If you aren't making handmade Christmas cards this year is it because you believe it is too expensive? Too messy? Takes too much time?

This season I am focusing on showing you all how making handmade Christmas cards can be fun and easy and can cost less than store bought or printed cards and some even show you how to use scraps as the “pretties”! Making handmade Christmas cards can be super gratifying because it gives you a chance to put some love into each card which, at the holidays, means just that much more somehow.

Here's today's project – it makes me feel so warm and cozy!

Now, I live in Texas so we don't get much opportunity to wrap up in a snuggly flannel shirt but I LOVE the thought of it so when I saw this paper I just thought of warm and soft and, well, being cozy. I knew I wanted to use that sentiment because it brought to mind that feeling of being enveloped in a soft flannel shirt but I wasn't sure what else I was going to use. Originally I was thinking about a scarf and started shopping my stash and found these stinkin' cute little mittens. Those and the little tag are from the Santa's Suite Bundle and being able to cut out those mittens instead of just stamping them got me all excited. Here's a closeup of that sweet little tag:

One tiny loop of ribbon and a couple of short lengths of Black Baker's Twine finished it off in a split second. This card took less than five minutes to make start to finish. And if you are making multiples, you average out WAY less than that per card since you can do so much of the steps in batches.

You can see that I opted not to pop up any of the components like I usually do because that plaid paper already offered some textural interest and when you use a simple image like those super cute mittens alone on a white field, they already pop. Then using white to heat emboss the greeting on the black provided a reverse pop so the card is balanced and warm despite using only three colors!

Can you see that nice balance? Sometimes it's so easy!

Here are the items you will want to pull our or order if you want to make this same card:

You might already have some of these items so don't let the length of the list scare you! I always include everything I used so you don't have to guess!

Now one thing I want to mention is that, yes, the papers in the Merry Little Christmas Designer Series Paper are different. But the beauty of this card is that, because the papers all use the same three colors – Old Olive, Basic Black and Whisper White – this design will work with ALL of the papers in the package! (You're welcome!)  TIP: If you use this as your basis for making handmade Christmas cards this year you may want to substitute the black greeting panel for Old Olive to provide the same level of color interaction.

Making handmade Christmas cards can be rewarding for you and heart warming for your recipients so please consider giving it a try this year – and keep watch for more easy, fast and fun ideas!

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