Today we are talking about how to make easy Christmas cards at home with leftover supplies.  When I mentioned in a recent posting that I spent time the week after Christmas doing exactly this – several of you asked to see what I meant.

So why did I start doing this a few weeks back?  For many reasons.  The first is, I hate feeling rushed when I am creating.  Normally there is a panic around Dec 15th of each year that I won't finish.  Panic = frustration = stress = wine + cheese sticks = weight gain = panic = frustration = stress…. it's this never ending cycle.

My second reason is that I need a LOT of Christmas cards.  I send Christmas cards to every single member of Stamping Family.  These take a while and see above for what happens when I get behind 🙂

My third reason is that each year I have left over patterned paper that I am either intentionally hoarding for a unknown reason, but feel like it just might be the perfect paper for some imaginary project that I won't ever be able to find paper that will work for like this paper that I am hoarding (those of you that understood that crazy long run on sentence are nodding your heads right now, aren't you?!?!?)

I have paper from 1999.  Seriously.

Each year I swear I won't buy more supplies until I use a lot of what I have.  (Sound familiar?)  And each year there is stuff I want.  Soooo….  what is a stamper to do?

Take all of the reasons and turn them into a simple solution.

Use the stuff I have to make projects I need so I won't panic on December 15th.

Ta-da!  Magical statement, right?

How to start:

#1 Gather up all your left over Christmas card making supplies from this past year.  (Don't pull out stuff dating back to 1999 or I fear for your sanity if your stash looks like mine!)

#2  Start cutting that delicious patterned paper into card fronts.  Don't think about this.  Just do it.  Cut them into 4″ x 5-1/4″ panels – regardless of if you are starting with 12″ x 12″ paper or 6″ x 6″.

#3  Decide if they will look best on Whisper White card bases or Very Vanilla.

#4  Attach your patterned paper to your card fronts.

#5  Grab a stack of these newly started cards and make sure that they are from similar patterns that use the same colors.  This is a great time to separate them into batches.  Then just attack one batch at a time.

#6  Look for an image, a die, a whatever you want to use and prepare that.  So for the example below, I wanted to use the stockings.  Since my card batch all came from the same paper stack, it didn't matter what color the stocking was stamped in.  I stamped it on Whisper White because that was the color of my card base.

#7  Look for a sentiment that will fit on your card front and will still leave room for your stocking, your sleigh, your santa hat – whatever you choose!  And feel free to mix up your sentiment and your image for your different batches.

#8  Attach both your sentiment and your image to your card.

DONE!  You will have an entire batch done and be ready to move on to the next bunch!

Here is my next batch.  You can see that I used different paper, a different image with the reindeer and also a different sentiment.

What about scraps?  Click here for an idea that will also help you be ahead for next year!

The beauty of doing this is that you use up the supplies you have, you feel great about doing exactly that and then you aren't freaking out for next year!

Once you know how to make easy Christmas cards at home using up supplies you already have, you can buy Christmas card making supplies again next year guilt free!

Save

Save

Save