Creating your own Christmas cards is fun and easy. Using digital elements makes it even easier, you select the piece you wish to use, recolor/resize if needed (in whichever editing softwear you use) and then print it out. I like to add multiple elements onto an 8.5 x 11 document created in Photoshop, leaving some clean space around each element to ensure that cutting out can be done without overlapping onto another piece. Then all you have to do is cut them out and attach to your card base and you have created your own personalized greeting card.
I start with a folded 4.25 x 5.5 card (sometimes I create 5.5×5.5). I like to add at least one other piece of cardstock to the card front to give it some bulk and weight. Then I add my printed and cut-out pieces. I try to be cost effective (using a minimal amount of ink as my printer is an ink hog and it’s pricey to keep buying new ink cartridges), so I tend to keep the digital pieces I use small and not heavily colored over a large area. At this point, the cut-out pieces can be adhered to the card front and the design could be complete but I often add a few buttons, a piece of ribbon, etc to give the card a bit of depth/dimension but this step is not necessary.
For adhering pieces to my cards, I use a liquid glue but also sometimes use a stapler. Supplies I keep on hand are an assortment of circle punches, small precision scissors, larger scissors, glue dots (used mostly to adhere buttons and ribbons) and a paper cutter. It’s not necessary to have ink pads but they can be useful, an easy and quick way to utilize them is to ink edges of your cutout pieces so they stand out more. Another option, if you have a small sponge, a wadded up piece of cling wrap or a small brush, is to dip this into your ink pad and stamp or swipe onto the paper. An assortment of sequins, brads, buttons, etc add a wonderful dimension to your card. I find that pop-dots and glue-dots are the best adhesives for these. To take it to the next level, mixed media products such as paint mist, distress paint and Stickles add color, sparkle and texture to your card.
Here are the digital elements I will be using in my sample cards. The neutral colored, textured,lightly patterned white papers work wonderfully with my designs.
If you don’t have any scrapbook paper, you can print out digital paper to use in your design. I have scrapbook paper left over from previous projects that I keep in a small bin. Like I mentioned earlier, I try to be as economical as I can be, and often I only need small pieces of paper so the scraps get utilized quite often.
Here are my holiday cards using the digital elements as shown above.
Have fun making your holiday cards this year and check out The Lilypad store for tons of fabulous Christmas holiday kits to use in your card designs.
Leave a Reply