word from one of the snaps and attach it to the card with more adhesive foam.

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