Every year we like to make our own Christmas cards to send to friends and family. To be honest, some years it has been made easier by kind teachers and organised schools. But this year, with so much time at home, we thought we’d try to be a little more original! How about sending something which is a bit more than just a card, we thought. And so we have turned this year’s Christmas cards into baubles that recipients can hang on their trees! This is super easy, and you can take it in lots of different directions. But here are a few first steps, and some tips:
Use nice thick paper – water-colour paper is best – this automatically ups your game and creates a “classier” card!
Very softly (in pencil) draw a Christmas bauble shape on the front of your card – make it as big as possible without touching the edges of your page. Add a “hanging part” at the top, a sort of loop.
With sharp scissors, cut out the centre of your loop so you have a circle or semi-circle – this will be where you thread your ribbon so that the recipients can later hang the bauble on their tree!
Now for the fun part! With water paints, acrylic paints, markers, crayons, paint sticks, pencils or anything you like to create with, start to decorate the inside of your bauble.
You can paint abstract colours, draw patterns, paint Christmassy scenes…anything goes!
We add on lots of glitter too! Stickers or stamps might work as well.
Leave it to dry completely. We placed the finished (drying) cards under heavy books overnight so they are nice and flat and smooth.
Choose some pretty ribbons, maybe Christmassy colours, maybe not! Thread these through the loop that you have cut out.
We are mass-producing these so our process is not done yet! But we are planning to write inside: “Please cut out your bauble and hang it on your tree – we hope it brings us closer in this crazy Christmas of 2020!”
For those who feel less inclined to make LOTS of Christmas cards, here are some fun ones you can buy:
Festive Fingerprints (make your own family fingerprint cards – also great for thank-you cards!)
Romeo and Jules (who also have lovely wrapping paper!)
Tate-artist-inspired Christmas cards
Petra Boase sweet little elves
Meri Meri – always a Christmas favourite (and we also love their glitter letter stickers)
A beautiful minimal modern tree card by Tea and Kate
And finally we especially loved the Merry Kissmas card by artist Susannah Garrod at the Royal Academy
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