DIY Christmas Cards

Is anyone making homemade Christmas cards?
I am tired of the boring cards they sell us and want to make personalized cards for friends and family. Any ideas?

Last year, I got a really pretty Christmas Card from my mail carrier which was homemade.

The card used black paper with a white and silver candle painter on it and lots of white snowflakes.

In the past, I have made Christmas cards with colorful construction paper. Christmas trees and Christmas ornaments are cut out of the same construction paper and glued on a card-size sheet.

When I was a new bride and money was tight I recycle cards that I got by gluing the card onto construction paper.

I've taken to keeping last year's christmas cards, cutting out parts of the pictures and sticking them onto new card in different designs. It takes a bit of time but can be quite fun.

I was thinking of gluing old childhood pic's of the person etc on the cards and saying things that resonate with each person.

If people are making or buying cards, pretty please avoid the ones with Glitter? Glitter makes up a huge percentage of microplastic found in North America. I expect a big chunk of that comes from glitter make-up, but I was pretty shocked at how many cards we got last year that kept peeing glitter on my carpet!

Years ago, I got some rubber stamps, so I would often make both wrapping paper and cards with them. I really like the idea of cutting up and rearranging last year's cards. I have to admit I don't send a huge number of cards out anymore. Anyone local, I prefer to bake some old time favorite cookies and drop them off instead of a card. You can get pretty creative with that process and I've never known any of them to land in the landfill!

What about making a Pepperkaker Christmas Gingerbread person and writing Merry Christmas on them in icing?
Recipe can be found here: https://permies.com/t/169984/silly-idea-gingerbread-spinning-wheel#1334472

I agree, no glitter (never liked glitter) I go way beyond people I know to avoid plastic products including the cans of food lined with BPA and all the BPs. I like the idea of using old cards and recycling parts of them

I used to send out 90 - 100 cards/ year. Now? Maybe 2 -6. But, one of my cousins used to make beautiful, yet simple counted cross stitch cards, to a very select few - namely, her mom and grandmas. They were lovely, and probably took a couple hours, each, to stitch. So, as stitching goes, very quick. As card making goes... not so much. But, whether it's doable for everyone on your list doesn't mean it would be done for all of them, right? My cousin sent out a lot of cards - but to my knowledge, only ever cross stitched for those three - who always appreciated them, deeply, and proudly displayed them, year 'round.

My sister was really good in the kitchen with normal meals, high-end meals, and all kinds of desserts. In fact she taught the wives of several immigrants, with close connections to her husband, how to make the foods from their own country - since the girls grew up very privileged and pampered and not knowing how to cook/bake.

My sister could have purchased extremely expensive gifts for all of their relatives and business contacts - but she preferred to grow a huge garden and process the food by either preserving or canning. At Christmas she would pull jars from the pantry and put frilly cloth and ribbons around the jars and give those out.

Many people looked at her rather odd, however, most of those people had never had food that had been home processed and thought the gifts were 'cheap'. Well, they were, but they were also priceless! Many of those recipients returned the jars and asked if there was a possibility of getting another jar.

She also made really nice Angels using dolls heads,m and/or heads & bodies, anchored in sand in a pint jar. She gave away to close friends the first 15 Angels and before she finished up passing those out had orders for more than 50 others. The resources for the Angels was reasonably expense wise but she sewed the Angels' outfits herself and they were fantastic when completed. Those could have brought close to $50 each at the time. Again, cheap resources - but, again, priceless!

Sometimes it takes so little time and effort MAKING gifts that make people thankful for a PERSONAL gift.

I don't do much for Xmas, but one year I did design a Xmas Coaster with the year date, painted the red with green foliage and everyone was surprised that I had made them on my CNC desktop system. SO, all got the same 'gift' but it was personal for each person.

My old country grandma - Universe rest her soul - did something funny for Christmas cards one year. She cut postcard sized pieces of cardboard and with a marker wrote this message on one side: "Money's tight; times are hard. Here's your damn ol' Christmas card." Then she drew a few very basic (no artist, she) trees and snowflakes and further embellished with some gold star stickers she had lying around. On the other side, she addressed them and added postage. They were a huge hit with her neighbors and literally didn't cost more than the stamp to send them. It's something we all remember and bring up frequently this time of year. I sure do miss her - she taught me everything about gardening and country living that I know!

