My elder DD and I were pondering on a design for Christmas cards for her friends that would be both fairly quick and easy, AND stunning to look at! We decided to use a really simple circle template for making snowmen, and were both delighted with the results. To make Freya's card, you will need: a square card blank; some Christmas-themed backing paper - there is so much of this around, and I have been tempted to buy some of the new scrapping lines, but I am determined to use up my current paper stocks before buying any more! Freya pounced on this pretty snowflake paper which is Belleville Blizzard by Scenic Route, and is double-sided; plain white or glittery card stock; black cardstock for the hats; star and circle stickers, or punches/die cuts. We used the large (red) Sizzix circle die to cut our circles, but circle punches, or drawing around bottles/lids from your larder would work just as well! To assemble the card, cut a square from the backing paper which is just a bit smaller than the card blank. Stick the bodies of the snowmen in position on the backing paper, and then affix the heads with a little overlap onto the body. Cut hats for the snowmen from black paper, and attach these, and then add stickers/stars/circles for their features. Freya also added a little bird stamp on top of her smaller snowman's hat, and, hey presto, one sparkly, festive Christmas card. These take so little time to put together that you could quite easily get a bit of a production line going, if your Christmas card list runs to a whole class full!
So, having been inspired by my daughter, I thought I would have a go and do my take on her design. Instead of a festive backing paper, I've used black cardstock, and have dotted this with the end of a paintbrush (the wrong end!!) dipped in white acrylic paint for a snow effect. The rest of the card is put together in exactly the same way.
If you're looking for more ideas for Christmas crafts to do with children, I can't recommend highly enough these two books from Usborne: Big Book of Christmas Things to Make and Do and Christmas Things to Stitch and Sew both of which are very reasonably priced and have some fantastic projects, a lot of which can be completed without having to buy special materials.
Hope all your Christmas preparations are coming along swimmingly!
fab fab fab! My 5 yr old son is just adoring his handmade snowman cards now - thanks for the inspiration x
Posted by: Paula | December 13, 2007 at 11:51 PM