Holiday cards...have I lost my mind??

[mcnuss]

Well, in the middle of moving all my scrapping stuff to its new, dedicated space in the basement, I got the big idea to make my own holiday cards this year. Have any of you done this? Any layouts you'd care to share?

I bought some Paper Bliss cards, nice embossed stickers, and - God help me - a stamp, ink & pens.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Am I nuts???

 

[Rebecca12345]

what kind of stamps did you buy for the cards?

 

[Pammy jo]

Well I'm doing the same thing. First time this year. But certainly not to everyone. That would take forever. I'll probably make about 25 to send out. I'm looking for more ideas too so I hope someone can share.

 

[Rebecca12345]

http://www.patstamps.com/Card_gallery.html


here are many holiday stamp samples you can look at on this site

 

[Spinning]

I keep toying with this idea, not so much for holiday cards but every day card. I have the stuff to make cards....
I even have a poem to use..i just haven't gotten around to it! Let us know how you make out!

 

[mcnuss]

I went with a very simple stamp for the message. I don't like my handwriting and originally I thought I'd print it on vellum from my computer, then cut it out and attach it with eyelets or brads. Then I saw the stamps and decided that would be easier..tee hee. It has the words in the shape of a Christmas tree. I bought green and red ink (my cards are green and red, so I needed both, of course) and some brush pens in the same colors bc it has little ornaments to color in. I thought DD9 could help me with that part.

I did some digging last night and found some gorgeous samples here: http://www.scrapbook.com/photopost/index.php?cat=570

 

[JESW]

Ya know, I think about this every year but I never actually do it - used to years ago before kids. If I wanted to I should actually start making them in June! I just got back from Wal-Mart and they have a new series of backgrounds for their photo-cards - real nice! I've got to take some pictures of the kids this weekend and get them ordered. I figured I'd stamp the envelopes - that's KINDA creative, right?

Good luck!

Jill

 

[JulianneP]

I have made homemade cards for the past 3 years. Nothing fancy just a simple layout with stickers and paper and a picture of my kids. In 2001 I took a pic of my kids wraped up in a American Flag and wrote Love,Joy and Peace underneth and added some Holly stickers around it. Last year I had a shot of my kids wrapped in Christmas paper,tape and bows and wrote "All wrapped up in Holiday Joy". We had such a busy year this year I made a simple srapbook layout and plan to color copy it and decorate the envelopes (that I got at Target for .42 cents). it is a lot of work but everyone looks forward to getting my cards. I send about 70 cards out a year. I look at it this way, life is so crazy that I can't always keep in touch with everyone and it is the least I can do to send a Christams card.

 

[mcnuss]

I made my first card this afternoon during lunch. I cut red squares 1 1/2 inches and then stamped each one with a little ornament just using gold ink. THen I pop-dotted two of the squares to the green card. On the inside, I will either use my other stamp or print out the greeting on vellum. It took about 20 mins including the cutting and stamping. I think I can assembly line the process now, and they won;t take long. This is actually fun!

 

[mommie2angels]

mcnuss, your card sounds really nice. I make our cards every year. Well the majority of them. Some of them are store bought. This year I saw some beautiful Christmas cards at WDW. They had a picture of the castle on the front. It said from our castle to yours. What I want to do is print a picture of us in front of the castle on vellum, print Merry Christmas on the bottom right, and tie it to the front of the card. Then on the inside I will print from our castle to yours.

I just purchased that magazine I was telling some of ya'll about. It's by Crafts and it's Cards and Wraps. It has some great ideas in it.

Have fun making your cards.

Kelli

 

[wuv tigger]

can you give me detailed instructions for making the cards you are talking about?

I've received a # of them but need help figuring out how to do them.

I don't have the energy to make our cards this year. I WON'T get depressed about ... real hard to do for me as I am a Christmas NUT!

I found some cute cards on sale & we are getting a photo put on photo cards @ Costco. It's a picture of us in AK w/ a character from ... not sure Dh knows which movie he's in.

Judy

 

[JulianneP]

Wuv Tigger

For this years card I took about 6 of my pictures from this year. One at WDW one from the beach, the bay, school, soccer etc.. Then I did a simple SB layout with them on white photo copy paper. I decoratred it very simple with present stickers then used stickers that said Joy and Peace on the top. I wrote Merry Christmas happy new year and then left some blank space in the bottom corner for personal notes. I then took them to Office Depot and made color copies. Kinko's cost 99 cents and Office Depot charges 70 cents. they look really cute and our not as cheesy as those long corney letters that people send. I folded them like a letter and used color enevlopes with matchng stickers on the front.

Does that help? Let me know.

 

[Tash_From_Cnd]

Hello, I had the great idea of making holiday cards and after today I don't think so lol. I signed up for a Embossed Christmas Card Class and after 2 and a half hours I managed to make two cards (mind you they are very nice lol) and figured that it would take too long and I should have started in July. So instead I'm going to handmade gift tags :0)

 

[betz]

McNuss, I would love to see your card. Everything is so time consuming and every year I swear I am going to start getting ready for the Holidays in January. Maybe next year.

 

[Spinning]

betz
Love that Picture! How did you make the bow red? I love black and white shots with just a dash of color!

 

[betz]

It is pretty easy. In photoshop I masked the green wreath and red bow, Copied and Pasted it into a new file. Then back to the original file I changed the mode to Greyscale, adjusted the levels, then changed the mode back to CMYK (you could do RGB if you were not going to print it out.) I then pasted the color wreath and bow back into the original file and adjusted the levels there. Viola! The final product is a 300 dpi CMYK file, this is all set up for printing on my postscript printer. I converted it to a 72 dpi RGB for the web.
BTW, can you not see the green of the wreath?

 

[JulianneP]

Tash from Cnd_ I made my own gift tags too. I like all of my hoilday wrappings to corrdinate and have a theme. (I know it is a sickness) But this years theme was pointsetta's. I bought beautiful paper last year (at 50 and 75% off at Target) with water colored poinsettas on it. I bought blank gift tags and water colored a poinsetta on it to match. I did 55 and it only took about an hour. I add gold swirls and wrote To and From in Gold as well. I also bought plain red and green paper to match as well and I'm using green raffi for bows this year and to tie the gift tags.

Just a quick idea.

 

[mommie2angels]

Julianne, you are sick!!! No I am only kidding. I am so glad that you will not be opening a present that I wrapped though. LOL!!! I would love to see the presents under your tree or your house decorated for that matter.

Tash_From_Cnd, if you have a chance would you mind sharing the cards you made. I have to make some for a Christmas card swap that I am in. For some reason I just cannot come up with anything.

 

[Pammy jo]

Julianne, do you allow people to actually open these beautifully wrapped packages? I wouldn't!

 

[JulianneP]

LOL Pammy Jo and Mommie to Angels. My mother in law saves every piece of pretty wrapping I have ever given her. My husband and I our on a tight budget (I stay at home) so since we can't afford a lot I want the present to look like a million bucks. I buy my paper the day after Christmas and choose my theme then. I have a whole year to bargin shop. I got these great red baskets at Target's Valentine sale and hot glued a poinsetta on them for my nieces gift cards. My dream house will have a seperate room to hold all my bargins!