I used to save my Christmas cards. I would cut off the front of them with the picture on it and write on the back of the picture. A brief message on the left and their address on the right. Put on a stamp and mail it. Not only were my Christmas cards free, the postage was cheap because it was a postcard.
At the time, I was careful not to send the card back to the person who had originally sent it to me because I thought that would be awkward. Now, I think it would be hilarious.

I use this tradition to write real letters to family and friends who live far away. I changed them to solstice cards and currently use woodland themed winter cards from Etsy  - hoping to make my own in the near future. I give myself all the way until the end of January so that I can think and write personally. I have also heard of folks doing New Years or Valentine’s Day cards instead…

I go through my photos and find a winter scene that I like enough to share.
I either lay it out with a greeting and a back & go to the copy shop & make a hundred or so, or, now, I send it to one of the online photo services
I use a simple greeting such as Happy New Year. In fact, I usually say something like Greetings for Sunreturn, which of course is really hard to find in commercial cards.
Or I leave them blank and use the leftover extra cards as all purpose cards.
One advantage of the photo services is that they will pre-address the envelopes if you provide the list of names and addresses.
It's an expense, though a great deal more satisfying than spending the money on commercial cards. I love seeing my own work when I go look for a card & envelope for some occasion years later.
I really don't have that much to say beyond I'm thinking of you, and my friends and family appreciate getting a picture from my life & wanderings, especially when they recognize the locale.
My daughter is a printmaker. A couple of years she made custom etchings and printed out a big batch that I sent out. Maybe you have a local artist you'd rather support than Hallmark.

I've taken to keeping last year's Christmas cards, cutting out parts of the pictures and sticking them onto new card in different designs. It takes a bit of time but can be quite fun

 Nancy, what a wonderful idea! All those pretty images get a second life. Awesome! Thank you for sharing

I get freebie Christmas cards in the mail from charities, some of which I actually like as far as the visuals... but I don't always like the message.  So this year, I made a personalized general message-- yeah, that statement sounds like an oxymoron, but let me give you an example.  I wanted something that might suit everyone, so here's what I am going to make and paste on top of the messages I don't want: "Blessings of the Season-- Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, however you celebrate the Winter Solstice Season.  I celebrate with you the light in the darkest time of the year-- the kind of light that remains in our hearts all year long."

I take photos of flowers, trees, nature, add a quote or Bible verse and either send in a Christmas card or make into a card.

Sorry, its upside down😊

Re: glitter

I happen to like glitter. to a degree; but as someone said somewhere, glitter is the herpes of the crafting world....its like sand; unless corralled, it gets into EVERYHTING

I wonder whether sugar or salt might make an acceptable alternative to glitter? You can make sugar different colours by putting drops of food colouring on greaseproof paper and shaking the sugar around on it.

Nancy Reading wrote:I wonder whether sugar or salt might make an acceptable alternative to glitter? You can make sugar different colours by putting drops of food colouring on greaseproof paper and shaking the sugar around on it.

It's a good thought but both sugar and salt attract moisture from the air. I wonder if epsom salts do? They're kind of glittery. How about mica? It's completely natural and comes in colors and has iridescent qualities. Mica was a common mineral around where I used to live but I don't know how easy it is to find if it's not lying on the ground.

Biodegradable glitter is available for folks that like glitter.  It is made from plant cellulose.

https://www.amazon.com/Biodegradable-Glitter-Crafts-Scrapbooking-Moonlit/dp/B07K4QGQZR/ref=sr_1_2

I hand paint Christmas cards for special people in my life.
I used gauche paint on
watercolor/post card paper.
When my creativity is fleeting I keep it simple.

Fifteen years ago, my wife and I got really into making cards, and bought a bunch of stuff at craft stores and we made some very pretty cards. It was *not* a money-savings, but it was fun. We documented it on our long-discontinued blog
if you want to see pictures. Our approach wasn't very permie, but I figured I might as well add it to the thread.