Skill Level: Easy
What You Need
yellow cardstock cut to 5 ½” x 8 1/2”
white cardstock cut to about 3 1/4” to 2”
striped paper cut to about 4” x 2 ½”
stamps in small rectangle, star and triangle shapes (or, paper scraps cut into these shapes)
stamp with a short festive word or phrase
yellow ink pad, green ink pad, brown ink pad, red ink pad
white and gold crochet thread, about 12” long
scissors or corner rounder punch
adhesive such as glue stick white flocking powder or cotton ball
What You Do
Fold yellow cardstock in half.
Glue striped cardstock to center of yellow cardstock.
Stamp tree shapes onto white cardstock, using the appropriate colors. Glue white cardstock to striped paper.
Stamp a festive word or phrase just under the bottom right of the striped paper, using red ink.
Tie the crochet thread around the spine of the card and trim if necessary.
Using glue stick, run a line of glue under the trees, overlapping the trunks slightly. Sprinkle with white flocking powder (available at craft stores) and tap off the excess. Or, pull apart a cotton ball and apply a very thin layer of cotton to the glue. Allow to dry.
Use your scissors or corner rounder punch on the four corners of the card.
Helpful Hints
If you're using a stamp that has “holiday” as part of a phrase, use a water-soluable red marker to color only the word you want, rather than using an ink pad.
Solid stamps (rather than the outline of an image) make the most impact.
Use a patterned paper that has small polka dots or thin stripes. Other patterns tend to look too busy. Use vertical stripes rather than horizontal.
A corner rounder punch is an easy way to make a card look modern, and it delivers a more consistent, precise cut than scissors do.
Try other color combinations with your cardstock, like bright orange or light purple. Just make sure to pick up on a few colors in your patterned paper.
Quick switch This card could easily be made into a gift tag by using a 2 ½ by 4 ¼ piece of cardstock, and only stamping two trees.
To make a card for another occasion, just use different words and shapes. Birthday cake candles, hearts, high-heeled shoes or cars, combined with words like “wish,” “love,” “party,” or “vroom,” respectively, would all be fun.
Find out more about card display, personalizing store-bought cards and creating one-of-a-kind photo cards.
Plus, don't miss our selection of handmade gift ideas in our Christmas activity guide and gift guide.
